As a means of softening the blow that one of my favourite novels will be adapted by a filmmaker whose talents are not only questionable but ill-suited to adapting this particular work, I have assembled a list of filmmakers whose failures at adapting The Great Gatsby might be more interesting than most filmmakers’ successes. In each case, I will also suggest a “key casting” decision. This is of course reflective only of my own personal tastes and I am more than looking forward to your own suggestions for filmmakers and any defences you might have for the Luhrmann.

Steve McQueen

Steve McQueen has proved himself to be one of the most promising young filmmakers with Hunger (2008) and Shame (2011). His second feature demonstrating an understanding of the American ethos, using the backdrop of New York City as a means of reflecting the excess and lack of control of the central character. His startling modern style and ability to create a period drama that feels contemporary make him an ideal candidate to adapt one of the most vibrant works of the 20^th century

Key Casting: The two-faced nature of Michael Fassbender’s acting makes him an ideal choice for Jay Gatsby. He could easily embody the artificial construction while suggesting a darker past and a man of great secrets.

Lynne Ramsay

With her recent adaptation of the diary format novel, We Need to Talk About Kevin, Lynne Ramsay has demonstrated a talent for adapting difficult works. One can only assume her take on The Great Gatsby would be one suited for both the screen and her vision. Ramsay is a filmmaker who has a strong visual eye and creates imagery that are not only evocative but suggest a critical counter-balance to content. It creates an incredible dialogue between sound and image, a skill that will be invaluable in the adaptation of Gatsby’s lifestyle.

Key Casting: Though Myrtle has a certain earthiness that seems to demand an actress who is not so white-bread, Jessica Chastain’s performance in The Help makes me believe she can play a highly sexually charged man-eater, who is as much an aggressor as she is a victim.

Sofia Coppola

Even those who have grown tired of Sofia Coppola’s niche, have to acknowledge her talent at bringing the disillusioned and numb upper class to the silver screen. The idea of watching beautiful people in the 1920s sleepwalking through life is strangely alluring, especially if properly contrasted with Myrtle and Nick Carraway. Furthermore, Coppola’s pastel colour scheme is perfectly suited to the deco decade, where pinks, baby blues and creams ran rampant.

Key Casting: Elle Fanning is one of the most interesting young actors on the rise and Coppola has already proved she can get a strong performance from her. Fanning is still too young to play Daisy but she is perfectly suited for the youthful golfer Jordan Baker, a snarky and cruel lounging flapper beauty.

Jane Campion

Jane Campion has a unique talent at bringing to life poetry and I am not just talking literally as she did in Bright Star (2009). This ability is what makes her suited to bring to life the stronger symbolic elements of the text from the fading billboards to the green light at the end of Daisy’s dock. Also, considering her ability to reveal character’s inner violence, I have no doubt she will be able to make Tom Buchanan as frightening as he needs to be. She understands the multi-faceted nature of humanity and consistently allows for characters to say and mean two different things. This contradictory nature essential to bringing to life Fitzgerald’s work.

Key Casting: Paul Schneider proved all too well he can play brutish masculinity well in Bright Star as the slimey Mr. Brown in Bright Star. He still has the All American looks that could work for Tom Buchanan and is one of the best and under-utilized actors working today.

Arnaud Despleschin

Something of my wild-care choice, Arnaud Despleschin has never made an English language film. He is hardly known outside of film circles and his best known work is an operatic and hilarious family drama about sibling rivalry and cancer. His outstanding ability to handle multiple storylines and a large cast without neglecting any one person for a moment. Yet, it all works within a small scale. This ability to create a small and personal environment in spite of the scope and ambition would suit the extravagant setting but personal story.

Key Casting: Myrtle is all about oozing sexuality: broad hips, ample chest and tight clothes. She is American but her roots in the ‘old country’ still shine through. Lea Seydoux would be an interesting counter-casting, not fitting the page perfectly but somehow satisfying a perfect mind image.

P.T. Anderson

P.T. Anderson has already successfully brought to life two of America’s greatest institutions: the porn and oil industries, there is no saying he can’t be equally good at doing the same for one of the country’s greatest literary institutions. Especially considering the pull between greed and humanity at work in There Will Be Blood (2007), it’s easy to imagine him meticulously bringing to life the roaring twenties with similar care and artistry. His fascination with the crumbling American hero, brought down by their own hubris makes him an ideal match for the novel, and like Lynne Ramsay, has proved to be a strength for adapting challenging works of fiction.

Key Casting: Armie Hammer is one of the most promising actors on the rise, and the fact that he isn’t a big star (yet) might serve the narrative, contributing to the mysteriousness of Gatsby who seems familiar but you still can’t quite place him. A bit more youthful than many of my other choices, he has an air of experience that will suit the role beautifully.

Wong Kar-Wai

Sure Wong Kar-Wai’s transition to english-language filmmaking was less than stellar, that only means there is more room for improvement. The best possible scenario might actually be wildly divergent from the original text, which under normal circumstances might be a horrible idea, but for Wong Kar-Wai means some of his best work. Actually in choosing him I am reminded of the production process of Bonnie and Clyde (1967). Arthur Penn was not the first choice of director, it was Jean-Luc Godard. Godard’s vision was too much for Hollywood though as he wanted to transplant the story to Tokyo. This might be history’s chance to give us an idea at what could have been, an Asian interpretation of a Western classic by one of the world’s premiere auteurs. The arthouse fan in me is giddy at the prospect.

Key Casting: Shu Qi as Daisy only seems right, she has a sort of flippant beauty and yet a histrionic performance style. She seems somehow perfectly suited for Daisy’s constructed artificiality and phoniness, while at once suggesting her incredible allure.

Steven Soderbergh

Soderbergh has displayed two key things over the course of his outstanding career: attention to detail and incredible range. Is there a working contemporary filmmaker who has excelled under so many different genres and circumstances as Soderbergh? His willingness to take risks and employ a recognizable albeit flexible sense of style promises an interesting and unpredictable adaptation of familiar material.

Key Casting: Matt Damon rarely plays against his “boy next door persona”, but it would be interesting to see him as the brash and utterly awful Tom Buchanan. Soderbergh who sees fascinating by the idea of celebrity is constantly bending expectations in terms of casting and him twisting Damon’s persona would be a sight to behold.

Guy Maddin

Though all prints are thought to be lost, there was an adaptation of The Great Gatsby made during F. Scott Fitzgerald’s lifetime. Little is known of it’s critical reception but Fitzgerald and Zelda were apparently none-to-fond of the screen depiction of Gatsby. That film lost, one can only guess at what a silent version of The Great Gatsby might look like. Here comes Guy Maddin, whose collage style has consistently and cleverly drawn on silent film style for decades. No other filmmaker could bring to life this vision as Maddin might, and his focus on style, construction and reflection might make him the best suited to tackle this tricky material.

Key Casting: Working under the assumption that Maddin will pull a full on silent with this adaptation, I want to cast Polish actress Karolina Gruszka as Daisy. The name probably doesn’t ring a bell, but she has a rather important role in Lynch’s Inland Empire (2006).

Lars Von Trier

The Great Gatsby may be an ideally American story, but this sometimes necessitates an outside view. Lars Von Trier has already tackled America with both Dogville and Melancholia, both suggesting a strangely mythic land. Trier seems ideal in his ability to reveal the dark humour present in Fitzgerald’s text. Trier is stylistically unpredictable and there is no saying what approach he will take in adapting this work. Let’s not forget the sense of doom hanging over the film’s epilogue, if Trier can do one thing right, it’s the end of the world.

Key Casting: Alexander Skarsgard as Jay Gatsby might just be me fulfilling my desire to see Skarsgard as often as possible on the big screen, but the ambiguity of his nationality, his aptitude for uncomfortable sexuality and his personification of physical perfection makes him an interesting match for the alluring but mysterious Gatsby.

- Justine Smith

Margaret

Written by Kenneth Lonergan

Directed by Kenneth Lonergan

USA, 2011

Having spent six years in purgatory, Margaret was quietly released in one theater in New York and one theater in Los Angeles last weekend. Kenneth Lonergan’s follow-up to his acclaimed debut You Can Count On Me, Margaret was originally filmed in 2005 (and stymied by protracted legal battles), which explains why the principal actors look so young. The cast – including Matt Damon, Mark Ruffalo, Kieran Culkin, and Allison Janney – delivers a constellation of strong performances, but the movie is undeniably Anna Paquin’s vehicle: an ambitious, complex, novelistic saga resting almost entirely on her very capable shoulders.

Paquin plays Lisa, a wavy-haired, irritatingly precocious New York City teenager with a scholarship to college and a comfortable apartment on the Upper West Side shared with her mother, a successful actress, and her younger brother. Lisa’s life takes a dramatic turn when she witnesses a horrific traffic accident, one that she believes she is partly responsible for. Searching for a cowboy hat in her neighborhood, she spots one on the head of an MTA driver and, running alongside the bus, tries to ask him where he got it. Distracted, he runs a red light and smashes into a middle-aged woman, Monica Patterson (Janney) as she crosses the street. Lisa cradles Monica’s head in her lap, soaked in blood, and watches her die. The accident sequence is harrowing in its unrelenting insistence that the audience witness what Lisa is witnessing, trapping us into sharing the dying woman’s agonizing final moments in the same way that Lisa is hopelessly, helplessly involved. This question of involvement allows the movie to enact one of its central themes: youthful idealism versus adult resignation to the way the world works. The teenage Lisa, unlike the adults around her, has not yet learned that she can choose to walk away from the incident. Where her mother (a terrific J. Smith-Cameron), the bus driver (Ruffalo), and the police investigators all seem keen to put it behind them, the impressionable Lisa is convinced that she can do something to rectify the accident’s arbitrariness. She strives to impose order again on a world that random cruelty has jolted out of joint.

Paquin embodies adolescence in this film, from her character’s hyperbolic manner of speech to her emotional brutalization of the people around her. She effectively maps Lisa’s growing panic as she realizes that they are out of sync with and apparently indifferent to her internal turmoil. Her frustration reaches boiling point most frequently in her social studies class at school, when she lashes out at fellow students debating America’s response to 9/11 (this movie’s long gestation has unexpectedly resulted in timeliness, as it addresses that event during its ten-year anniversary). One class in which Lisa does not, for once, initiate a screaming match or even speak is the English class where her teacher (a hilariously meek Matthew Broderick) reads them Gerard Manley Hopkins’s “Spring and Fall,” whose last two lines – “It is the blight man was born for, / It is Margaret you mourn for” – reveal the source of the movie’s title. The eponymous Margaret is freighted with symbolic meaning: she can be the dead Monica, or Lisa’s expiring innocence, both of which are worthy of mourning. In a masterful gesture, Lisa’s studies are used to comment on her extracurricular struggles. For instance, her concern over false testimony that she provided the police in order to protect the driver –– that the light was green when he crashed into Monica – is manifested in an abrupt cut to her social studies teacher intoning, “Think of the implications of what you’re saying.”

Abrupt transitions litter Margaret, and editing emerges as one of this messy masterpiece’s flaws: some scenes drag, and others are cut too short. The movie’s two-and-a-half-hour length seems painfully pared down from an even more sprawling work, and its last thirty minutes meander almost to the point of negating all the magnificence that has come before. It doesn’t help that Paquin’s Lisa, ever strident, is at her most shrill in these last few weak scenes involving lawyers, inconsequential characters, and tying up loose ends. The final opera sequence, thankfully, makes for a very satisfying coda to the film, but it doesn’t come a minute too soon. It is perhaps inevitable that Margaret should stumble on its own ambitiousness, the film’s immense scope resulting in a few flabby redundancies. One of its rare missteps is a subplot from nowhere involving Lisa’s boyish math teacher (Matt Damon), who is, in her mind, the only adult that truly understands. Their ill-fated romance detracts from a mostly well-shaped film. For every stilted exchange between Lisa and Damon’s Mr. Aaron, Margaret supplies a realistically awkward adolescent seduction scene over books and beer, or a date scene in which Smith-Cameron gets her character’s discomfort around a smitten Colombian lover (Jean Reno) just right.

Margaret’s formal exercises lend it a meditative tone suitable for the film’s reflections on morality. The opening credits overlay crowd scenes in extreme slow motion, New York’s bustle transformed into a dreamy ballet. Slow motion is picked up again later in the film as Lisa creeps across a row of west side flower shops in the aftermath of the accident, her indolent footsteps seemingly weighed down by its memory. The city is a palpable presence in this film. Every so often, the camera slowly sweeps over Manhattan streets or skylines, interludes that serve as breathers amid Margaret’s cumulative emotional wallop. In fact, the movie should have ended when the camera, briefly following trench-coated Lisa in a crowd, tilts back to take in tall buildings undergirding a sky criss-crossed by helicopters – mechanical flies flitting across a vast world whose meaninglessness she is just beginning to grasp.

Ila Tyagi

Contagion

Written by Scott Z. Burns

Directed by Steven Soderbergh

US, 2011

The big news behind Contagion is its star-studded cast: Matt Damon, Kate Winslet, Jude Law, Gwyneth Paltrow, Laurence Fishburne, John Hawkes, Marion Cotillard and Bryan Cranston.  While the performances are exceptional, perhaps lost in the name-dropping is director Steven Soderbergh, who navigates skillfully through enough storylines to make Robert Altman jealous.

As its title suggests, Soderbergh’s film tracks the inception and spread of an unknown disease throughout the world, and the panic, paranoia, and finger-pointing that ensues.  It’s a frightening film, and the far-reaching reverberations and rapidity with which the disease spreads make it all the more so.  Soderbergh and screenwriter Scott Z. Burns take Contagion beyond a simpler Outbreak-type film through a journalistic, detached approach that at times feels more like reportage than fiction.

A series of enigmatic, nearly concurrent deaths take place across the world.  Among the victims is Beth Emhoff (Paltrow), wife of Mitch Emhoff (Damon).  Damon’s character is the “man on the ground” in Contagion.  He’s the only uninvolved civilian and one of the most empathetic figures in the film.  Leading the investigation and the race to find a vaccine are Dr. Ellis Cheever (Fishburne), head of the CDC, his new hire Dr. Erin Mears (Winslet), and CDC researcher Dr. Ally Hextall (Jennifer Ehle).

In China, Dr. Leonora Orantes (Cotillard) tracks Beth Emhoff’s whereabouts on the day of her suspected infection, while in England, blogger Alan Krumwiede (Law) stirs up controversy as he attempts to demonize the government through conspiracy-theory blog posts.

While the intertwined storylines are indeed impressive, and certainly bring this film far beyond microcosm and into full-blown pandemic, they are also a slight hindrance.  Because we are really only given any significant time with two characters – Mitch and Dr. Cheever – it’s difficult to find a real anchor of sympathy. When Beth dies we feel for Mitch.  When Dr. Cheever’s fiancé is attacked, we feel for him.  However, when the disease systematically kills off other characters, some of them major protagonists, the deaths are viewed with a cold eye – zipping body bags and mass graves, no tears.

This is, perhaps, part of Soderbergh’s plan.  Contagion is certainly a thriller, but it’s not a race-the-clock, headlong adventure.  This is a film that values realism and paranoia before its fictional narrative and conventional genre thrills.

Soderbergh’s technique here is dominated by a few stylistic traits that contribute to the detached mood: more wide-shots than close-ups, techno-driven montage sequences, and short scenes that move rapidly from one to the next.  Maybe the largest contributor is his use of text at the beginning of certain scenes to track the evolution of the disease (and devolution of society).  The film begins with Day 1, moves past Day 100, and then ends again with Day 1 when the source of the disease is revealed.  These numbers, functioning as a countdown of sorts, further the cold feel, presenting it as a report that could well have been published by one of the CDC characters represented in the film.

Burns and Soderbergh have targets.  There are people to blame.  Through the constant merging and concurrent narrative threads big business, Wall Street, the shadow of governments and the blogosphere are all demonized as power-mongering, greedy entities.  Yet, writer and director are careful to humanize individuals and, with the exception of Law’s Krumwiede, who himself is representative of the power and danger of the Internet, most of the blame is laid at the feet of faceless bodies.  Even when Dr. Cheever goes selfishly beyond protocol to warn a loved one of an impending quarantine his actions are still ultimately condoned, and he redeemed.

Contagion’s power lies in its ability to effectively characterize a massive chain of cause-and-effect.  From the small (touching a glass) to the large (mob riots), the film posits that the infrastructure and moral code that our world relies on is flimsy.  It is optimistic in its view of those selfless individuals who rise above the hysteria, yet remains cautionary with its final, circular images.

Neal Dhand

“The Coens once again demonstrate why they are among the very few American filmmakers worth anticipating and they hardly disappoint”.

True Grit (2010)

Directed by Joel & Ethan Coen

Cast: Jeff Bridges, Hailee Steinfeld, Josh Brolin and Matt Damon

If in some way, No Country for Old Men was about an innocence lost that never existed to begin with, the Coen Brothers’ newest film, True Grit, champions childhood ideals that do exist and are unfortunately compromised by age and experience. The rigid faith that Mattie Ross (Hailee Steinfeld) has in justice is consistently undermined by the failures of selfish and idiotic adults. Though she is not naive enough to believe that most people act without keeping their best interest at heart, she holds a sustained belief in a higher moral and administrative power.

Like most great modern westerns, the frontier era of American history is emphasized as a fleeting moment. One decade’s Gods are side-shows for the next generation to debase as relics of cheap entertainment. Even in the time period where most of the film’s events take place, men like Rooster Cogburn (Jeff Bridges) are being de-mystified in the American court system as drunks and murderers. The need for bounty hunters is waning as “civilization” spreads and institutions grow in power. It is quickly evident, though now old and fat, Cogburn had never been an empowering figure. This is, however, minimized, as the oppressing force of a society that created men like him, only to disregard them as outsiders once their role was complete lingers over the film.

This disposability of human life is reflected very deeply at the heart of Mattie Ross’ quest to avenge her father’s death. Sheunderstands that in a town where no one knew her father, his death would go unnoticed. It has had irreversible changes on her own and she has a strong desire to convey that to the people she meets, but most especially Tom Chaney (Josh Brolin), the man who shot her father in the back. She never quite correlates the institutions she has such powerful faith in with her father’s demise. Though it is folly to believe that one can live a life without money, the power of the dollar trumps any and all morality in this film. Even when Chaney is eventually found, he is not threatened with death but with not getting paid. This sends him into a confused and angry diatribe.

Mattie’s faith in the world is very much real in spite of the many obstacles that challenge it. It has a redemptive quality and though she is never able to change the nature of man, her strength and composure suggests a possibility for a stronger tomorrow.  Her intelligence, inquisitiveness and incredible confidence in herself hint at the virtues of a bureaucratic system sustained by a collective desire for order and fairness and motivated by an individual’s pursuit for self-improvement.

The “seriousness” of the film is undermined by the typical Coen wit, and they exploit the colourful characters of the Western genre in order to emphasize the absurdity of this birthing nation. The film is more a comedy than a drama, in spite of its occasionally heavy material. Though quite beautiful, the Coens seem to consciously skirt iconography, undermining or humourizing nostalgic and patriotic imagery for the old West. It is only one sequence, in the film’s final act, which can only be properly compared to the river sequence in The Night of the Hunter, where the film’s imagery is allowed to achieve a moment of dreamy transcendence.

As can be expected, the film is beautifully acted, and though obviously cast for type, each performances offer unexpected moments of depth and surprise. Though not quite on the same level as the Coens’ best work, it is nonetheless a great film and one of the year’s best. It speaks for the incredible quality of their output that this does not rank among their top couple of films, as many filmmakers would only hope to make a film half as good as this. The Coens once again demonstrate why they are among the very few American filmmakers worth anticipating and they hardly disappoint.

-Justine Smith

Synopsis:

Fourteen-year-old Mattie Ross’s (Hailee Steinfeld) father has been shot in cold blood by the coward Tom Chaney (Josh Brolin), and she is determined to bring him to justice. Enlisting the help of a trigger-happy, drunken U.S. Marshal, Rooster Cogburn (Jeff Bridges

), she sets out with him — over his objections — to hunt down Chaney. Her father’s blood demands that she pursue the criminal into Indian territory and find him before a Texas Ranger named LeBoeuf (Matt Damon) catches him and brings him back to Texas for the murder of another man.

The film Stars Matt Damon, Jeff Bridges, Josh Brolin, Barry Pepper, Domhnall Gleeson, Hailee Steinfeld, Paul Rae, Elizabeth Marvel, Dakin Matthews, Nicholas Sadler, Ed Corbin, Joe Stevens and will be released wide on December 22, 2010.

There is no information at this time on when Universal hopes to get a fourth Bourne in theaters.

“an adequate addition to the Iraq War films sub-genre, but unfortunately not a particularly memorable one”

Green Zone

Directed by Paul Greengrass

The combat film has a tradition in American cinema almost as storied as the Western. Like many genres of the time, the war film transformed in the 1970’s to compensate for the negative attitude the majority of American people felt towards the conflict in Vietnam. No longer was it acceptable to glamorize the violent acts of soldiers (as had been done in the past), but rather filmmakers began dealing more with the ramifications of the war than the war itself. The current conflict in Iraq has shared a similar impact on filmic culture; one major difference being that filmmakers began analyzing the war’s effects even as it was being fought. Due to the cynicism the American people experienced in the 1960’s and 1970’s towards the Vietnam War and the impeachment of President Richard Nixon, US citizens began questioning motives in military activity. As a result, Liberal minded Americans have been quick to question every war since. Perhaps no conflict has come under more scrutiny than the present military presence in Iraq; a war that’s motivations seemed skewed from the start. Because of this, it has become a near impossibility to make a film that glorifies it’s existence. Kathryn Bigelow’s recent Oscar winner The Hurt Locker has been praised for it’s lack of partisanship, but in reality, simply by showing realistic violence on screen the film presents an interpretation of a war that has negatively impacted the lives of countless people worldwide. The very idea of attempting to romanticize the fighting in Iraq would come off as pastiche to a modern, media literate audience. Paul Greengrass’ Green Zone seems to be the next step in the evolution of the war film. An action movie with anti-war leanings set during the early years of the Iraq war. The message is quite obviously leaning to the left, yet the film’s first ambition is to entertain. Some might find this to be trivializing the conflict; in reality it’s simply the next logical progression in a genre trying to stay relevant. Green Zone fits into an odd niche in the lexicon of popular culture. The film has a political edge, but its aesthetic and plot structure are similar to those of an action film. In addition to this it stars Matt Damon, himself an actor known for straddling the line between Hollywood blockbuster and small indie film.

“We have made a genuine attempt to make a mainstream action thriller set in the real (Iraq) world. And that’s what makes it really different … it’s a big movie,” Damon told Reuters. The idea is certainly an intriguing one and perhaps it is this objective that ultimately makes Green Zone something of a disappointment. It’s not to say that the film is bad, but given its ambitions, it’s not very memorable.

Paul Greengrass has dealt with the United States’ involvement in the Middle East before, albeit in a different context. The first Hollywood film to dramatize the events of September 11^th, 2001, United 93 was a success both commercially and critically. The film’s significance even led to a Best Director nomination for Greengrass at the 2006 Academy Awards. United 93 was a film that presented its story without having an overt political agenda. After all it was the first film to narratively deal with the terrorist attacks of 9/11 and because of this, Greengrass truly had to walk a fine line. Green Zone is obviously a very different cinematic experience.

Inspired by Imperial Life in the Emerald City by Rajiv Chandrasekaran, Green Zone tells the story of Roy Miller (Damon), a warrant officer posted in Baghdad. Upset with the lack of reliability in the intelligence regarding locations of WMD’s, Miller takes matters into his own hands and begins that classic of Hollywood motivations: a search for the truth. Oddly enough, for such a complex war, the characters’ intentions are quite black and white (at least on the American side). Greg Kinnear plays Clark Poundstone, a Pentagon Intelligence officer and essentially the film’s villain. He is a slimy character whose motivations are so skewed that he comes off as something of a parody. Of course, one could view Poundstone as a representation of the United States Government; hiding the dark truths behind the motivation for America’s involvement in Iraq with the idea of sacrificing one’s morals for the “greater good”. Contrastly, one could analyze Damon’s Miller as a representation of the American public, suddenly wary of a war seemingly motivated by greed and intent on seeking the truth. Miller continues to walk down a path that he knows will lead to the loss of his faith in the American Dream, yet his commitment to his country forces him to do so. Ultimately, Miller has more violent encounters with American soldiers than Iraqis which seems to be a comment about the opposing ideals facing the American people on the homefront.

Greengrass’ portrayal of Baghdad is one of the more interesting and accomplished aspects of Green Zone. The only idea most people in the Western World have of what the Capital city looked like during the invasion comes from photographs and video footage from various media outlets. Greengrass’ Baghdad, certainly feels authentic both in its representation of a society crumbling on the fringes of war and in its demonstration of the Americanization of a foreign culture. We see iconic landmarks such as the Hands of Victory Arches and As-Salam Palace (Saddam Husein’s former residence), surrounded by US troops, a testament to a conquered civilization. One of Greengrass’ better demonstrations of the American impact on Baghdad comes when Miller and his troops stop by As-Salam Palace and come across a group of Americans partaking in a pool party. The stark contrast between what the ground troops in Iraq experience in comparison to what the high brass, American organizational forces experience is never more startling. Several of the party-goers are drinking beer and eating pizza, American comfort transplanted to the Middle East. Whether this is accurate as to the real situation in Baghdad or not is tough to say, but it certainly gets the point across. In addition, Greengrass presents the Americanization of Baghdad, throughout the film, whether it be through the constant appearance of the US flag or through simple scenes such as a soldier watching a college basketball game on television.

A lot of critics have referred to Green Zone as a Bourne film set in Iraq. There certainly are similarities, but to refer to it as such, dismisses some of the film’s redeeming qualities. Thematic analysis aside, an action film lives and dies by its thrills and Green Zone’s begin to fall flat near the end. A climax featuring Miller being chased for what seems like twenty minutes is both unnecessary and somewhat boring. Like many cineastes, I am a fan of the work of Paul Greengrass. His use of gritty, hand-held camera work and quick violent montage lends itself perfectly to the action genre. At points, however it seems that he gets lost as to whether he wants to be a director of simple entertainment or of political films. Green Zone is a perfect example of this confusion, but certainly not without its redeeming qualities. It’s an adequate addition to the Iraq War films sub-genre, but unfortunately not a particularly memorable one.

- Nick Martin

The Informant!
Directed by Stephen Soderbergh

In 1995, Mark Whitacre shocked the world when he became the highest-ranked executive to turn whistleblower in US history. For three years, Whitacre worked with the FBI, covertly taping conversations with his employers and competitors to gather evidence of an international price fixing scheme in the agribusiness sector, amounting to hundreds of millions of dollars. What wasn’t immediately known, however, was that Whitacre had also been helping himself to kickbacks to the tune of anywhere from 9.5 to 11.5 million dollars. Also, he was in the middle of a serious bipolar meltdown.

Based on the 2000 book by Kurt Eichenwald, Stephen Soderbergh’s film takes an unlikely comedic approach to telling the story of Whitacre, played by a hilariously manic Matt Damon. Although ripe with corporate intrigue and personal drama, Soderbergh keeps things absurdist and light. The film is narrated in voice-over by Damon, but his commentary is actually just a series of non sequiturs and observations that often have nothing to do with the plot itself. They do, however, illustrate the mind of a man who isn’t really following along with the rest of us.

Whitacre’s medical condition is introduced rather late in the proceedings, leaving the audience to wonder for most of the film why Whitacre behaves the way he does. Despite seeming to understand what is at stake and constant coaching from FBI agents Brian Shepard (an especially well cast Scott Bakula) and Bob Herndon (Joel McHale), Whitacre lies, discloses information and narrates his own surveillance tapes, coming across as a complete buffoon. When we do find out about Whitacre’s condition, Soderbergh’s use of comedy almost seems cruel, since Whitacre wasn’t in on the joke. However, Soderbergh’s approach also puts the focus on the FBI’s complicity in what happened because despite Whitacre’s increasingly erratic behaviour, they continue to push him to get more evidence, forcing him to go undercover much longer than most trained FBI agents would have to.

Despite a strong start and a host of good performances, Damon in particular, the film looses comedic steam about halfway through, and never really gets it back. The two hour running time seems necessary to tell a story this convoluted and unbelievable, but the light tone introduced at the beginning of the film actually works against it past the halfway point. To be sure, Soderbergh’s acerbic comedy is an acquired taste, but Damon really shines in what is actually a very difficult and nuanced role. He is aided by a host of strong supporting performances including the aforementioned Bakula and McHale as well as the always strong Melanie Linskey as Whitacre’s perpetually supportive wife, Ginger.

Which isn’t to say that “The Informant!” is a failure. As far as thought provoking, adult comedy goes, it’s still more successful than most and definitely worth a look.

The Informant!
Directed by Stephen Soderbergh

In 1995, Mark Whitacre shocked the world when he became the highest-ranked executive to turn whistleblower in US history. For three years, Whitacre worked with the FBI, covertly taping conversations with his employers and competitors to gather evidence of an international price fixing scheme in the agribusiness sector, amounting to hundreds of millions of dollars. What wasn’t immediately known, however, was that Whitacre had also been helping himself to kickbacks to the tune of anywhere from 9.5 to 11.5 million dollars. Also, he was in the middle of a serious bipolar meltdown.

Based on the 2000 book by Kurt Eichenwald, Stephen Soderbergh’s film takes an unlikely comedic approach to telling the story of Whitacre, played by a hilariously manic Matt Damon. Although ripe with corporate intrigue and personal drama, Soderbergh keeps things absurdist and light. The film is narrated in voice-over by Damon, but his commentary is actually just a series of non sequiturs and observations that often have nothing to do with the plot itself. They do, however, illustrate the mind of a man who isn’t really following along with the rest of us.

Whitacre’s medical condition is introduced rather late in the proceedings, leaving the audience to wonder for most of the film why Whitacre behaves the way he does. Despite seeming to understand what is at stake and constant coaching from FBI agents Brian Shepard (an especially well cast Scott Bakula) and Bob Herndon (Joel McHale), Whitacre lies, discloses information and narrates his own surveillance tapes, coming across as a complete buffoon. When we do find out about Whitacre’s condition, Soderbergh’s use of comedy almost seems cruel, since Whitacre wasn’t in on the joke. However, Soderbergh’s approach also puts the focus on the FBI’s complicity in what happened because despite Whitacre’s increasingly erratic behaviour, they continue to push him to get more evidence, forcing him to go undercover much longer than most trained FBI agents would have to.

Despite a strong start and a host of good performances, Damon in particular, the film looses comedic steam about halfway through, and never really gets it back. The two hour running time seems necessary to tell a story this convoluted and unbelievable, but the light tone introduced at the beginning of the film actually works against it past the halfway point. To be sure, Soderbergh’s acerbic comedy is an acquired taste, but Damon really shines in what is actually a very difficult and nuanced role. He is aided by a host of strong supporting performances including the aforementioned Bakula and McHale as well as the always strong Melanie Linskey as Whitacre’s perpetually supportive wife, Ginger.

Which isn’t to say that “The Informant!” is a failure. As far as thought provoking, adult comedy goes, it’s still more successful than most and definitely worth a look.

In our second look at the work of director Steven Soderbergh, Sound on Sight takes on three of the celebrated director’s crime-related films – though they’re crimes of different stripes. His latest, The Informant!, takes on white-collar crime, and stars Matt Damon as a corporate whistleblower who may not be as innocent as he seems. His caper flick Out of Sight is a tale of robbery gone wrong and right, with a little romance thrown in, and The Limey, starring Terence Stamp, acts as Soderbergh’s take on the ever-popular revenge thriller genre.

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It’s been over a month since Steven Soderbergh’s last release The Girlfriend Experience.  So it’s about time we got a look at his latest film The Informant starring Matt Damon.  Expecting a Michael Clayton style drama I was pleasantly surprised the film is being billed as a black comedy.  The Trailer has a couple real laugh-out -loud moments.  Damon looks to be a good bet for an Oscar nomination next year (It would be his first in over 12 years).  The film also stars comedians Joel McHale and Patton Oswald.  Look out for The Informant on October 9th.

Hayao Miyazaki’s latest outing, Ponyo, uses a watercolor and pastel like animation style that decidedly has an old school feel to it. But that doesn’t mean it isn’t stunningly beautiful. The absence of CGI is so refreshing nowadays. The reviews haven’t been as triumphant as his previous outings but that hasn’t stopped the film’s impressive box office (so far grossing over $180 million worldwide). The story is inspired by Hans Christian Anderson’s fairy tale The Little Mermaid, but this time it involves a goldfish. The outstanding roster of vocal talents for the English dubbing include: Noah Cyrus, Cate Blanchett, Matt Damon, Tina Fey, Cloris Leachman, Liam Neeson, Lily Tomlin, Betty White and Frankie Jonas. Ponyo is set to hit theaters on August 14^th from Walt Disney Pictures.

Matt Damon is currently in talks to star in the long awaited Lance Armstrong bio pic from director Frank Marshall.   The project had been in had been in the works for years with Jake Gyllenhaal attached to star at one time.  And as far back as the summer of 2005 the film crew captured Armstrong’s seventh Tour de France victory, hoping to include the footage in the final film.  The director promises the film “won’t be a puff piece.”  Its adapted Armstrong’s best selling autobiography “

Three of today’s most beloved comedians have signed up for Alvin and the Chipmunks: The Squeakquel.  Anna Faris, Christina Applegate, and Amy Pohler will be voicing love interests and rival band The Chipettes.  The sequel to the 2006 surprise hit is set for a Christmas day release this year.  And don’t fret David Cross fans, he will be returning for the squeakquel in all his glory. 

The highly anticipated Runaways film has begun filming and Kristin Stewart can be seen sporting the legendary Joan Jett do.  Dakota Fanning has been cast as keyboardist Cherie Curry.  The film has finally got its Lita Ford in Alessandra Torresani, a new comer whose only credits include TV guest spots on ER and Malcolm in the Middle.  Another relative unknown, Stella Maeve will be stepping into the shoes of Sandy West.  The film marks the feature length film debut of veteran music video director Floria Sigismondi (who worked with the likes of Marilyn Manson and David Bowie).  She also penned the screenplay.   

Ok it’s not much of a traditional teaser trailer at all.  It is simply Michael Moore speaking to the audience and telling his humble opinion.  He has an axe to grind with these trillion dollar sized bailouts.  But this time I don’t think very many people will be offended by what he says.  Most Americans are not at all happy with the onslaught of government bailouts for “too big to fail” corporations.  He’s definitely got my attention.