The idea that a cultural movement begins or ends with the flip of a calendar is, of course, fallacious. ”60s Music” is an identifier of a specific strain of popular music that really refers to the time period, between 1965 (mid-career Beatles) and 1976 (The Sex Pistols). What we think of as the Golden Era of 70s movies began, arguably, with The Graduate in 1967 (or Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? the year before) and ended with Raging Bull in 1980.

For now anyway, the 2000s can be called The Netflix Decade, a time when, in theory, more movies were more accessible to more people than ever before. That doesn’t necessarily mean everyone took advantage of this opportunity. Still, the idea that a movie, even one from say, Romania about abortion, can have a second life on video is encouraging. If you’re a stickler for lists, consider this the 90 (or so) best movies of the last ten years. What this era in film will ultimately be called is anyone’s guess, but, many films in this list, particularly those made in the US, reflect life in the Age of Terror, where the country was led by a man whose ambition far exceeded his abilities.

4 Months, 3 Weeks, 2 Days – Over the last ten years there has been a rush, in relative terms anyway, of films from countries that were formerly behind the Iron Curtain. The best of these was a heartbreakingly frank film about the moral and practical dilemmas of abortion while Eastern Europe crumbled in the late 1980s. A movie of unflinching honesty. (2007)

8 Mile – Don’t laugh. Yes, Eminem played himself, but great movies put the viewer in a time and place and Curtis Hanson’s impeccable direction gives life to the hopelessness of Eminem’s Detroit ring of despair. The performances of Kim Basinger and Mekhi Phifer are first-rate.  The movie looks even more authentic now that Eminem has faded from the limelight. (2002)

21 Grams – The title refers to the amount of weight we lose after we die. Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu’s follow-up to Amores Perros brought together a math professor (Sean Penn), a grieving housewife (Naomi Watts) and a re-born convict (Benicio Del Toro). The story isn’t arranged chronologically and the morality of what’s taking place is apparent before the full impact of the plot.

The 25^th Hour – Spike Lee’s least bombastic work. Three men (Edward Norton, Philip Seymour Hoffman and Barry Pepper) one of whom is preparing for a prison stint, re-assess their lives in New York City while terrorist occupied planes still echo in the background. The request made late in the film by Norton will make you gasp, but then nod in agreement with his logic. (2002)

About Schmidt – When Jack Nicholson’s wife dies he decides to rent an RV and drive around trying to avoid the realization that he’s a selfish creep. Alexander Payne’s portrait of aging shines even brighter when compared to the emptiness of another Nicholson film about old age released several years later—The Bucket List. Hope Davis is brilliant as Nicholson’s estranged daughter. (2002)

Almost Famous – The best fictional account of the rock and roll life this side of Spinal Tap. Billy Crudup hits every note as an ambivalent guitar hero. Philip Seymour Hoffman is hysterical as rock critic Lester Bangs. Cameron Crowe’s movie also launched the career of Kate Hudson, who plays a groupie. Don’t hold that against it. The “Tiny Dancer” sequence on the tour bus is sure to put a lump in your throat. (2000)

Amelie  – Jean-Pierre Jeunet’s fable starring Audrey Tautou is certain to become a beloved classic if it hasn’t achieved that status already. Jeunet and Tautou occupy a world that looks much like our own yet is eminently more just, hopeful and full of love. Engaging from any number of perspectives. (2001)

Amores Perros – The three-pronged story about how lives have been irreversibly altered by a car accident can only be described as awe-inspiring. It introduced the world to the massive talents of Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu, Gael Garcia Bernal and the progenitors of Latin American Cinema. Much as Amores Perros is a child of Pulp Fiction, it is also the father to the acclaimed City of God. (2001)

Away From Her – This tiny movie about a woman (Julie Christie) coming to grips with Alzheimer’s raises challenging questions about the true nature of love, honesty and companionship. That Sarah Polley was only 27 when she directed this counts as a miracle. (2007)

Babel – Whereas Amores Perros’ and 21 Grams’ centerpiece were a singular event, Innaritu’s Babel centers on a singular feeling brought on by a digital, wireless age. It’s one of mutedness. We can speak to more people in more places than ever before, yet we still have no clue what to say. The characters’ eyes tell us everything we need to know about their hollowed-out existences. In Babel, continents are little more than land masses that separate people trying to cope with this new world. Brad Pitt has never been better. (2006)

The Beat That My Heart Skipped – Romain Duris dreams of becoming a concert pianist conflict with his father’s desire that he follow his footsteps into a life of low-level street thuggery. Director Jacques Audiard brings together the disparate physical and emotional universes that Duris occupies. Paris, probably the most-filmed movie locale in the world after New York, is presented in a new, fresh way. (2005)

Before Sunset – Nine years after Ethan Hawke and Julie Delpy fell in love on a single night in Vienna they meet again. Except now they’re in Paris. But time has passed and things have changed. Or have they? A great idea executed to perfection by director Richard Linklater and the two leads. (2004)

Black Hawk Down – Mark Bowden’s searing chronicle of the US Army’s disaster in Somalia. Ridley Scott and a strong ensemble cast capture the frantic efforts of well-intentioned men in one impossible situation after another. (2001)

Bigger Faster Stronger* – A straightforward documentary about steroids and American culture by a first time director and former devotee of the weightlifting/bodybuilding scene. (2008)

Bloody Sunday – Made prior to United 93 and The Bourne movies, Paul Greengrass’ re-creation of the events of January 30, 1972 in Derry, Northern Ireland seethes with anger. (2002)

Borat – Far and away the best comedy in recent years. Although it dutifully serves its  function as a biting social satire, it’s the bar which other comedies strive for: “Yeah, (title) was pretty funny. But it’s no Borat.” (2006)

Bowling for Columbine – With the school shootings still fresh in the public mind Michael Moore’s film about America’s obsession with guns is a tour de force of filmmaking. It’s become the template for countless other issue-driven documentaries, but the original is still the best. Who could forget Moore emerging from a bank, gun in hand as gratitude for opening a new bank account? (2002)

Capote – I tend to resist portrayals of historical figures little more than overwrought imitations, but there are some performances that just throw you back in your seat. Philip Seymour Hoffman’s depiction of the caustic, gifted, tortured Truman Capote is such a performance. (2005)

The Dark Knight – One of the major secular features of Bush Era was rampant self-involvement. Facebook has turned the personal into the global scale. In a landscape where fame goes to those who are willing only to be more extreme than their predecessor, Heath Ledger, as the sadistic Joker tapped perfectly into this pathos while living up to unprecedented pre-release hype. Everything, onscreen and off, about The Dark Knight reflected the culture of entitlement. Mostly though, The Dark Knight delivered on all its promise.  The movie has flaws; Christian Bale’s smoky (or is it gravelly?) voice is an unneeded prop and the stunt make-up of Aaron Eckhart’s character is unnecessary. That said, it performs the near impossible—a summer blockbuster whose story and message stays with you for days, if not weeks. (2008)

Darwin’s Nightmare – A documentary about the perch in Lake Victoria that shows the social and political effects of an ecological nightmare. While An Inconvenient Truth was the environmental movie that bagged the awards and attention, Hubert Sauper’s movie chilled and moved. (2005)

Eastern Promises –  David Cronenberg re-emerged with A History of Violence, but its follow-up was far more entertaining. Naomi Watts’ London midwife stumbles across the Russian mob, as personified by Viggo Mortensen, cultures clash, mayhem ensues–including a grisly fight in a steam bath. (2007)

Edge of Heaven – The best movies of the decade made outside the US addressed the blurring of boundaries among class, race, ethnicity or sexuality. Fatih Akin’s film about a German Turk who moves to Istanbul in order to find his half-sister makes you wonder if maybe boundaries aren’t such a bad thing. (2008)

Elephant – Gus Van Sant’s take on school violence is haunting. The impending carnage looms over the characters to such a degree that, as an audience member, you want to shake them by the shoulders and tell them to run before the bullets start flying. (2003)

Enron: The Smartest Guys in the Room – The best of its type. A traditional talking-heads documentary that harnesses the national outrage of the Enron collapse and the subsequent dominoes that fell. Names are named and we’re given plenty of reason to hold those mentioned in absolute contempt. (2005)

Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind – I resisted this as too gimmicky at first and I don’t buy Jim Carrey doing anything serious, but on a second viewing it struck me as a thoughtful consideration of how memory relates to romantic longing, especially considering it’s a major studio release. The rare instance of  when a blend of a potentially toxic mix of artists–Carrey, Kate Winslet, Michel Gondry and Charlie Kaufman results in a coherent final product.  (2004)

The Fall – A suicidal stunt man, an eight year old Eastern European immigrant girl who speaks accented English, Charles Darwin, Alexander the Great and many, many others people populate Tarsem Singh’s follow up to The Cell. Reportedly made without CGI, it’s unlike any film ever made. (2008)

Finding Nemo – A father clown fish loses track of his son clown fish. In desperate need of help in finding him, he is assisted by a pang fish with short-term memory. That the movie somehow takes a parent’s worst nightmare and turns it into something cute is a testament to its many charms. Edged Ratatouille and Up for a spot behind WALL-E on this list. (2003)

Garden State – While it’s easy to dismiss the movie as a tool for Zach Braff’s navel-gazing, Garden State appealed to people of a certain age, pre mid-life, who wondered, “What’s it all for?” It owes massive debts to The Graduate and the work of Wes Anderson but it’s a movie of and about its time. (2004)

George Washington – David Gordon Green’s somber sketch on poor black children in North Carolina plays like a Miles Davis number. The movie is all mood, but by the end, you feel like you know the kids in this movie intimately. (2000)

Gone Baby Gone – This may be a blasphemy in some quarters, but Ben Affleck’s directorial debut does Clint Eastwood better than Eastwood himself. It confronts many of the same issues as Million Dollar Baby and Mystic River the difference is the performance of Amy Ryan, as the world’s worst mother. (2007)

Good Night and Good Luck – George Clooney’s paean to an era gone by was meant to be a body blow to the modern media, where rumor and innuendo flourish. More than David Straitharn’s uncanny impersonation of Edward R Murrow, most the high points are the elegant singing of Dianne Reeves that served as a bridge scenes of increasing tension. (2005)

Goodbye Solo – Souleymane Sy Savane is  Solo, a Senegalese cab-driver in Winston-Salem, North Carolina (the Tar Heel State is a new hot spot for American Indie Cinema). He picks up a weary, southern man who asks that a few days from now Solo take him to Blowing Rock National Park, no questions asked. Ramin Bahrani’s movie is so loaded with symbolism it’s easy to overlook what an assured, confident piece of filmmaking it is. If there’s any justice, Savane will pick up an Oscar nomination this year. (2009)

Happy-Go-Lucky – How far does attitude go in life? At first glance Sally Hawkins’ Poppy is gratingly optimistic, but as Mike Leigh’s small masterpiece unfolds we see that Poppy is far more sophisticated than we’ve given her credit for. Furthermore, I can think of no film of this or an era that so lovingly presents a friendship between two women—Hawkins and Alexis Zegerman. They’re co-workers and have each other’s backs in ways that the girls from Sex and the City would never understand. (2008)

The House of Flying Daggers  – Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon set a standard that Zhang Yimou’s exhilarating epic set in the Tang Dynasty surpassed. That’s Ninth Century kids. Two police officers, with differing motives, force a gorgeous dancer to go undercover and infiltrate The House of Flying Daggers, a group of militants who steal from the rich and give to the poor. There’s a sequence where…ok forget that, watch it and you’ll instantly recognize why this movie is on a “Best of” list. (2004)

In America – After WALL-E this was the movie that stole my heart. Jim Sheridan directed a script he wrote with his daughters about a family a lot like their own. It’s the magical story of a family overcoming the loss of the youngest child through great sacrifice and a move to Hell’s Kitchen. Sarah and Emma Bolger, who play the precocious daughters, will steal your heart too. (2003)

In the Bedroom  – Tom Wilkinson and Sissy Spacek have a son (Nick Stahl) who gets involved with an older woman (Marisa Tomei) estranged from her husband. When Stahl gets killed by the husband in a jealous fit Wilkinson must face his own thoughts of revenge in this wrenching drama directed by Todd Field. (2001)

In the Mood for Love – It’s 1962 Hong Kong and Tony Leung and Maggie Cheung are neighbors who suspect their spouses of infidelity. Wong Kar-Wai’s film is in the grand tradition of a love story set against a society in upheaval, but simmers with a lust and eroticism all its own. Runner-up to Y Tu Mama Tambien for sexiest film of the decade. (2001)

In the Valley of Elah  – When Tommy Lee Jones’ son goes missing shortly after returning from a tour in Iraq, he sets out to find him. In the course of his quest he’s aided by Charlize Theron and the movie becomes a layered treatise about the war in Iraq, the military and family. In his best roles, Jones face says far more than any word could and that’s certainly the case in this movie, which takes its title from the site of David’s biblical battle with Goliath. (2007)

Into the Wild  – After graduating from Emory University in Atlanta, Chris McCandless, the child of well-to-do parents, gave away all his possessions and hitchhiked across America en route To Alaska. A wonderful companion to Jon Krakauer’s elegiac account of McCandless, Sean Penn’s movie brings together sweeping natural panoramas, marvelous supporting characters (Hal Holbrook especially) and a pitch-perfect score from Eddie Vedder. (2007)

Junebug – So many films about the clash between urban and rural ways of life resort to easy stereotypes, but Phil Morrison’s movie strikes just the right tone. Now living in Chicago, a son brings his art gallery-owning wife (the stunning Embeth Davidtz) to meet his parents in rural North Carolina. He re-acquaints himself with his brother whose wife (played by Amy Adams in the breakthrough performance of the decade) is pregnant. New conflicts arise as old wounds are re-opened. Celia Weston is delightful as the family matriarch. (2005)

Katyn – The legendary director Andrzej Wajda may have made his best film in his 80’s. It’s the heretofore untold story of the slaughter of thousands of Polish soldiers at the beginning of World War II by the Russian Red Army. Wajda focusses on how the Russians lies about the massacre left a permanent stain on the Polish psyche. The final twenty minutes of Katyn put your heart in your throat. (2008)

Kontroll  – Nimrod Antal’s film about life in the Budapest subway system defies easy description. Every scene and piece of dialogue seems loaded with literal and metaphorical interpretations. And the metaphor can apply just as easily to the main characters as to life in Hungary after the fall of the Soviet Empire. (2005)

 Lilya 4-ever – Abandoned by her mother, 16 year-old Lilya must fend for herself in bleak, gray Estonia. She meets a young man different from the abusive thugs in her neighborhood. He is kind to her and promises to pull her out of her dire circumstances. Hopeful and desperate, she trusts him. Thinking they will run off to a slice of heaven, Lilya is instead lowered into a kind of Hell that can only be borne from the minds of the truly evil. Lukas Moodyson’s film muscles its way into the pit of your stomach and stays there for days.

Little Children  – The decade’s best movie about suburban dystopia and arguably Kate Winslet’s best performance. She plays an educated mother whose marriage is passionless. She begins an affair with Patrick Wilson –The Prom King, as he’s dubbed by the neighborhood mothers—whose marriage is  deteriorating while he attempts to pas the bar exam. Most memorable, however, is Jackie Earle Haley, a sex offender trying to start a new life while under the watchful eye of self-appointed moralist. (2006)

The Lives of Others – An engrossing film about the horrors of life on the front lines of the Cold War. Ulrich Muhe is a member of the Stasi in 1984 who listens in on the conversations of a playwright and his lover. His own life being one of boredom he becomes increasingly engrossed in those of his subject. Florian Heckel von Donnersmarck crafted a film of personal destruction while addressing contemporary issues of privacy in a time of unparalleled freedom. (2006)

The Lord of the Rings Trilogy – It will be hard to explain to future generations the impact that this series of films had on a populace put on perpetual edge in the age of terrorism. Thousands of people lined up to watch the entire trilogy, nine hours in total. It did not take much imagination to see the similarities between Peter Jackson’s sprawling epics and the state of world affairs. The stories of honor, mysticism, fellowship and duty in the face of an indefatigable enemy bent on an engineering an apocalypse resonated with millions of people who had never even heard of JRR Tolkien. (2001-2003)

Memento  – How Christopher Nolan began the decade. The taut Guy Pearce is covered from head to toe with tattoos. He’s also written himself hundreds of notes. The ink on both the paper and his skin is critical because he has no short term memory. In normal circumstances this would be quite the conundrum, but it’s worse because Pearce’s wife has been murdered and he’s trying to figure if he did it or if someone else did. Memento was that rare, visceral movie that left the audience in their seats after the house lights came up, catching their collective breaths. (2001)

Michael Clayton  – Where Good Night and Good Luck was a clarion call to a lazy media elite, George Clooney got back in front of the camera in this tightly written drama about corporate malfeasance. He’s a fixer who keeps small problems from becoming big ones. He must prevent an old friend gone crazy (a manic Tom Wilkinson) from jeopardizing a billion-dollar project while keeping the company lawyer (a scathing Tilda Swinton) at bay. Tony Gilroy’s movie recalls 70s classics like The Parallax View and Three Days of the Condor. (2007)

Minority Report - The back end (after Artificial Intelligence: AI) of a Steven Spielberg double-dip on the dire possibilities of the near future, blisters with energy. Tom Cruise plays a pre-crime officer—criminals are arrested before they commit their crimes—who finds himself caught up in agency politics that have far-reaching implications. Watch it again just to see how prescient it is, based on a Philip K. Dick novel. (2002)

Monster’s Ball  – An extremely graphic sex scene featuring Halle Berry and Billy Bob Thornton (ick) generated buzz, but Marc Forster’s depiction of troubled lives in the south is harrowing. Heath Ledger, Sean Combs and Peter Boyle are excellent in support of Berry’s raw performance. (2001)

The Motorcycle Diaries – Before he became a face on a t-shirt, Ernesto Guevera was called “Fuser” by his friends. As a student, he and a buddy traveled through South America on a beat up Norton 500. Gael Garcia Bernal is Che in Walter Salles’ exquisite travelogue about idealism colliding with reality. The Machu Picchu sequence is breathtaking. (2004)

Moulin Rouge! – Unapologetically over the top, Baz Luhrman’s was the best musical of the past ten years. A courtesan (Nicole Kidman) falls in love with a would-be poet (Ewan McGregor) much to the chagrin of a duke. This triangle is resolved in a splash of song, color and double-entendres. Jim Broadbent won an Oscar the following year in Iris, but he deserved it for his role as the ringmaster here. (2001)

The New World – Terrence Malick’s lyrical, contemplative rendering of the affair between John Smith (Colin Farrell) and Pocahantas sweeps you up and carries you off to a place that only he seems to be able to construct. When the duties of colonization become too much, the stability of their relationship is threatened. (2005)

The Notebook – The moment you say, “Oh, come on! That would never happen!” you’ve missed the point. Every character in the movie is of a type and that very broadness is what makes the film such a timeless love story. (2004)

No Country for Old Men – Javier Bardem’s Anton Chigurh immediately joined the pantheon of cinematic psychos but Tommy Lee Jones is outstanding as sheriff trying to make sense of killer whose weapon of choice is a cattle prong. Josh Brolin is up to Jones’ lofty standards as Chigurh’s main target. Kelly MacDonald turns a potentially forgettable role as Brolin’s wife into the moral center of the film. While the movie may have caught fans of the Coen Brothers off-guard, it fits nicely in the canon of the makers of Miller’s Crossing, Fargo and Blood Simple. (2007)

Once  – Set in modern day Dublin, Glen Hansard is a Hoover repair man and Marketa Irglova is an immigrant caring for her mother and daughter. They are both amateur musicians and gradually they write songs together that reflect their growing feelings for each other. A small treasure. (2007)

Pan’s Labyrinth – In order to escape her sadistic stepfather in Franco’s Spain, a ten year-old girl imagines a secret world where she must perform three tasks to prove that she is, in fact, a princess. Fashioned by Guillermo Del Toro, who spent the decade creating worlds that exist just beyond the reach of our own. (2006)

Requiem for a Dream — Four disparate characters succumb to drug abuse. Most frightening in Darren Aronofsky’s film is the descent into madness of a woman collecting social security played by Ellen Burstyn. Far from a lecture, the movie shows in explicit detail how different people become addicted for different reasons.  (2000)

Sideways - In celebration of his philandering pal’s upcoming nuptials, Paul Giamatti takes him on a tour of California wine country. Like any good road movie, Alexander Payne’s film contrives one scenario after another in order to reveal something about the characters. What made Sideways different was the intensity of Giamatti’s portrayal of a man consumed by his own self-loathing. (2004)

The Station Agent – A thoughtful independent film from Thomas McCarthy about a dwarf (Peter Dinklage) who inherits an abandoned train station after his best friend dies. He’s subsequently harangued into friendship by a chatty hot dog vendor (Bobby Cannavale). The unlikely friends then encounter a woman (Patricia Clarkson) who is in mourning. Well-deserving of the many awards it picked up on the festival circuit. (2003)

Taxi to the Dark Side – Of the many righteously indignant documentaries criticizing the Bush Administration Alex Gibney’s was the best. It’s the story of an innocent Afghan cab driver who was tortured and killed while in US custody. He’s not a casualty of the madness of war, but rather, the victim of carefully vetted policy.  (2007)

There Will Be Blood  – P. T. Anderson’s sprawling epic of greed, oil and religion has a problematic ending but who could forget the opening scene, where Daniel Day-Lewis as Daniel Plainview, without saying a word, grunts his way into our psyche. He plunges one hole after another into the ground through the force of his personality, creating to a fortune but and future that will, most certainly, be bloody. An instant American classic. (2007)

Traffic  – The War on Drugs from the peripatetic camera of Steven Soderbergh. In his most complete film, he inspects many, if not all, aspects of the struggle and concludes that the effort has been a colossal failure. Sturdy performances by Benicio Del Toro, Dennis Quaid, Don Cheadle and Michael Douglas anchor a somewhat chaotic enterprise. (2000)

Waking Life – Richard Linklater’s mind-massaging meditation on truth, reality, dreams and just about everything else washes over you like a hot shower. The fact that it merges animates live action characters pushes it to the stuff of legend. An exponentially better “alternative reality” film than Mulholland Drive. (2001)

WALL-E – The other major secular strain brought on by the reign of error that was the Bush presidency was conspicuous consumption. Remember that he suggested we go shopping in the weeks after planes were crashed into the financial and political capitols of the country. And we did. Boy did we spend. The magicians at Pixar presented the down side of this approach to calming our collective nerves, while telling a tender love story. If you didn’t go “awwwww” at least once while watching WALL-E may God have mercy on your soul. (2008)

Waltz With Bashir  – Perhaps the first and last of its kind. An animated documentary about an Israeli soldier’s memories of a battle that occurred some twenty years earlier. Ari Folman’s autobiographical story of The Lebanese War had the unique distinction of reminding you of several other films while still being thoroughly original. (2008)

Y Tu Mama Tambien – The sexiest movie of the decade. Maribel Verdu joins Gael Garcia Bernal and Diego Luna on a road trip from Mexico City to a mysterious beach with no strings attached. Much steaminess follows. (2002)

You Can Count on Me  – Before starring in Kenneth Lonergan’s movie Laura Linney and Mark Ruffalo had minor roles in minor movies. They play a brother and sister who are connected by a tragic event from their past. Each day is a struggle as they to overcome their flaws and make something out of their shiftless lives. Linney was nominated for an Oscar as a single mother trying to build a life out of perpetual setbacks. The soundtrack features several songs from Steve Earle, who knows a thing or two about turmoil. (2000)

Zodiac  – David Fincher’s story of the serial killer that spooked the Bay Area in the 1970s. Jake Gyllenhaal is a newspaper cartoonist who starts out trying to decode the murderer’s cryptic messages and ends up more obsessed with finding the killer than the police officer (Mark Ruffalo) assigned to the case. Fincher gets the grisliness out of the way early and delivers an unsparing crime procedural; the inclusion of Donovan’s Hurdy Gurdy Man on the soundtrack is inspired. (2007)

They barely missed the cut: High Fidelity, Oldboy, Adaptation and Up

Best Releases Three or Four Decades Late

Army of Shadows – Jean-Pierre Melville’s classic of The French Resistance, released in Europe in the late 1960s made going underground heroic and cool. It ushered in a much-deserved reassessment of Melville’s place in The French New Wave. (2006)

Killer of Sheep – the life of a Los Angeles slaughterhouse worker in black and white with one of the best scores in film history. Charles Burnett’s film sat in a vault at UCLA for 30 years until it was released on video by Milestone/New Yorker Video. (2007)

Underrated, Forgotten or Worth a Second Look

24-Hour Party People – Steve Coogan nails it as the riotously self-possessed Tony Wilson, the television host who sired the Manchester music scene in the late 1970s. Michael Winterbottom adeptly recalls a flowering cultural moment that was both depressing and inspirational. (2002)

The Bridge – Eric Steel’s documentary about why the Golden Gate Bridge has become Ground Zero for suicides. More than that though, it’s about those left behind and trying to make sense of the profoundly tragic. (2006)

The Cell – The acting isn’t much (Jennifer Lopez playing a psychologist and Vince Vaughn playing it straight) and the plot machinations are absurd but Tarsem Singh’s movie about the subconscious of a serial killer is loaded with visual explosions from start to finish. (2000)

The Claim – When you sell off your wife and baby daughter for a gold mine it’s just a matter of time before it comes back to bite you, even in the pre-Information Age. There’s no escaping karma on that one. Michael Winterbottom’s version of Thomas Hardy’s The Mayor of Casterbridge is unforgettable. The icy turn-of-the-century Canadian landscape is the ideal backdrop for this morality tale. (2000)

The Dish – What role did Australia play in the first moon landing? Well, the country put up a satellite interface in a remote desert. Sam Neill plays one of the technicians who helps the locals prepare for and cope with their day in the, uhh, sun. Patrick Warburton is winning as the American liaison. (2001)

Everything is Illuminated – The movie based on what might be the best novel of the decade barely registered at the box office. Eugene Hutz steals the movie as Elijah Wood’s linguistically-challenged guide and Liev Schreiber’s debut behind the camera is extremely faithful to Jonathan Safran Foer’s source material. (2005)

Heaven – It came and went in the blink of an eye, but Cate Blanchett is a bald vigilante aided and abetted by police-officer Giovanni Ribisi. Impossible to categorize as an action pic for the art house crowd (or is it vice versa?), Tom Tykwer’s movie merits another consideration. (2002)

Idiocracy – Mike Judge’s futuristic comedy about what happens to a society that spends decades rewarding impulse and hubris over intellect and honesty. Sound familiar? (2005)

The Illusionist – In pre-World War I Vienna Edward Norton plays a magician who astonishes and taunts royalty (Rufus Sewell) and law enforcement (Paul Giamatti). It was overshadowed by The Prestige which was released the same year, but it is better shot, better acted and without the cop-out ending of Christopher Nolan’s film. (2006)

Innocence – After his wife dies a man looks up his lost love from over forty years ago. She has married and is living a comfortable life. Now in their 70s, they try to pick up where they left off. Paul Cox’s film of hope, death, loss, regret and risk tugs at your heart and never lets go. (2001)

Last Orders – A London butcher (Michael Caine) instructed his best friends (Tom Courtenay, David Hemmings and Bob Hoskins) to throw his ashes into the water at Margate beach. His son (Ray Winstone) joins them as they make the journey, recollecting about what was and what might have been. The type of small, touching film that big stars don’t seem to make anymore. (2001)

LIE – Paul Dano, in a pre-There Will Be Blood role plays a teenager who sits on a bridge above the Long Island Expressway. He has nothing, so when a dubious character, the slimy Brian Cox, offers him some semblance of normalcy, he takes it. (2001)

Made – Jon Favreau’s comedy is a follow up to Swingers which again features him and Vince Vaughan. This time they’re playing wanna-be mafiosos hired by Peter Falk to cut a deal with Sean Combs. The repoire of the castcast is terrific and the movie is even funnier with the audio commentary on (by Favreau and Vaughn). (2001)

Our Daily Bread – A dialogue-free documentary about the mechanized, industrialized nature of food production. Make sure you eat before viewing. (2006)

The Proposition – Set in late 19^th century Australia, the underappreciated Ray Winstone is magnetic as a frontier lawman determined to bring peace to his town. A group of four brothers has terrorized the locals and Winstone urges two of them to turn in the oldest, who is the ringleader. This sounds like a traditional Western but Nick Cave’s bloody and depraved script is accompanied by a setting that invites comparisons to Antonioni. (2006)

Reign Over Me – Almost all of Adam Sandler’s comedic characters are emotionally-stunted man-boys. His character in Mike Binder’s film is also a shell of a man, mumbling his way around New York City on a scooter, donning headphones to keep the outside world away. Don Cheadle is his usual superb self playing a dentist, trying to find out what’s gone wrong with Sandler, his old college roommate. In the course of reaching out to Sandler, Cheadle must face problems in his own life. (2007)

Sweet Land – In 1920s Minnesota a beautiful German woman arrives to marry a Norwegian farmer. He speaks little English and she speaks none. This is the least of their troubles as her ethnicity, in light of World War I, gives the rest of the community pause. Ali Selim’s feature debut is quiet, elegant and assured. (2006)

The Widow of St. Pierre – Patrice Leconte’s tale of redemption set in the (then) French colony of Newfoundland in the 1850s. Emir Kusterica plays a drunk sentenced to death for a murder. But time passes before the guillotine can arrive from France. Slowly, the community, represented by Juliette Binoche and Daniel Auteuil, comes to see the murderer in a different light. (2001)

The Yards – James Gray’s story of corruption in the Queens rail yards was unjustly ignored by audiences on its release. Perhaps it was because the star, Mark Wahlberg, was an unproven quantity as a dramatic actor (Ok, some might say he still is), but he more than holds his own among James Caan, Ellen Burstyn, Faye Dunaway, Charlize Theron and Joaquin Phoenix. (2000)

A Double Feature About Women Living on the Margins

Frozen River and Wendy and Lucy -  Melisso Leo and Michelle Williams try to save their son and dog, respectively, while staring some hard truths in the face. (Both released in 2008)

Actors of the Decade—Gael Garcia Bernal and Philip Seymour Hoffman

Actresses of the Decade – Cate Blanchett, Laura Linney and Kate Winslet

Directors of the Decade – Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu and Christopher Nolan

Overrated

Brokeback Mountain – A movie more concerned with its message than advancing the story in a cinematic way. The script is clunky (saved by Heath Ledger’s performance) and for a movie intended to bust stereotypes, it’s comprised of supporting characters who are exactly that.

Knocked Up – Where The 40-Year-Old Virgin was a sweet, bromance about the complexities of dating, this was self-indulgent. A stoner who lives with other porn-living potheads hooks up with a successful television producer? That’s a shaky premise to begin with and impossible to ignore whenever the two leads start talking about child rearing. Why weren’t women insulted by this movie?

Lost in Translation – Bill Murray and Scarlett Johansson are displaced Americans in Tokyo. It’s a Jim Jarmusch movie done by Sofia Coppola. One Jarmusch is plenty thank you very much.

Mulholland Drive – What’s this movie about? No, really somebody tell me.

Movie that’s aged the worst – Crash. Only five years old and the tale of race and circumstance in Los Angeles already feels quaint.

And what of Wes Anderson? – His four films (three live-action and one animated) are entertaining, but they’re all riffs on a similar theme—highly stylized portraits of fractured families done to great soundtracks. They all made my best of the year list when released, but Anderson, so far anyway, has been content to have his characters talk about their struggles rather than show them.

Television (Still a vast wasteland)

The conversation begins and ends with The Wire. If you haven’t seen it you have deprived yourself of storytelling on par with Charles Dickens, but more visual. There’s no point in spilling more cyber-ink on it as countless others have extolled its virtues. So watch it. Now. You’re welcome.

The two best documentaries of the past ten years originally aired on television. Martin Scorsese’s No Direction Home revealed every available side of Bob Dylan including a few that Mr. Zimmerman would rather have kept under wraps. Scorsese seemed to talk to everyone who ever had anything to do with Dylan.

The other great doc was Spike Lee’s agonizing, thorough, poetic story of the debacle and failure of our government’s response to Hurricane Katrina. It’s not hyperbolic to call When the Levees Broke: A Requiem in Four Acts an act of public service.

OK…if I must choose…a baker’s dozen…(I actually already tipped my hand above by adding a clip after the summary)

WALL-E, Amelie, The Dark Knight, Memento, Amores Perros, In America, The Lord of the Rings Trilogy, Moulin Rouge! There Will Be Blood, The Lives of Others, Waking Life, You Can Count on Me and Lilya 4-ever.

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Name: Taxi to the Dark Side
Release Year:  2007
Genre:  Documentary
Narrator: Alex Gibney
Director:  Alex Gibney
Language: English
RunTime: 80 min

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Description:

Using the torture and death in 2002 of an innocent Afghan taxi driver as the touchstone, this film examines changes after 9/11 in U.S. policy toward suspects in the war on terror. Soldiers, their attorneys, one released detainee, U.S. Attorney John Yoo, news footage and photos tell a story of abuse at Bagram Air Base, Abu Ghraib, and Guantanamo Bay. From Bush, Cheney, Rumsfeld, and Gonzalez came unwritten orders to use any means necessary. The CIA and soldiers with little training used sleep deprivation, sexual assault, stress positions, waterboarding, dogs and other terror tactics to seek information from detainees. Many speakers lament the loss of American ideals in pursuit of security.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0854678/

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Watch the Full Documentary Now

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[ Full Screen ]

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Taxi to the Dark Side :Un tassista afghano nel 2002 si ritrova suo malgrado arrestato per terrorismo, non farà più ritorno a casa; inizia con una macchina nel mezzo dei desolati paesaggi afghani il documetario di Alex Gibney, e porta lo spettatore a incontrare le torture e le carceri della democratica America impegnata a combattere il terrorismo.

Il film verrà proiettato a Milano Venerdì 30 alle 20:30, all’interno della rassegna Non Fiction del  cineforum De-genere presso il Centro Culturale San Fedele ( per intenderci il cineteatro in galleria Hoepli, dietro la Scala), ad animare il dibattito anche il sottoscritto…

Vivamente consigliato non solo perchè vincitore del premio Oscar 2008 come miglior documentario, da noi in Italia non è neppure uscito nelle sale, o quasi.

The usual Michael Moore schtick – timely information, heart-felt personal stories, delivered in an entertaining approach, and Moore’s huge ego.  You’ll laugh, you’ll cry, you’ll be horrified, you’ll still be tired of Michael Moore.

After becoming the most successful documentarian of all time through films like Roger & Me (1989), Bowling for Columbine (2002) and Sicko (2007), the “voice of the everyman” (if the everyman was worth a couple million dollars) tackles the horrors of capitalism, the U.S. economy and the road to its current ruin.

The Setup:
Capitalism is bad.  Democracy is good.  What the hell happened?  That’s pretty much it.  Citing since the Reagan era, the U.S. economy has embraced capitalism as the new religion.   Through visits with poorly paid airline pilots, families being evicted from their foreclosed homes, and “delinquents” jailed for cash, Michael Moore gives us a picture of how decisions made by the rich and powerful keep them happy and the rest of the 99% poor.

Stretching about two hours, Moore tries to start a revolt within his audience by laying out what’s wrong, how we got there, and what we need to do to change things.  Unfortunately the people that go to Michael Moore movies tend to pump their fists at the screen…until the credits finish rolling and they go home.

The Thoughts:
Are you going to like this movie?  Well, that depends.  Have you liked any of Michael Moore’s movies?  You say yes, then you’ll like this.  “Capitalism” is as much a vehicle for his ego as it is about telling the story.  But, his story is pretty good.  Though he talks to you through a voice over like you’re 3 years old and too dumb to understand what the grownups are talking about, he does hit all the right notes – sad families in sad situations and the “evil” men that put them there.  This time around, it’s more about inciting riots and rebellion than going for the laughter (the previous “hahaha, oh how our health care/gun control/government suck”).

I really enjoyed the movie’s message but found my mind wandering a few times.  It’s hard to be completely engrossed when it’s about our neighbours and not our backyard.

Capitalism: A Love Story Rating:

2 tickets – good movie, take a friend.  As a Canadian, it’s probably an easier film to watch but it doesn’t make it any less shocking.  An important movie that would only be made better if Michael Moore didn’t narrate or star in it.

Rating system:
½ ticket – rip up your ticket.
1 ticket – go, but don’t tell anyone.
2 tickets – good movie, take a friend. 
3 tickets – tell everyone you know.

Coming Attractions:

Pirate Radio (or the Boat that Rocked) – A fun, anti-establishment, 60s, rock n’roll movie.  On a boat.  Directed by the guy that did Love Actually and Four Weddings and a Funeral so it’ll be quite heavy on the sappy.  On the other hand, Philip Seymour Hoffman, Bill Nighy and Nick Frost (of Shaun of the Dead) + music of the Doors and Led Zeppelin + authority asskicking = yes please.

Randomly Recommended

Taxi to the Dark Side – Keeping in the theme of shocking docs, this was recommended to me by two completely random people in a short period of time.  WOW.  This documentary about torture practices in Iraq and Guantanamo Bay by U.S. interrogators will freak you the hell out.  Corruption, complicity, water boarding and death.  I think I went on a date like that once.  WATCH IT!

Glengarry Glen Ross – So you want a movie about capitalism?  I know a few people that just can’t like this movie.  I ask them to try again.  The cast is unbelievable – Al Pacino, Kevin Spacey, Alec Baldwin, Ed Harris, and Jack Lemmon.  Come. ON!  With one of the best monologues from Baldwin in any movie, check out this story of cutthroat salesman and remember to Always Be Closing.  Sorry, had to.

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Name: Taxi to the Dark Side
Release Year:  2007
Genre:  Documentary
Narrator (voice): Alex Gibney
Director:  Alex Gibney
Language: English
Duration: 01:20

Description:

Using the torture and death in 2002 of an innocent Afghan taxi driver as the touchstone, this film examines changes after 9/11 in U.S. policy toward suspects in the war on terror. Soldiers, their attorneys, one released detainee, U.S. Attorney John Yoo, news footage and photos tell a story of abuse at Bagram Air Base, Abu Ghraib, and Guantanamo Bay. From Bush, Cheney, Rumsfeld, and Gonzalez came unwritten orders to use any means necessary. The CIA and soldiers with little training used sleep deprivation, sexual assault, stress positions, waterboarding, dogs and other terror tactics to seek information from detainees. Many speakers lament the loss of American ideals in pursuit of security.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0854678/

Watch Now Full Movie

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(Chouche)

Encore une fois ralentie par un virus (vraiment, ce n’est pas une bonne période côté santé pour moi en ce moment !), j’ai opté pour la location de films en fin de semaine. Parmi ceux-ci, un documentaire oscarisé, Taxi to the Dark Side d’Alex Gibney qui se veut une réflexion, ou plus exactement une dénonciation, de la pratique de la torture par l’armée américaine dans le cadre des conflits en Irak et en Afghanistan, mais aussi à Guantanamo. L’idée générale est celle-ci: des générations de soldats américains se sont battus pour défendre leurs valeurs – voir, leur supériorité culturelle -, et la pratique de la torture, qui va à l’encontre de ces valeurs, rend leur combat vain et hypocrite.

Côté critique rapide, je dirais que le documentaire m’a paru trop long et n’a pas toujours ciblé les arguments les plus évocateurs contre la torture (mais je crois que c’est peut-être culturel : les Américains doivent réagir plus que moi à un argument du genre : “la torture nie notre supériorité bien connue sur le reste du monde”, mais comme le but était de faire réagir les Américains contre leur propre système, j’imagine que c’était donc logique de choisir des arguments qui atteindraient leurs points sensibles…)

Côté réflexions engendrées par ce documentaire, eh bien, comme on s’en doute, je ne demande pas être convaincue que la torture est une mauvaise chose: je suis évidemment résolument contre. Non seulement parce que c’est l’un des plus criants bafouements faits à la dignité humaine, mais parce que les résultats sont nuls: torturez quelqu’un et vous pourrez lui faire dire tout ce que vous voudrez, la preuve étant qu’au Moyen Âge on pouvait faire raconter à des femmes qu’elles avaient forniqué avec le diable et volé sur un balais moyennant quelques supplices corporels. Personnellement, c’est d’autres questionnements que ce documentaire m’a amené à considérer, la plupart concernant les soldats. Vous savez, ceux qui apparaissent sur des photos, tout sourires, avec des prisonniers nus et placés dans des positions humiliantes. C’est à propos de ceux-là que je m’interroge. Qui sont ces gens assez stupides, ou assez déconnectés de la réalité, pour prendre des photos, donc laisser des preuves, de ces pratiques imminemment douteuses ? Sont-ils tellement brainwashés sur la “méchanceté” du peuple qu’ils combattent pour perdre de vue l’humanité de leurs prisonniers et trouver acceptable non seulement de les maltraiter, mais en plus de s’immortaliser en train de les maltraiter ? Parce que c’est une chose de faire des trucs douteux en cachette, parce que c’est la guerre et que c’est pratique courante, et c’en est une autre de se prendre une photo en faisant ces trucs douteux. Quand on sait qu’on a fait quelque chose de mal, on n’en laisse pas de preuves. Donc le fait de se prendre en photo en pleine action, ça signifie, quelque part, qu’on ne croit pas faire quelque chose de mal et qu’on s’attend à recevoir l’absolution pour l’acte commis. Peut-être que tout ça n’est qu’un méchanisme de défense devant l’horreur à laquelle on participe : on se convainc d’agir légitimement, que les prisonniers ne sont que des sous-hommes, que la liberté de la patrie est menacée directement par eux. Peut-être que ça prend ça pour que les soldats puissent faire ce qu’on exige d’eux

Si c’est le cas, ma question est d’autant plus pertinente : pense-t-on parfois au mal que l’armée fait aux hommes dont elle a la charge ? De transformer des hommes en machine à tuer, n’est-ce pas, au départ, de les rendre moins hommes ?

Réflexion à suivre…

Le genre de photos qui fait se questionner...

Anhand eines konkreten Einzelschicksals klagt Alex Gibney in diesem Dokumentarfilm die Anwendung von Folter durch das US-Militär an. Im Jahr 2002 hatte der afghanische Taxifahrer Dilawar gerade drei Passagiere aufgenommen, wurde er von Angehörigen der Besatzungsarmee in Afghanistan verhaftet und ins Gefängnis von Bagram gebracht. Fünf Tage später war er tot, ebenso wie ein Mithäftling eine Woche früher. Die Autopsie des Leichnams führt zu dem Ergebnis, dass beide Opfer von schweren Misshandlungen wurden, denen sie mutmaßlich durch das Verhörpersonal ausgesetzt waren.

Gibney stellt einen Zusammenhang zur Doktrin des damaligen Verteidigungsministers Donald Rumsfeld her, der dem US-Kongress die Zustimmung abrang, bei der Vernehmung von Kriegsgefangenen Foltermethoden zuzulassen. Somit ist dieser Film ein Appell an die politisch Verantwortlichen, an vorderster Stelle US-Präsident George W. Bush, auf den Pfad der Zivilisation zurückzukehren und die Menschenrechte auch in Zeiten globaler terroristischer Bedrohung einzuhalten.

Eighth Amendment - Further Guarantees in Criminal Cases Excessive bail shall not be required, nor excessive fines imposed, nor cruel and unusual punishments inflicted.

No matter what you may think about torture it is illegal.  The tortured minds of the lawyers of the bush administration, John Yoo, Jay Bybee, Stephen Bradbury, Alberto Gonzales, John Ashcroft, Michael Chertoff, Alice Fisher, William Haynes II, Douglas Feith, Michael Mukasey, Timothy Flanigan, and David Addington, have yet to make their amends to the world for their despicable behavior.  Why they haven’t been disbarred yet is a mystery that only the American Bar Association can answer.

Torture is illegal in this country per our Constitution and according to the Geneva Convention.  These united States signed that treaty, (actually three treaties under one name), so that soldiers would have better treatment and civilians in a war zones would have some protection.  So why is it that those responsible for making torture OK in this country are still alive and kicking and now working in various places out in public instead of behind bars where they should be?

Take John Yoo for example.  He’s working in Philadelphia now for a newspaper writing a column once a month.  I have to wonder if there is anything he has to say that I would want to hear.  Apparently I’m not the only one who is wondering.  The Philadelphia Inquirer has gotten numerous complaints from Citizens wondering the same thing.  What could a man who twisted and defiled the Constitution in order to make torture OK possibly have anything to say that anyone wants to hear?  Who would hire this refugee from a mental institution or any other psychopath?  Who is paying them?  Why haven’t these men been disbarred and imprisoned for traitors?  And the Philadelphia Inquirer?  It just makes up excuses for why they hired Yoo.

Photo by Karen Ballard / For The LA Times CAPTION: John Yoo, professor of Law at UC Berkeley, who spent two years in the Office of Legal Counsel giving advice to the president and the Department of Justice is photographed in Washington, DC on Monday, April 25, 2005 outside the CATO Institute where he spoke on a panel regarding judiciary matters in the courts.

This is the face of John Choon Yoo.  This is the man who says torture is ok in a  legal memo to dubya and company.  This is the face of an evil, twisted, logic which shamed an entire nation.  How can anyone hire this man and pretend that they have a conscience?  Shame on the Philadelphia Inquirer! The complaint against John Yoo can be found here:  How can this man show his face in public? It truly is sad that public flogging has been discontinued.  I’m sure that this would be the greatest attraction of the century.  Well, maybe flogging dubya and cheney would draw a bigger crowd…

The specific codes that all these attorneys, but specifically John Choon Yoo, violated are § 2340A. Torture and § 2441. War crimes.  These codes are very specific as to what constitutes torture and war crimes.  They are an interesting read if you have the time.  Why is it that psychos look so normal?  I wonder how his family feels about his work.  Can he possibly be proud of himself?  Sure, he did it for dubya and cheney, but what kind of man turns his back on the Constitution of these united States and becomes a traitor to his country instead?  And why is it that we let Italy do what we refuse to do, and prosecute these criminals?  Why won’t the Bar Association do their duty and obey their own rules???

View a video on Waterboarding HERE:

And you have to know that these men are being protected.  And it must be at the highest levels of government in order to keep these men from prison for the traitors they are.  Why else would the bar association not disbar them?  How else could they continue to work and earn a living?  Why else aren’t they in jail as the traitors they are when they betrayed country and We the People by endorsing and promoting torture?  We as Citizens of these united States are shamed by these men.  When will justice lay its hand down on those responsible for atrocities perpetrated on prisoners of war?  The disciplinary rules of the American Bar Association make it clear that these 12 lawyers are guilty as hell!  Read other articles about John Yoo HERE: John Choon Yoo is a monster as are the other 11 members of this band of tortured minds.

John Shifton of the Daily Beast wrote an amazing article titled:

The Bush Administration Homicides

For five years as a researcher for Human Rights Watch and reporter, John Sifton helped investigate homicides resulting from the Bush administration’s torture policy. His findings include:

• An estimated 100 detainees have died during interrogations, some who were clearly tortured to death.

• The Bush Justice Department failed to investigate and prosecute alleged murders even when the CIA inspector general referred a case.

• Sifton’s request for specific information on cases was rebuffed by the Bush Justice Department, though it was “familiar with the cases.”

5 years of hard work and study led to this article. 5 years of dubya and company denying access to information and the cover-up continues to this day though one million members and 150 Organizations have demanded answers!  Yup, protection at the highest levels of government means that there are people in Congress and the White House willing to do anything to keep this secret and protect the guilty.  I have no doubt that they would be willing to commit murder to keep it this way.  Is there any doubt that these practices continue to this day?  Not in my mind.  Yet the obama administration and janet napolitano claim that We the People are the terrorists.  Is the irony of this sinking in?

Did you know that William Haynes II abruptly resigned after he was accused of rigging trials for detainees?  Read the full story HERE:

Rigged Trials at Gitmo

By Ross Tuttle February 20, 2008

Secret evidence. Denial of habeas corpus. Evidence obtained by waterboarding. Indefinite detention. The litany of complaints about the treatment of prisoners at Guantánamo Bay is long, disturbing and by now familiar. Nonetheless, a new wave of shock and criticism greeted the Pentagon’s announcement on February 11 that it was charging six Guantánamo detainees, including alleged 9/11 mastermind Khalid Shaikh Mohammed, with war crimes–and seeking the death penalty for all of them.

Now, as the murky, quasi-legal staging of the Bush Administration’s military commissions unfolds, a key official has told The Nation that the trials have been rigged from the start. According to Col. Morris Davis, former chief prosecutor for Guantánamo’s military commissions, the process has been manipulated by Administration appointees to foreclose the possibility of acquittal.

So I decided to go to the American Bar Association’s website and see what they were about. This is what I found:

Defending Liberty, Pursuing Justice.  What a farce!  This is absolute poppycock!  But when I went to the site they asked me to complete a survey.  I felt it was my duty to comply with their desire to improve their site.  They made the mistake of asking me why I was there.  I told them it was to see what those who promote torture and violate the Constitution of these united States was all about.  I also told them “Way to go guys!”  BRAVO!!!  Check them out yourself.  Maybe you can take their survey too.  Let this fine Association know what you think of them!  Maybe we should sue them for false advertising?  < snickers >

According to Jan Crawford Greenburg, who writes for ABC News, the legal issues are such, and planned just so, to make it so that John Yoo can’t be prosecuted.  I say damn the torpedos and prosecute him anyway.  Where is the justice in ignoring this?

Tortured Timing

May 06, 2009 11:31 AM

Jan Crawford Greenburg

That’s because OPR’s five-year investigation—carefully timed for release only as Bush was leaving the White House and Obama was coming in—dragged on too long. As a result of that timing, OPR blew the deadline for referring possible misconduct allegations against Yoo.

John Yoo is admitted to the bar in Pennsylvania. But the Pennsylvania Disciplinary Board, which would investigate any complaints against him, imposes a four-year limitation for complaints.

Yoo wrote the memos in 2002 and 2003. This is 2009. You do the math.

Isn’t that so convenient? What kind of *persuing Justice* does the American Bar Association do? Only what is expedient?  Just like the American Civil Liberties Union which no longer represents Americans should change its name, perhaps the American Bar Association should be forced to change their logo to something more in line with their ethics.  Something like “Defending Ourselves, Pursing Only That Which We Think Deserves It.”

Watch the HBO clip: Taxi To The Dark Side You will find the link on the right hand side of the page.  I haven’t seen the special yet.

Taxi to the Dark Side

Winner of the 2008 Academy Award® for Best Documentary Feature as well as a 2008 Peabody Award, Taxi to the Dark Side takes a disturbing in-depth look at the highly questionable interrogation practices used by United States military guards on prisoners in Afghanistan, Iraq and Guantanamo Bay in the years following 9/11. Beginning with the story of an innocent young Afghan taxi driver named Dilawar, who was killed while being held in Bagram prison in 2002, Taxi to the Dark Side tells the grim, cautionary saga of how the U.S. government, desperate to draw out information from a top Al Qaeda leader detained in Guantanamo Bay, approved the use of cruel and unusual interrogation techniques that bordered on torture – which were systematically imported to other US prisons abroad. In examining the interrogation practices used in Bagram, Abu Ghraib and Guantanamo Bay, the film includes shocking photos, archival footage, expert commentary, and interviews with several soldiers stationed at prisons in Afghanistan and Iraq. These guards admit to using unorthodox techniques – including isolation, ceiling handcuffing, sleep deprivation, strip humiliation, “water boarding,” threats by menacing dogs, sexual abuse and more – that they say were condoned and even approved by their superiors, despite being in clear violation of the humanitarian rules outlined in the Geneva Conventions.

The title of Taxi to the Dark Side refers, first, to an Afghan cabbie named Dilawar, who was apprehended by U.S. soldiers in 2002 and detained in the Bagram Air Base prison, where he died of wounds to the lower extremities after four days. Second, it evokes a statement VP Dick Cheney made to Tim Russert a few days after the 9/11 attacks. “We also have to work the dark side, if you will,” said Cheney of our strategy to bring terrorists to justice. “We’ve got to spend time in the shadows in the intelligence world.”

Taxi to the Dark Side examines the growing abuse within U.S. military prisons abroad, starting with the case of Mohammad al-Qahtani, a suspected “20th hijacker” of 9/11 who was subjected to new, humiliating interrogation tactics in an attempt to get him to reveal information in Guantanamo Bay. With the apparent approval of Sec. of State Rumsfeld, these tactics were imported to Iraq and Afghanistan, where guards subjected detainees to increasingly sadistic acts. As the film shows, after the now-famous Abu Ghraib prison photos were published in 2004, many soldiers were brought to trial, discharged and/or imprisoned – but the damage had already been done.

Taxi to the Dark Side opened to stellar reviews upon theatrical release, earning numerous awards including Best Documentary at the 2007 Tribeca Film Festival and Best Documentary Screenplay at the 2008 Writers Guild of America Awards.

Taxi to the Dark Side was written, produced, directed and narrated by Alex Gibney, who is also responsible for the Oscar®-nominated Enron: The Smartest Guys in the Room, The Trials of Henry Kissinger and other films. Gibney’s father Frank, a U.S. veteran who died before the documentary was completed, had urged his son to make the film.

More reasons to examine very carefully what the federal government is doing wherever it has authority be it this country or the military bases around the world.  More reasons to examine, dissect, sift through, and make sure that the federal government is not acting in ways it should not, violating the Constitution, and that those that do are prosecuted to the full extent of the law.  It is the only way that Americans can ensure the safety of our troops in combat and make sure that the laws of this land apply to all.

Write to the American Bar Association and demand that those responsible for violating our Constitution be prosecuted.  Demand that Justice be served or they be disbanded.  We cannot have lawyers protecting criminal lawyers.  It makes a mockery out of the laws of this land.  Laws should apply to all, not just the Citizens of this country.

It is past time that those who make the laws abide by them.  It is past time that one president covers up for the previous one, and instead, they both be prosecuted.  Either justice is for all or no one should be prosecuted.  No one is above the laws in this country, not even the federal government.  If the laws only apply to We the People, then tyranny is afoot in Washington and a conspiracy to subvert the government of these united States has taken place.  A Nation’s laws must apply to all and not excuse some just because they are famous or have been president.

Ormai ci avevo perso le speranze, ma a sorpresa arriva in Italia il documentario “Taxi to the Dark Side” che sarà nelle sale dalle 22 maggio.

La pellicola di Alex Gibney merita di essere vista per la sua qualità cinematografica (qui recensita dalla collega del Tg3, Francesca Capovani) e per la storia che racconta, quella di Dilawal un tassista afghano che – pur innocente – si ritroverà nella prigione della base aerea di Baghram, la Guantanamo d’Afghanistan. Un film documentario che nonostante abbia vinto l’Oscar nel 2008 e sia stato presente anche alla Festa del Cinema di Roma, sin’ora, era stato dimenticato dalla distribuzione italiana. Speriamo che ci sia una buona risposta del pubblico e il film possa arrivare in un numero minimo di sale, lo meriterebbe Dilawal ma anche il rispetto della democrazia ed il rifiuto della pratica della tortura.

At the Daily Beast, CNN’s chief international correspondent talks about “Taxi to the Dark Side”, a documentary about US torture policies, as well as the general debate within the the United States about the release of the torture memos:

I ran into Alex Gibney this week, producer of the extraordinary Oscar winning documentary Taxi to the Dark Side, about US torture practices abroad. It was amazing timing since the week has been abuzz with new developments. As President, Obama immediately moved to close down Guantanamo. But while torture is a most un-American activity, the latest developments have reached the very heart of a divided nation: From Former Vice President Dick Cheney who insists torture works, to NYC Police Commissioner Ray Kelly, who told me it should be banned, and said so publicly at yesterday’s Congressional hearing, but who also wonders about the potential chilling effect of the memos being published, to the informal coffee shop poll my fellow school-mum conducted about the now public memos, which produced a loud and ferocious battle of opinions among the ladies who breakfast. Taxi to the Dark Side is still well worth a watch.

Tonight I went over a friend’s house for a mini human rights movie party. It ended up being even more mini than I expected, with only around seven people. It was still a thoroughly good time. We selected a movie called Taxi to the Dark Side, about human rights abuses in Abu Graib and Guantanamo Bay. The film spends much of it’s time focusing specifically on Dilawar, an Afghan taxi driver who was beaten to death by US soldiers in Afghanistan. 

It was a thoroughly horrifying. Watch it.

So I got back from New York this morning with a shitload of jetlag and a big fat suitcase filled with goodies…including Reese’s cups, peanut butter parfait nibs (not for me, I’m a dairy free gym bunny) a new Diana-F film camera from MOMA and a stack of faux Christian Audiger stylee tees from Conways. I decided to stay in the same hotel as last year, that being the Paramount; the room was tiny but just dandy and the hotel itself is swanky and most importantly, slap bang in the middle of Manhattan (West 46th). Friday was spent endlessly preparing for my looming UCLA interview and I was PETRIFIED, I was so afraid I was going to fluff it like the AFI interview last year…PLUS I had to pitch a short film idea. I took some Kalms tablets beforehand, drank a bottle of Bach Rescue Remedy (not advised!) and arrived an hour early. I have to say, I managed to remain pretty calm…I couldn’t articulate a few words but that is far better than whole answers like last year!! Overall, I think it went well, it was very relaxed and the interviewers were lovely…we ended up going over the allotted time but I don’t want to speculate in case my fragile hopes doth be dashed again…you never, ever know with these things what boxes you’re actually ticking. The only thing I wasn’t happy about what was the pitch idea, I changed it at the last minute because the other one was too risky and didn’t quite fill the criteria but it was unique…the story I actually went for was bland and bleak but at least I got through it without faltering.

Following the interview I was in good spirits so I went to the cinema to check out Coraline in 3D…I bow to Henry Selick and his absolute mastery of stop-motion. The film was beautiful and incredibly imaginitive…so a big, warm congratulations to the deliciously rapturous coupling of Neil Gaiman and Mr. Selick; I seriously hope they collaborate again…I can actually see a Master Burton being a little miffed at the fact that he didn’t come up with this one…I will say however that I found myself thinking ‘Ooooh…if Burton got his Scissorhands on this one, it too would be fantabulous!!’ …I missed some of the Burton stylizations but the mad-haired chappy can’t have everything, he got Alice and that’s enough for the time being!

On my last day in NYC I decided to see The Watchmen on the IMAX in Times Square… I just think this movie should be seen in IMAX but it did mean I had to queue for an hour and a half; I’m not a happy queuer and I ended up chewing my way through a whole pack of gum. Anyhoo, the film itself was very, very cool and though I am by NO means a fan of Zack Snyder, I think he managed to pull off one of, if not the best comic book adaptation that has been. The film was very dark, at points even in the vein of Fincher but there were noticeable flaws such as the *cough* Leonard Cohen, Hallelujah scene…that was a big, big speed bump. If you’ve seen it, please comment. I did however dig the sweet interpretation of Dr. Manhattan by Billy Crudup *thumbs up* and the side story between Sally Spectre and The Comedian…I wasn’t sure about Patrick Wilson (Night Owl II), I normally really like this guy so I was disappointed here. I really, really disliked Malin Ackerman (Laurie Spectre)…I genuinely thought she was poo; very unconvincing and sans the emotional spectrum the character needed in order to elicit catharsis at the end…did you really care who her father was? (intentionally not spoiling it) and she lacked va-va-voom; that missing ingredient that Michelle Pfeiffer had as Catwoman or Famke Janssen as Jean Grey or Angelina Jolie as…anything at all

Okay so I’m now back in Blighty and I have about 4 days of prep for my phone interview with the AFI, send wee leprechauns my way. On a side note, I’ve just finished watching the insanely great documentary, ‘Taxi To The Dark Side’, it was actually directed by former UCLA student Alex Gibney and it won the Oscar in 2008 for best doc; it’s about the atrocities that happened in Bagram prison and then Guantanamo Bay to the captured, ‘alleged’ terrorists…if your faith is dwindling in the powers that be, this might just sever that last, oh so fragile tie. It will shock you but the truth often does.

x

FLOW: For The Love Of Water - Official Theatrical Trailer  (Out on DVD Now)

Tokyo  (in Theatres soon)

Inglorious Bastards  (In theatres this summer)

Taxi To The Dark Side ( Watch Full Movie Here )

Superheld im Trailerpark.

Es ist viel gesagt worden über Mickey Rourke und seine Leistung in diesem so unscheinbar daherkommenden Ausnahmefilm über einen Mann, der einmal eine bejubelte Größe seiner Zunft war und nun auf der untersten Stufe der gesellschaftlichen Leiter angekommen ist. Vor allem die zum Teil arg weit hergeholten Parallelen zwischen Rolle und Darsteller, seinen Absturz nach den kurzen Erfolgsjahren der 80er, in denen er zu Recht als einer der außergewöhnlichsten Schauspielern seiner Generation gegolten hatte, definierten das Standardprogramm. Die meisten dieser unterstellten Gemeinsamkeiten sind weiter hergeholt, als es auf den ersten Blick aussehen mag, aber derartiges gehört nun einmal zum Vermarktungshandwerk. Neben dem, was über ihn gesagt worden ist, hat man Rourke andererseits aber auch mit unermüdlicher Penetranz immer wieder denselben Kanon an Statements abgerungen. Wie ihm Darren Aronofsky das große Geschenk dieser Rolle gemacht, wie er ohne Gage alles gegeben habe, wie er diese neue Chance nutzen und dringend aufpassen müsse, nie mehr in alte Verhaltensmuster zu verfallen, und so weiter und so weiter. Neben all den vielen Worten, die auf beiden Seiten verschwendet worden sind, ist aber doch etwas ganz Entscheidendes vergessen worden, und das ist im Zusammenhang mit diesem Film eigentlich das Allerwichtigste und gehört deshalb dringend nachgeholt. Hier ist es: Danke, Mickey Rourke, für diese aufwühlende, tiefbewegende, ehrliche und durch und durch unvergessliche Figur, die so weit entfernt ist von all den müde erdachten oder selbstverliebt zusammengeschusterten Gestalten, die es sonst so oft im Kino zu sehen gibt. Danke für eine Figur, die lange nach Filmende noch bei einem bleibt, weil sie soviel Leben in sich trägt, dass man meint, sie müsse jeden Moment hinter der Leinwand hervortreten, die Arme hochreißen und sich von ihrem Publikum frenetisch feiern lassen. Wen Randy „The Ram” Robinson nicht mit voller Wucht ins Herz trifft, tja, der hat wohl keins.

„The Wrestler“ ist kein Wiederauferstehungsfilm und erzählt nicht die Geschichte eines heruntergekommenen Ex-Champs, der dafür, dass er nicht aufgibt, am Schluss mit dem Sieg belohnt wird (wie etwa zuletzt „Rocky Balboa“) – aber auch keine Chronik von Aufstieg und Fall eines besessenen Kämpfers auf Gedeih und Verderben, von dem am Ende wenig mehr als eine Parodie seiner selbst übrig bleibt (wie etwa „Raging Bull“). In erster Linie ist Aronofskys Film eine Überlebensstudie, mit dokumentarischen Stilmitteln erzählt und frei von jener (in der Regel virtuosen) Künstlichkeit, wie sie die Arbeit dieses Filmemachers bisher ausgezeichnet hat. Vielleicht war es die große Ablehnung, die zuletzt „The Fountain“ erfahren hatte, und mit dem so mancher die Karriere des bis dato hochgepriesenen Regisseurs bereits beendet sah. Vielleicht war es aber noch viel mehr die katastrophale Produktionsgeschichte dieses Films (in dem Brad Pitt und Cate Blanchett noch vor „The Curious Case of Benjamin Button“ als Paar hätten auftreten sollen), die ihn zu einem überschaubareren Projekt trieben, ohne große Sets (die beim Vorgängerfilm nach Scheitern des ersten Drehs unter dem Auktionshammer gelandet waren), ohne großes Budget und ohne große Namen. Zugleich sollte dies der erste Film werden, für den Aronofsky sich beim Drehbuch ausklinkte, hinter der Kamera auf Matthew Libatique verzichtete und stattdessen der dokumentarfilmerfahrenen Maryse Alberti („Taxi to the Dark Side“) vertraute.

Nichts aber hätte die Geldgeber mehr abschrecken können als die Entscheidung zu Mickey Rourke. Einen großen Namen wollte man, denn wen sollte schon ein abgehalfterter Miethengst aus den 80ern ins Kino locken? Rückblickend mutet es wie ein schlechter Witz an, dass bald schon Nicolas Cage ganz oben auf der Wunschliste stand, und es fällt nicht schwer, sich vorzustellen, was unter dieser Vorgabe aus Randy Robinson geworden wäre. Überhaupt ist eine alternative Besetzung nicht mehr denkbar, ohne dass der Film als das, was er schließlich geworden ist, in sich zusammenfallen würde. Ganz und gar ruht er auf Rourkes massiven Schultern und findet in seinem verunstalteten Gesicht, das so gar nichts mehr mit dem Mann zu tun hat, der selbst als heruntergekommener Harry Angel noch gut aussah, seine ideale Manifestation.

Was Cortison und unterbegabte plastische Chirurgen an ihm verbockt haben, ist für die Filmfigur ein unbezahlbares Geschenk. Aufgedunsen, geschwollen, verzerrt – so ein Gesicht würde in jedem anderen Fall einer intensiven Sitzung in der Maske bedürfen. Rourke bringt es einfach mit, und kein Funken seiner Mimik geht verloren. Während es in „Sin City“ fast gänzlich hinter künstlichen Elementen verschwand, trägt er es hier in einer Form zur Schau, die jenseits aller denkbaren Eitelkeit stattfindet. Der gern attestierte Mut, den vor allem Schauspielerinnen haben sollen, wenn sie sich für eine Rolle aller ästhetischen Anziehungskraft berauben lassen (wie etwa Charlize Theron in „Monster“), verstummt angesichts dieser Form von ungeschönter Bloßstellung. Es gibt keinen Spiegel, vor dem sich Rourke abschminken und zur Coverreife zurückverwandeln könnte. Dieses Gesicht ist echt und irreparabel gezeichnet.

Über die Credits montiert der Film eine Collage von Zeitungsausschnitten, die den jüngeren Randy auf dem Höhepunkt seiner Karriere zeigen. Dann dauert es eine Weile, bis die Kamera den jetzt 20 Jahre älteren Wrestler von vorne in den Fokus nimmt, und als es schließlich geschieht, hinterlässt es, obwohl man ja längst weiß, wie Rourke aussieht, einen tiefen Eindruck. Alles, die ganzen zwei Jahrzehnte dazwischen, haben ihre Spuren in diesem Gesicht hinterlassen, und zusätzlich noch zu erzählen, was seitdem passiert ist, wäre reine Zeitverschwendung, denn jeder Blick auf Randy von dort an bis zur letzten Einstellung sagt viel mehr. „I hate the fuckin´ 90´s”, bekennt er an einer Stelle, und obwohl er die Musik der Kurt Cobains und ihrer Epigonen meint (während er zu „Round and Round“ von Rat Attack umhertänzelt), spricht seine Geschichte doch von dem ganzen Jahrzehnt, denn für ihn war es kein gutes.

Inzwischen ist er im Ring drittklassiger Showkämpfe der Hinterhöfen und Sporthallen angekommen, und obwohl er immer noch als Main Act verkauft wird, kann er auch mit einem zweiten Job als Lagerarbeiter im Supermarkt kaum seine Miete für den Trailerpark aufbringen. Was dabei frühzeitig auffällt: Randy hält sich alle Bitterkeit vom Leib. Wenn er vor verschlossener Tür steht, weil das Geld wieder nicht bis zum Monatsersten ausgereicht hat, schläft er eben im Auto, und wenn er am nächsten Morgen von johlenden Kindern aus dem Schlaf gerissen wird, absolviert er erst mal einen kleinen Showkampf mit ihnen. Dieser Mann mag keine Zukunft haben, keine Chance, jemals wieder auf die Beine zu kommen, aber aufgeben ist ihm fremd. Ein bisschen Wärme holt er sich bei der Stripperin Cassidy (Marisa Tomei), die eigentlich Pam heißt, und für die er, ohne dass sie es zugeben kann, nicht bloß ein Kunde wie alle anderen ist. Die größte Kraft aber geben ihm Ring und Publikum, doch selbst als er nach einem besonders blutigen Kampf zusammenbricht, mit Bypass wieder aufwacht und vom behandelnden Arzt eröffnet bekommt, dass er seine Karriere nicht ohne Lebensgefahr mehr fortsetzen kann, gibt er sich nicht auf.

So wie die Kamera ihm zuvor in den Ring gefolgt ist, so begleitet sie ihn auch an die Fleischtheke, wo er sich fortan seine Miete verdient, und er wird es auf seine Weise schaffen, sich auch hier nicht wieder zu Robin Ramzinski (sein echter Name), und damit zu dem Mann degradieren zu lassen, der er war, bevor er „The Ram“ wurde. So nutzt er jede Gelegenheit, sich als Randy ansprechen zu lassen, und sei es auch nur von einer Drogerieangestellten, die er wohl kein zweites Mal mehr sehen wird. „Randy“ steht für das, was er kann und ist, seine Superheldenidentität, wenn man so will, und als nichts anderes gibt ihn sein Bühnenoutfit auch zu erkennen. Überhaupt liegt hier das regulierende Prinzip im Ring, wo die Guten gegen die Bösen kämpfen, ohne dass es freilich einen echten Wettkampf gäbe. In voller Montur, jeder mit seinem eigenen Superheldenkostüm, seinen spezifischen Waffen und Fähigkeiten ausgestatte, vorhersehbar, wiedererkennbar, und deshalb für ihr Publikum sehenswert. Im Ring gelten die Gesetze des Comics, nur dass die Protagonisten und Antagonisten nach der Show eine Form der Kameradschaft leben, die niemand erwarten würde.

In gewissem Sinne nimmt Randy seine Bühnenfigur mit ins reale Leben, und so behält er auch seinen Namen. Wenn er kann, baut er sich seinen eigenen Ring auf, ganz egal, wo er gerade ist. Als Beschützer von Cassidy, als Jongleur hinter der Fleischtheke, an der Spielekonsole und auf der improvisierten Tanzfläche. Aber bei allem Charme, Witz und einer augenzwinkernden Dosis Großspurigkeit ist Randy innerlich gebrochen, dem Leben aus der Spur geraten, und so ist der Ring sein einziges Zuhause. Nirgendwo wird das so schmerzhaft offenkundig wie in den wenigen Begegnungen mit seiner entfremdeten Tochter (Evan Rachel Wood). Hier findet der Film seine magischsten Momente, und für einen Augenblick sieht es so aus, als seien die verlorenen Jahre wieder gut zu machen. Doch vielleicht ist auch das nur Illusion. Denn wenn Axl Rose für Randy „Sweet Child O´ Mine” spielt, dann handelt der Song von nichts anderem als genau dieser unerfüllbaren Sehnsucht und der Erinnerung, die zu schmerzhaft ist, um ihr lange ausgesetzt zu bleiben.

„The Wrestler“ ist ein Film mit solcher Kraft, dass sich seine Bilder nachhaltig einbrennen und tiefe Spuren hinterlassen. Am Schluss bleibt die Leinwand so lange schwarz, dass man hofft, es sei nur ein Bildfehler und nicht bereits das Ende dieser grandiosen Geschichte. Und wenn man dann wieder zu sich gekommen ist, wird man vermutlich denken müssen, dass es nichts, aber auch wirklich überhaupt nichts gibt, was die sträfliche Ignoranz der Academy entschuldigen könnte, mit der sie diesen Film für die Oscars 2009 einfach übergangen und damit einmal mehr ihre erbärmliche Bedeutungslosigkeit bewiesen hat. So ist ein Film zum jahresbesten gewählt worden, der vom sozialen Aufstieg gegen jede Chance träumt. Dass sich das leichter goutieren lässt als eine Geschichte, die das genaue Gegenteil zeigt, legt nahe, dass Verdrängung angesichts düsterer Zukunftsaussichten immer noch die beliebteste Methode ist, sich den Realitäten zu entziehen.

Artikel © 2009 Thomas Lenz. Alle Rechte vorbehalten.
Filmplakat: Kinowelt GmbH

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Q&A with Alex Gibney, director of “Taxi To The Dark Side.”

On Thursday, February 26, Alex Gibney participated in a Q&A prior to the showing of his Academy Award-winning documentary “Taxi To The Dark Side.” He briefly discussed what his film was about, then proceeded to answer questions from both students and teachers. “Taxi To The Dark Side” begins about the story of an Afghan taxi driver who was wrongly jailed, tortured, and murdered by the American military. Gibney, in his documentary, investigates the government’s policies on torture, discovering corruption in the White House, and, as Gibney put it, “seeing the story from the inside-out.” 

The audience as a whole generally responded well to this Q&A. Many had not seen the film beforehand, but Gibney’s discussion was informative and helped us understand how necessary this film was. Questions kept pouring in, asking about topics ranging from “what changes need to be made in the government about torture policy” to a discussion about Jon Stewart and entertaining news sources. Gibney gave us a small look into the world of documentary filmmaking and helped us learn how we can fight for human rights. 

For More Information:

www.taxitothedarkside.com (film’s website)

www.commondreams.org/archive/2008/06/22/9803 (article about Orange Ribbons)

For my Digital Media Production class, we are required to attend two events at the USF HRFF. Afterwards, we must blog about it, add photos on flickr, and tweet to direct people to our blogs. 

Last night, I attended the showing of Trouble The Water, which discusses the effects Hurricane Katrina had on the poorer neighborhoods in New Orleans. This afternoon, I attended the Q&A session of Alex Gibney, who discusses his film Taxi To The Dark Side.  

This is just a test blog. My reviews of each event will follow shortly.