Review of Food Inc

“You'll never look at dinner the same way again.”

You may find yourself quietly dumping your popcorn at some point during this movie. There are a number of compelling reasons for this. Firstly because there are one or two fairly disturbing scenes of animal violence (especially if you have a sensitive stomach). Secondly, because once you learn just how dodgy the big food processing companies are, you can’t help but spend the rest of the movie wondering just what the heck went into the popcorn you were so blithely popping into your mouth.

Directed by Robert Kenner, Food Inc is yet another of the very popular movie documentaries produced lately that have addressed varied issues of concern such as fast food (Super Size Me), the environment (An Inconvenient Truth) and animal cruelty (The Cove). All of these movies have played important roles in cleverly creating awareness while educating the public. Food Inc is a little Ameri-centric because it focuses on the shady ethics applied by major food processing companies operating in the States, but the principals of business they challenge would really apply to any capitalist country.

Food Inc investigates how the food industry in America has become dominated by huge companies in recent years. It exposes some of what has been going on behind closed doors such as how the farmers are controlled by becoming economically indebted to the companies; and also how many animals are now farmed and slaughtered in very inhumane ways in order to cut costs. Some of these farming practices (such as feeding cattle only on corn instead of grass) have been scientifically proven to have adverse health effects on the human population as well.

Certain scenes in Food Inc are highly disturbing – no meat eater actually wants to see how animals are produced and killed to support their diets. There is also a very sad story of a mother who lost her young son to E.coli poisoning from eating a hamburger because the food companies have become powerful enough to subversively control their own quality control programs. You also learn how obesity is a greater problem amongst the poor because processed food is much cheaper to produce that healthy food.

However, the viewer should keep in mind that this film is hugely one-sided. In terms of filming quality and story arc, it is a definite step down from the The Cove, but also you cannot help but feel you are hearing one half of a discussion. While I would wholeheartedly endorse eating organic food and more humane farming practices, you are still never offered another point of view. At least Al Gore’s An Inconvenient Truth dealt with some of his detractors arguments, while Food Inc makes no attempt to do this whatsoever.

Still the overall message is an important one to engage with and Food Inc is a fairly well made documentary even if is it a step down from some of its more illustrious predecessors. A healthily organic 3 out of 5 for the overall viewing and educational experience of this film.

Review of The Messenger

Being thoroughly sick of American war movies, the only reason I went to see The Messenger so soon after The Hurt Locker was because it came highly recommended. Sadly, this movie did not live up to those recommendations at all, and was a major disappointment.

The Messenger is about Staff Sgt. Will Montgomery (Ben Foster), a decorated war hero, who is assigned to work for the Casualty Notification Office. His immediate superior, Captain Tony Stone (Woody Harrelson) shows him the ropes of one of the worst jobs on record. The two Army officers have to arrive on the doorsteps of bereaved next of kin (before they hear about it on the news), and recite a scripted message from the secretary of the Army breaking the bad news before beating a hasty retreat.

Stone is a recovering alcoholic and lifer in the military but takes his work very seriously. He has honed the protocol of this work to the point where he can remain as emotionally disconnected as possible. Montgomery, on the other hand, has returned from his tour of duty to find that his ex-girlfriend is engaged to be married. This news, coupled with the fact that his war-time experiences have emotionally stripped him, means that he struggles to come grips with his new assignment. The emotional disconnection encouraged by Stone is an anathema to someone so desperate to learn to connect meaningfully with others again.

This results not only in tension between the two, but also in a very creepy relationship that develops between Montgomery and a newly widowed Army wife (Samantha Morton). His desperation leads to him crossing lines not only of army protocol but also of basic human morality. Montgomery’s struggles are mirrored by Stone whose has intimacy issues of his own as reflected in his alcoholism and numerous one night stands. The Messenger revolves around whether or not these two broken messengers of death can possibly find inner healing in a line of work that would seem to only encourage further emotional disconnectedness.

While the plot sounds promising, and could really have had something profound and moving to say to a situation that many people struggle with, it ultimately falls between too many stools. Thrown into the whole notification process is not only the creepy love story mentioned already, but also a standard-issue buddy movie between Stone and Montgomery. Their cringingly embarrassing bonding rituals dominate the second half of the movie to the point that the overall message remains thoroughly unresolved. While unresolved messages are often employed and can prove effective, The Messenger takes such a looong and winding road around its message that it ends up not actually satisfactorily engaging with it at all. Up in the Air (with George Clooney) had a similar theme with a somewhat unresolved ending and yet seemed to engage more fully with the whole issue.

So despite average to good performances from Foster and Harrelson, it is difficult to escape the feeling that by the end, director Oren Moverman has let a potentially good film slip through his grasp. This means I cannot award The Messenger more than 2 stars out of 5. Please be warned that The Messenger fully justifies its 16 age restriction with fairly strong language, nudity and sexual content.

Review of The Cove

The Cove throws a lot of things into one hat. It is part political and eco-activism, part investigative journalism and even part espionage thriller. Yet, at its core, The Cove is a true-life story about one man’s crusade to redeem his past mistakes. Ric O’Barry was one of the dolphin trainers on the landmark TV show Flipper (popular in the States before TV even arrived in South Africa). According to O’Barry, Flipper played a major role in kick-starting the now multi-billion dollar domesticated dolphin industry, but it was O’Barry’s experience in working so closely with his TV star dolphins that led him to believe that keeping dolphins in activity was both harmful and abusive to them.

Eager to atone for his mistakes, a remorseful O’Barry has since spent his life in actively working to free and protect dolphins. The Cove tells the story of how O’Barry has uncovered a dark secret in a small lagoon near a town called Taiji off the Japanese coast. Behind a wall of barbed wire and a plethora of “Keep Out” signs, and under the cover of night and intimidating guards, it is here that the fishermen of Taiji engage in an unseen hunt for thousands of dolphins. Prevented from seeing what is really happening in “the cove,” O’Barry and a group of activists led by the movie’s director Louie Psihoyos, embark on a covert mission to penetrate its barriers and in so doing they succeed in uncovering horrifying instances of animal abuse and also fairly serious threats to human health.

Although a documentary, The Cove is so expertly done that it manages to keep you on the edge of your seat throughout. Although it makes some difficult to prove assertions about dolphins such as their committing suicide when depressed or having self-awareness, it is still advocacy filmmaking at its best. O’Barry and his team use state-of-the-art equipment (including cameras cleverly disguised as rocks by George Lucas’ Industrial Light and Magic), and they form a kind of “Ocean’s 11” team of experts who use espionage techniques to get at the truth. And when they do, the truth is quite simply terrifying, not only in the cruelty that is displayed to these wonderful animals but also the threat this particular fishing industry has for human health. In selling dolphin meat disguised as whale meat they are exposing people to record levels of mercury poisoning.

The Cove also includes a great many facts about the toothless International Whaling Commission which is failing to protect dolphins properly. It shows how Japan is funding the fishing campaigns of many poorer companies and thereby buying their support in rolling back legislation that does actually protect whales.

All in all, The Cove is full value for winning an Oscar for best documentary. I cannot recommend too highly that you go to see it as soon as you can. The intention of The Cove is clear in that it seeks to expose you to some horrifying details of humanities cruelty and short-sightedness and thereby spurring you into action. I certainly hope The Cove exceeds its own expectations in this regard. Christians have been mandated by Scripture to care for and protect creation, and so getting involved in projects like this is a vital expression of our own faith.

Go and see this movie! 5 stars out of 5 for this absolutely brilliant eco-documentary!

Amongst numerous other awards, The Cove was awarded the IKEA Green Prize at the Rome International Film Festival. Here's a statement from the Jury on why The Cove was chosen for this award:

“for re-writing the documentary genre, transforming it into a cleverly edited film that packs an emotional punch with fast-paced action, scientific analysis and a story of personal redemption. The use of thermal camera shots, meta-language, video-reality and archive footage means this work transcends the glossy image of the natural history documentary. The original, hitherto unexplored theme informs us about a horror perpetrated in a bay in Japan that has repercussions around the world, a global horror that lays bare the cultural consumerism behind live animal shows, coupled with issues surrounding food safety and governmental corruption in the war to control the seas. We left the cinema with the feeling we could do something to dismantle all the bays of horror. Taking on the mantle of responsibility, we shout: No More Coves”

Review of The Hurt Locker

Does anyone else find it interesting that The Hurt Locker, a movie about the American invasion of Iraq won an Oscar over its main rival, Avatar, which was a movie about an American invasion of a distant planet? That said, The Hurt Locker was widely advertised as being ‘apolitical’ and with America being so polarised between those who support the war and those who don’t, it was probably wise to steer a middle line.

The Hurt Locker attempts this middle line by simply telling the story of 3 people, all team members of a bomb squad. They don’t really get along because James, the new bomb disposal expert is a risk-taking adrenaline junkie who endangers them all. At the beginning of the movie they have less than 40 days to get through before finishing their tour of duty, and James’ fellow squad members are desperate to make it out in one piece.

The Hurt Locker is brilliantly acted with Jeremy Renner, David Morse and Anthony Mackie taking the lead roles. This is not a movie you necessarily enjoy watching because it does its level best to take you into Iraq – it pins you to your seat with the tension of life on the edge in a war-torn country. People die horribly everyday and the movie attempts to immerse its viewers in the hard-core reality of that. Some of the soldiers react by slowly falling apart while others become adrenaline junkies – living for the ‘thrill’ they get out of danger. However, while different people react in different ways, not one of them escapes without being irrevocably changed.

By the way, I don’t think The Hurt Locker succeeded in being ‘apolitical’. Certainly its portrayal of Iraqis is more than a little condescending and dehumanising. While the Americans are not portrayed as being superior in terms of their morals or value systems, they are still more humanely and less stereotypically depicted. In this we are encouraged to follow them, sympathise with them and even root for them to win the various conflicts they engage in. This is probably because The Hurt Locker is telling their particular story but I still struggle with how a movie about the Iraq war cannot even touch on the many innocent Iraqis who suffer everyday directly because of American presence in their country. You cannot be ‘apolitical’ if you don’t level the playing fields.

The end of the movie focuses on how the irrevocable change that war brings results in soldiers struggling to settle down into the normality of civilian life. James is stripped bare from his experiences, he is emotionally and morally vacant, and totally out of place in his home. In a rather cynical monologue with his toddler son, James tells him that while he loves many things as a young child, the inevitability of life means he will slowly stop loving ‘many things’ until he is eventually left loving only one or two things. James then sadly concludes by stating that he is left loving only one thing, and by that he means the adrenaline thrill of war.

The Hurt Locker does a good job in the way it illustrates how war and violence can strip people of their essential humanity, leaving them unable to properly function in normal environments. There is no doubt that The Hurt Locker is well made and brilliantly acted. Even though I am skeptical of its ‘apolitical’ stance, I do think its messages on many levels are compelling and thought provoking even if they are difficult to view. I do, however, remain unconvinced that this movie was worth an Oscar because I just don’t think it is worth more than 3 stars out of 5. Be warned that there is violence and quite strong language throughout.

Review of Everybody's Fine

This movie got panned by many critics overseas, and was largely ignored by South Africans but for the life of me I can’t work out why. Its critics lambasted it for being overly sentimental and having a too-obvious plot with poor character development, and while I can appreciate the validity of these criticisms, I would still maintain the strengths far outweigh the weaknesses.

Everybody’s Fine is a remake of an Italian movie, and is a heartfelt, sad and yet ultimately redeeming comedy-drama. Robert De Niro is superb as Frank, a recently widowed father of four who sets out on a road trip to reconnect with his children. His life as a blue collar worker (he painted pvc onto phone lines) has led to him suffering from a debilitation of the lungs. However, the sacrificial labours of his life were gladly given because he was so determined to provide for his family and allow his children to succeed. Although his medical condition prevents him from flying, Frank’s disappointment that all four children cancelled on a family visit leads to him braving the bus and rail networks of the U.S.

The double play of Frank’s work with telephone wires and his lack of connection with his children is used throughout. Everybody’s Fine tries hard to use visual ‘cinema noveau’ moments to promote its message, and I think these can be appreciated more often than not. Frank’s surprise visits are not well received by his children at all, and ultimately, his journey really ‘surprises’ everyone because he finds his children are not nearly as successful as he was led to believe. It seems that the pressure of his own hard work in providing for them, as well as his constant admonishments for them to succeed, has resulted in each of them deeply fearing letting him down. This pressure created a fundamental lack of connection with Frank because each and every single one of them was led to lie to him in some way about their work or lifestyle.

This is exactly where the movie packs a serious punch ... in its message. For as Frank seeks to take on his late wife’s role of keeping the children together, they all discover uncomfortable truths about themselves. Frank realises that only providing materially for his family is not enough, but that they also need his fatherly affirmation and acceptance as well. He realises that all he really wants for them is not success but happiness – to be more fully themselves and to be content and find meaning in their work and relationships.

Anyone who has been brought up in the home of a ‘baby-boomer’ would appreciate this movie. So many today have similarly strained relationships with their fathers where the pressure to be successful has sometimes caused intense relational and personal disharmony. More than this so many have experienced fathers who have been good providers, but perhaps have not been emotionally (or spiritually) available to mentor, love and guide. Everybody’s Fine is extremely relevant in this regard.

A great moment of loss is experienced towards the end of the movie, which ultimately forces the family to draw closer together in love and support. Everybody’s Fine is sad, funny, touching and deeply redemptive. It might get a little soppy, and the characters of the children might be a little weak, but De Niro’s acting and the strong realism of the relationships means that the overall message is empathically carried.

It is the kind of movie which makes you want to call up your own parents, or gather up your children in your arms and hug them, and if this is the only reminder you carry away with you then it is well worth it. Although the ending is perhaps a little too neat, it is still an excellent reminder that if we truly seek to engage with our loved ones without forcing our own personal agendas on them, then love can win through even a lifetime of mistakes.

This movie is full value for its 3 (and a half) stars out of five.