film phlegm

Under discussion:

The Home Song Stories  (2007)

Had the opportunity to see this at the San Francisco Asian-American Film Festival.  It probably wouldn't have been my first choice, but a friend who is a big Joan Chen fan really wanted to see it and since I didn't get to see any other films, I went.

It's a story about the Tony Ayre's (the director) life in Australia (and Hong Kong) growing up with a mother who moved from man to man, place to place, dragging her children along with her.  She's a beautiful woman who gets men to fall in love with her, but depends on them for her and her childrens' income and well-being.  This dependency ultimately leads these men to leave her driving her into a state of alcoholism, chronic depression, and attempted suicide leaving her 10ish year old son and 12ish year old daughter to deal with her self-absorbed nonsense.

The film takes almost directly from Ayres' life and from what I understood, followed it very closely.  In fact, he and his sister make an appearance at the end of the film.  It's a sad, sad story and I feel like it's been told so many times before, but the acting was excellent, the music was wonderful, and the film was well made in general.  Sometimes a film can be a therapeutic release for an artist, and I give Tony Ayres four stars for telling his story.

Under discussion:

Michael Clayton  (2007)

Yeah...I was really blown away.

I had lowered expectations going in...and left incredibly refreshed.  The plot...not all that original.  Big corporation is killing people because of some sly, underhanded scheme it's trying to cover up.  We've all heard it before (The Constant Gardener, Syriana, The Insider).  Blah blah blah.

Where this film excels is in its execution.  It was phenomenal.  The use of silence, camera movement, fluidity, sequencing, and good acting.  Tony Gilroy did an outstanding job of pulling it all together.  He took all the great elements of filmmaking and made them work together so well, that I see very few flaws with the film.

In terms of It might be George Clooney's best performance and I think he deserved the Oscar nomination.  I also think Tom Wilkinson did great.  But I really don't think Tilda Swinton deserved the nomination or the Oscar...but that's just me.

I think this film was cursed to come out in a year of such great films. 2007 really was a year of well-made budget films...and although I hate the Oscars, I do like when a film that actually deserves to win, wins (I suffer from Hollywood hypocrisy like the rest of you).  I think that in any other year, Michael Clayton would've been a true contender.