"Children of Men" -- the best movie of the year?

[villager]

It's the finest bit of cinematic dystopia since Brazil and/or Blade Runner -- take your pick. And it's every bit as good as either of those. And also, for DUers, a necessary compantion piece to V for Vendetta.

Director Alfonso Cuaron, of Y Tu Mama Tambien and "one of the good Harry Potter movies" fame riffs off P.D. James' novel about a near future world (2027) where humans have stopped reproducing, and waiting for the end has pushed humanity even more over the edge than it/they already are.

The ethos -- or is that "aesthetic?" -- of Darfur, of Baghdad, have completely overrun the world, and the last "haven" for the fading West is totalitarian London (a la V for Vendetta, but much grittier).

Clive Owen is one of those Hitchcockian everymen who gets Drawn Into Things in spite of trying to stay aloof, noncommittal. Those "things" involve the machinations of governments vs. terrorists, and whether, at last, there is some still, small reason for "hope."

I won't be more specific, because anything else would give away the story's twists and turns -- but suffice it to say, speaking of Hitchcock, that Cuaron uses that director's "Psyscho"-era disdain for traditional narrative expectations to great effect

Cuaron also said it wasn't his job to handhold viewers and decide whether there actually is any hope or not -- that's up to you.

The film is intense, harrowing, grim, unrelenting -- and, along with the aforementioned "Vendetta," the year's most expansive cinematic political commentary. At least as far as fictional narratives go.

Ah, but how "fictional?" There's the rub. A note of warning: That brief exhalation you've enjoyed since the midterm elections may be somewhat jeopardized.



It's going to be a rocky century, no matter what.

And what does it tell us that this film about babylessness is supposed to open wide on Christmas Day?

[HiFructosePronSyrup]

1. Previews looked pretty good.

"And what does it tell us that this film about babylessness is supposed to open wide on Christmas Day?"

I don't know, it looks kind of Biblical. Sort of a cross between Noah's Ark and the Nativity story.

[villager]

2. Or maybe even earlier in Genesis...

But yeah, it's great! (And not in a "feel good/cheerful" way -- relentlessly intense...)

[ceile]

3. One of my favorite books.

Definitely going to see it.

[villager]

7. It's different than the book

I haven't read the book, but heard the director speak on the topic -- general themes the same, but characters reconfigured, etc. Still, it made me want to read the book!

[Boston Critic]

4. Not THE best of the year

But certainly a contender for my ten best list.

It's certainly one of the best SF films I've seen this year, along with "V for Vendetta" and "A Scanner Darkly."

[villager]

6. I dunno, I thought it was great. "Pan's Labyrinth" is great, too, tho'

I think it may've eclipsed "Vendetta," for me. And I thought it had much more energy than "Scanner."

[Boston Critic]

8. Indeed,

I was impressed with "Pan's Labyrinth."

At this point I'm going through end of the year screening hell, with four alone on Thursday.

In a couple of weeks I'll clear my head and make my personal picks for year's best. I suspect "The Departed" will come out on top, but there's a number of films they have yet to screen in Boston.

[villager]

9. A Boston angle to your top pick?

I confess, on this end of the continent, having not caught up with "Departed" yet. Seeing "Bobby" next week, however.

[Boston Critic]

10. Liked them both

I'm not automatically inclined to favor a Boston movie, considering how many bad ones there have been, but "The Departed" is damn fine Scorsese with some crackerjack performances. (Mark Wahlberg nearly steals the picture away from Nicholson, Damon, and DiCaprio, and that's saying a lot.)

Where on the left coast are you reviewing?

I'm based in the Boston area but reviewing for the Worcester Telegram and Gazette which is in central Mass.

[baldguy]

5. Michael Caine was awesome.

[villager]

11. the director said he based his performance on John Lennon!

n/t