Good movies
I love to write movie reviews, but I haven't found the time lately. However, here are three films I've seen lately that I recommend and that deserve at least capsule reviews:
Good Night, and Good Luck
David Strathairn masterfully depicts Edward R. Murrow in "Good Night, and Good Luck." (Strathairn's impersonation of Murrow's voice is uncanny.)
George Clooney quite competently directs (and has a supporting role in) this black-and-white film about CBS newsman Edward R. Murrow's battle against Sen. Joseph McCarthy.
If you've been awake during the past four years you'll see parallels between the alcoholic McCarthy's witch-hunt for Commies in the 1950s and the alcoholic Bush regime's labeling of its detractors as terrorist sympathizers or "weak on defense." The Bush regime has been using fear and smear for political gain just as McCarthy did -- and just as the gig eventually ended for McCarthy, the gig seems to be ending for the Bush regime.
Some things never fucking change, and history repeats itself -- over and over and over again...
Murrow, toward the end of his career, warned his colleagues that television news was running the risk of becoming bastardized by corporate interests and by an increasing demand for entertainment over information. He was a prophet.
My grade: A
Jarhead
Jake Gyllenhaal in some of my favorite scenes in "Jarhead." (Jake, you can e-mail me here:  I'll be good to you, baby!)
The yumlickcious Jake Gyllenhaal plays real-life former Marine Anthony Swofford, who is from my hometown of Sacramento. I could watch Jake just floss his teeth for an hour and a half, but "Jarhead," inspired by Swofford's book about his experience as a Marine in the first Bush Gulf War and directed by "American Beauty's" Sam Mendes, is good completely aside from my hotness for Jake.
The "Highway of Death" of the first Bush Gulf War -- in which U.S. forces incinerated alive scores of Iraqis who were retreating -- lays waste to the United States' claim of global moral superiority. I'm not sure if the "Highway of Death" has been portrayed in any other mainstream film, but I was glad to see the charcoalized Iraqis depicted in "Jarhead." Americans need to know what is done in their name with their tax dollars.
Homicidal nutjobs who just want to Kill! Kill! Kill! won't be dissuaded from joining the U.S. military by the horrors depicted in "Jarhead," but "Jarhead" should at least make at least a few Americans think about the wisdom of going to war for oil. (Speaking of which, "Jarhead," just like "Good Night, and Good Luck" should make you think of current events and how history repeats itself -- over and over and over again...)
My grade: A-
Capote
In "Capote," Clifton Collins Jr., left, plays Perry Smith, the murderer to whom gay writer Truman Capote (played by Philip Seymour Hoffman, right) apparently got too close while he was writing In Cold Blood. ("Capote" is in color; this is a re-creation of the actual black-and-white photo of Capote and Smith.)
"Capote," about the iconic writer Truman Capote's work on his masterpiece In Cold Blood in the early 1960s, is good but strangely somehow unsatisfying.
We don't get into Capote's mind like we'd like to, and kind of like how Capote abandons the murderer Perry Smith in the middle of events -- Capote is there at the time of Smith's capture and at the time of Smith's execution, but he abandons Smith for a period of time in between -- the moviemakers seem to abandon the movie in the middle of events.
Was this intentional, to mirror Capote's temporary abandonment of Smith, or was this just a bit of sloppy filmmaking? Probably the latter. But "Capote" is still worth seeing.
My grade: B+
P.S. Next up for Jake Gyllenhaal is "Brokeback Mountain," in which he and Heath Ledger play -- I swear to God -- gay cowboy lovers (see photos below). You know that I am so there.
I wonder if in "Brokeback Mountain" Jake and Heath will be shown eating pudding... And you know that we'll see a cowboy-themed gay porn flick named "Bareback Mountain," if there isn't one out already...
11:00:16 PM 
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