REVIEW: Crude (2009)

If the Amazon is the "lungs of the world," the exhausted natural resources and indigenous people who have lived there for centuries are in need of some serious oxygen. Crude, a candid, even-keeled documentary by Joe Berlinger (1996's Paradise Lost; 2004's Metallica: Some Kind of Monster) examines the class-action lawsuit filed by 30,000 Ecuadorians who charge that Chevron, who bought out Texaco in 2001, is responsible for dumping 18 billion gallons of toxinogens into the Amazon between 1972 to 1990. However, the oil conglomerate counters that state-owned PetroEcuador, which has since taken over, truly ravaged the countryside, polluted streams, and killed off inhabitants and livestock. Although the film's opening — in which the lead prosecutor, Pablo Fajardo, accepts the prestigious Goldman Environmental Prize in San Francisco — suggests closure, Berlinger realizes that this battle is far more complicated than your average David vs. Goliath story. A study in perseverance and public perception (Trudie Styler and Sting make cameos to drum up support), Crude delves into political strategy, American entitlement (on both sides), and the frustrating bureaucracy that has plagued this ongoing case. (Liesl Swanbeck)

REVIEW: Amreeka (2009)

Dreaming of freedom and white picket fences in the US, West Bank transplants, Muna (Nisreen Faour), and her son, Fadi (Melkar Muallem), instead get racist slurs and White Castle. Despite being overqualified with previous experience as a banker, Muna must work at the restaurant chain to make ends meet while Fadi struggles with bigotry and culture shock in school. Set in the days following September 11^th, Amreeka (the Arabic word for “America”) details the backlash against innocent, unsuspecting minorities who many labeled as terrorists. Cherien Dabis’ feature film debut is smart and enticing (a sign outside White Castle meant to spell “Support Our Troops” drops the “tr” to display a clever preternatural clairvoyance) and creates a lively debate on immigration and discrimination. Ending with a symbolic dance between two nationalities, Dabis recognizes that while people may be bombarded with the empty promises of the Internet age, the real American Dream exists in small pockets of a community where a Palestinian and a Polish Jew can dance side by side. (Liesl Swanbeck)

REVIEW: Motherland (2009)

Six young adults who perish prematurely leaving a gaping void in their families are the silent stars of Jennifer Steinman’s riveting documentary, Motherland. Out of sight but never out of mind, they unite their American mothers through a shared grief that eventually leads these courageous women on a pilgrimage to South Africa to begin healing together. Assisting at elementary schools and partaking in grief counseling with students (many of whom have lost parents to AIDS), they each relive their individual story of how their loved one passed away. Particularly painful are the stories of Anne Magill who lost her daughter, Grace, to suicide and Mary Helena who lost her son, Aaron, in a shooting and suffered a debilitating stroke herself, all within a 14-month period. Along the way, Steinman explores how Americans often isolate themselves in times of mourning while Africans, who live in a perpetual state of grieving surrounded by poverty and AIDS, unite as a community. Witnessing this therapeutic journey, you ultimately come to realize that the motherland in question is not only the physical change of scenery but also the mental and emotional landscape that these women hope to reclaim. (Liesl Swanbeck)

REVIEW: Fuel (2009)

Josh Tickell’s addendum on his well-received Field of Fuel (2008) rides high on the courage of its’ convictions in spreading news of alternative, clean energy resources. Back from storming the country in his veggie van, Tickell’s latest documentary includes a wealth of new information on wind, solar and biomass and tackles issues ranging from his upbringing in New Orleans amidst oil refineries to national dependency on foreign oil. Well-intentioned though tonally uneven, Fuel flits rather abruptly from ironic, fast-paced montages to grave footage of national disasters, including 9/11 and Hurricane Katrina. Never managing to strike a true balance between informing and entertaining, Tickell unfortunately mixes genuine interviews with force-fed, gung-ho Americana music of the John Mellencamp variety. Clichéd footage of him walking on the beach in slow motion as he struggles with a crisis of conscience doesn’t help matters either. Nonetheless, Fuel still emerges as an interesting array of interviews with academics, green collar laborers, and celebrities, like Sheryl Crowe and Richard Branson, who all unite under a common banner to reduce our carbon footprint. (Liesl Swanbeck)

REVIEW: La Belle Personne (2009)

In this wistful reimagining of Madame de Lafayette’s La Princesse de Clèves, director Christophe Honoré’s La Belle Personne transplants forbidden love and courtly intrigue from 17^th century France to a modern, high school setting. After her mother dies, Junie (Léa Seydoux) transfers schools and captures the hearts of the introverted Otto (Grégoire Leprince-Ringuet) and the fickle lothario, Professor Nemours (Louis Garrel). When an anonymous love letter rumored to have been written by Nemours surfaces, scandal ensues leading to unexpectedly dire consequences. Like his acclaimed Les Chansons d’Amour (2007) starring Garrel and Ludvine Sagnier, Honoré excels at using music and poetry to capture the existential malaise of young adulthood. However, once Nemours enters the scene, the focus unfortunately shifts to his unrequited, overblown passion for Junie as the promising interplay between the close-knit circle of friends takes a backseat. While Honoré’s romantic film eventually becomes mired in melodrama, the enigmatic Seydoux — a Anna Karina for the 21^st century set — stands out as a refreshingly thoughtful French heroine whose mother’s death inadvertently causes ripples in her life. (Liesl Swanbeck)

Opens at the Sundance Kabuki Cinemas on Friday, September 4th.

REVIEW: Extract (2009)

As Cindy (Mila Kunis), a charming con artist, pilfers a guitar out from under two love-struck chumps in a music store in the opening of Extract, you may hope that this charged momentum will last throughout Mike Judge’s latest. Unfortunately, the film lags as he shifts the perspective from Kunis’ wild child to Joel (Jason Bateman), a sexually frustrated factory owner. When an idiotic employee gets into a debilitating accident, sticky-fingered Cindy sees a hefty settlement deal in her future and joins the factory as a temp, catching the eye of Joel. Struggling with feuding employees and his new workplace crush, Joel turns to his friend, Dean ­­­­(Ben Affleck), who doles out pills as quick as he does advice on how to pimp out Joel’s wife, Suzie (Kristen Wiig), so that he can score with Cindy. While Extract might make you crack a smile with its goofball supporting cast, including Dustin Milligan as Brad, the dimwitted gigolo, the film never reaches its full potential and the impressive pool of comedic talent is ultimately left high and dry. (Liesl Swanbeck)

Opens Nationwide Friday, September 4th.

REVIEW: Somer's Town (2008)

Black and white photography born out of technical necessity transforms Somers Town into a stark and poignant portrait of the drudgery and displacement of two wayward youths in modern-day England. Tomo (Thomas Turgoose), a cheeky runaway who perhaps in a past life was a Dickensian street urchin, flees Nottingham and hops aboard a train bound for London, seeking refuge from the banality of life in the Midlands. Cornered in an alleyway, robbed, and beaten, Tomo finally finds a reluctant and unlikely friend in Marek (Piotr Jagiello), a Polish immigrant who just moved to the U.K.

Unbeknownst to his father, Marek begins hiding his homeless friend in his flat. Joining forces, the two boys bond by working odd jobs for their cockney landlord, stealing clothes from a local launderette, and fighting for the affections of a charming French waitress. Director Shane Meadows (2006's This is England) instills Somers Town with humanity and humor mined from class and culture shock, with his subtle comedic stylings springing from simple interchanges like when Marek's landlord insists that he remove his Manchester United jersey to avoid getting roughed up by soccer hooligans.

Despite these comedic moments, Meadows does not shy away from the pain of feeling adrift in a new city or country and beautifully captures the melting pot mentality that is London. From their low-rent apartment overlooking a train station that holds the promise of Paris and love and friendship, Tomo and Marek slowly but surely build a brotherly camaraderie, awakening a dreamlike, limitless world that, in the end, is a little less black and white. (Liesl Swanbeck)

Opens at the Landmark Theatres Friday, August 28th.

REVIEW: Daytime Drinking (2008)

Hyuk-jin (Sam-dong Song), the lead of Daytime Drinking, must have a liver made of steel. During the first of many late-night drinking binges, complete with soju, the traditional Korean alcohol of choice, Hyuk-jin’s buddies persuade him to take a trip with them to Jeongseong to help him recover from his recent break up. Once out of Seoul, Hyuk-jin discovers that his friends, all nursing hangovers, have forgotten him and left him to contend with the harsh climate, his loneliness, and a slew of eccentric travelers along the way. Veering into a heightened reality in the same vein as Jim Jarmusch, Daytime Drinking finds its leading man toyed with by a temperamental girl, force-fed drinks, drugged, robbed, hit on by a trucker, and verbally abused by a plethora of tourists. Despite this exercise in emotional sadism, director Young-Seok Noh (who also wrote, edited, and produced) has clearly invested a lot even if his contrived film’s initial jolt of energy inevitably peters out, drained like the myriad bottles of soju. (Liesl Swanbeck)

Opens at the Four Star on Friday, August 21st.

REVIEW: CoCo Avant Chanel (2009)

Like her designs, Gabrielle “Coco” Chanel was elegant, très chic, and utterly original. Director Anne Fontaine’s French biopic traces Coco (Audrey Tautou) from her childhood as a struggling orphan to one of the most influential designers of the 20^th century. You’ll be disappointed if you expect a fashionista’s up close and personal look at the House of Chanel as Fontaine keeps her story firmly rooted in Coco’s past, including her destructive relationship with French playboy, Etienne Balsar (Benoît Poelvoorde) and her ill-fated love affair with the dashing Englishman, Arthur “Boy” Capel (Alessandro Nivola).

The film functions best in scenes that display Coco’s imagination and aesthetic magnetism like when she dances with Capel in her now famous “little black dress” amidst a sea of stiff, white meringues. Tautou imparts a quiet courage and quick wit as the trailblazing designer, and Nivola is unmistakably charming and compassionate as Boy. Nevertheless, Fontaine rushes the ending and never truly seizes the opportunity to explore how Coco’s personal life seeped into her timeless designs that were, in the end, an extension of herself. (Liesl Swanbeck)

Opens at the Landmark Theatres on Friday, August 21st

REVIEW: Flammen & Citronen (2008)

They were celebrated members of the Danish Occupation Resistance. But were "the Flame" (Thure Lindhardt) and "Citron" (Mads Mikkelsen) — who conducted an underground campaign to execute Nazi sympathizers and traitors — terrorists or freedom fighters? This moral ambiguity drives Ole Christian Madsen's based-on-true-events film in which something is rotten in the state of Denmark, where informants and the innocent mingle side by side. As the fatalistic Citron says, "There is no justice or injustice. Just war." The pair's clandestine lifestyle begins to take a toll on both men's personal lives — Citron struggles to support his family while the Flame strives to trust Ketty (Stine Stengade), a beguilingly beautiful courier. As the duo close in on Hoffman (Christian Berkel), the head of the Gestapo, self-doubt looms over them as the Nazi plays on their greatest fear of being used as pawns. Though the film's voice-over narration borders on heavy-handed, Lindhardt and Mikkelsen's vulnerable and intensely visceral performances set Flame and Citron apart from some of the more gratuitous and emotionally exploitative Nazi films released this year. (Liesl Swanbeck)

Opens at Landmark Theatres on Wednesday, August 19th