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Stop Loss - R - 113 min - Flat
A = Auditorium
S = Screening RoomHere's the first major movie of the New Year that touches greatness, and damn if there isn't a curse hanging over it. Stop-Loss, directed with ferocity and feeling by Kimberly Peirce (Boys Don't Cry), is up against the war raging between audiences and films about Iraq. Box-office casualties last year include Lions for Lambs, Rendition, Redacted, Grace Is Gone and the unfairly scorned In the Valley of Elah. Stop-Loss has the juice to break the jinx. The emotional battlefield on which Peirce paints her canvas strikes a universal chord that transcends politics and preaching. Peirce, who co-wrote the script with Mark Richard, takes us inside the minds and hearts of soldiers who enlisted after 9/11. Why? "To get the people who had done this," in the words of Peirce, whose brother joined a unit attached to the 82nd Airborne. At first, Peirce thought of making a documentary about the trauma faced by men and women in military service who struggle to re-enter civilian life after duty in Iraq. She was struck hard by a story told by her brother about a soldier who'd done his time and been stop-lossed by the Army. The term refers to the involuntary extension of a soldier's enlistment contract. It turns out nearly 81,000 have been sent back into battle multiple times with no recourse — class-action lawsuits routinely fail — except to go AWOL. Using fictional characters, Peirce decided to craft a film about the lives of soldiers and their families living in a ghost world created by questionable government policy. Some have already accused Stop-Loss of glorifying desertion. Bull. The film is a powder keg with no agenda except the human one. Ryan Phillippe stars as Sgt. Brandon King, just returned home to Brazos, Texas, with his childhood buddy Sgt. Steve Shriver (Channing Tatum). No matter how they try to eradicate the images of ambush that run in their heads, the men find their terror manifested in bar fights and bad dreams. Their friend Tommy Burgess (the superb Joseph Gordon-Levitt) is coming apart without the outlet war gave his violent, alcoholic nature. He opens fire on the gifts he and wife Jeanie (Mamie Gummer) receive at their wedding. Steve is waking up at night to dig a foxhole, much to the distress of his fiancée, Michele (Abbie Cornish). And Brandon, living with supportive parents (Linda Emond and Ciarán Hinds), loses it when he's ordered back to Iraq. His decision to desert stuns Steve, as does Michele's decision to aid Brandon in his escape to Canada. The scenes of AWOL soldiers and their families living in an underground that extends across the country are the soul of the film. None of this would work if Peirce hadn't inspired her crew to push the envelope. Cinematographer Chris Menges, a poet of natural light, performs miracles of visual design. All the actors are exceptional. Phillippe (Flags of Our Fathers, Breach) is a dynamo, and indelibly moving when he catches Brandon in the act of discovering himself. Watch for the scene at a military hospital where he visits wounded comrade Rico Rodriguez (a knockout Victor Rasuk) and learns a hardcore lesson. Tatum (Step Up, A Guide to Recognizing Your Saints) excels by going beyond the call of hunk duty to find the demons tormenting Steve. His fistfight with Brandon at a cemetery locates the film's grieving heart. The most surprising performance comes from Cornish, the Aussie actress best known for her junkie turn opposite Heath Ledger in Candy. Female roles are usually marginal in war movies, but Cornish — working in tandem with Peirce — makes Michele a compassionate warrior who may be torn between two lovers but holds no doubt about the moral ground on which she stands. There's not an ounce of Hollywood fakery in Cornish — she's the real deal. So's the movie. And so is Peirce. It's been nine years since she debuted with Boys Don't Cry, but her empathy with society's outsiders is undiminished and fills every frame of Stop-Loss. Even when the script slips into sentiment, Peirce sticks with her troubled, questing soldiers, and through this raw and riveting movie, they stick with us. Review by Peter Travers, rollingstone.com
Under the Same Moon - PG-13 - 109 min - Flat
A = Auditorium
S = Screening RoomIt would be easy to get hung up on the illegal immigration issue when discussing Under the Same Moon. Indeed, the filmmakers don't make a secret of their feelings about it; they believe the current policy to be repressive and biased. However, there's more to this movie than that, and dwelling on the subject makes it possible for the viewer to lose sight of the film's successful aspect: the effort of a mother and son to be reunited. When all is said and done, that's what Under the Same Moon is about - the love of a woman for her child and the need for that child to search for his mother. There's a universality to this theme - one that crosses borders and trumps positions. As the movie develops, political issues fade into the background as the story focuses on the familial bond and the courage of the nine-year old boy in undertaking a journey that many adults would find daunting. Under the Same Moon is about the separation of a boy, Carlitos (Adrian Alonso), from his mother, Rosario (Kate del Castillo). Four years ago, she stole across the border into California to earn enough money to forge a better life for her son. She misses him desperately and constantly thinks of returning to Mexico. Every Sunday at 10 am without fail, she calls him from the same pay phone. Carlitos, who lives with his grandmother, carries the burden that he has been abandoned. His father never wanted him and he has not seen his mother in a long time. Then his grandmother dies and he makes the fateful decision to travel to Los Angeles to find Rosario. Under the Same Moon tells parallel stories over a one-week period. Rosario's internal struggles reach a pinnacle and she must decide which is the lesser of two evils: return home to be with her son or marry the considerate and doting Paco (Gabriel Porras) and gain the legal status that would allow her to bring Carlitos to America. Meanwhile, her son has embarked upon a road trip in which he meets a variety of people, some kind, some not-so-kind. He eventually pairs up with the dour Enrique (Engenio Derbez) and the story turns into a form of a buddy movie. Meanwhile, every night, Carlitos gazes at the nearly full moon and recalls something Rosario told him: when he's lonely, look up and know that she is looking at the same moon and thinking of him. Some might think it disingenuous to disregard the movie's perspective about illegal immigration, as if this element should overrule everything else. I would argue, however, that one need not agree with the position taken by director Patricia Riggen and screenwriter Ligiah Villalobos to be moved by the human story their film tells. It's not possible to review the film without addressing the subject on some level but it is possible to enjoy the movie even if one's position is in opposition. Under the Same Moon builds momentum with every passing minute. The first half-hour moves slowly as viewers grope to connect with the characters and understand their situations but, as they become more familiar, events take on a greater immediacy. The film's appeal is primarily emotional; it doesn't pass all the intellectual tests. This makes sense because the goal of Under the Same Moon is not to provide a detailed primer on the life of an illegal immigrant but to afford an understanding of the longing and sense of loss that results from the prolonged separation endured by Rosario and Carlitos. They are both sympathetic characters; viewers yearn for their reunion. The most emotionally potent scene occurs in Tucson when circumstances force Carlitos to take stock of his life and circumstances. Up to this point, the narrative is a patchwork of well connected clichés. It's in this moment that the filmmakers find their voice, the characters gain depth, and the movie begins to achieve what it's striving for. The strong final third counterbalances the weaknesses of the first half. I prefer films that build to something worthwhile rather than collapse short of the finish line. Under the Same Moon accomplishes the former, providing viewers with a testimonial of the enduring strength of the love between mothers and sons. (In Spanish with English subtitles) Review by James Berardinelli, reelviews.net
A = Auditorium
S = Screening RoomIt's impossible to know whether Milarepa, the real-life, 11th century mystic at the center of director Neten Chokling's "Milarepa: Magician, Murderer, Saint," ever met the director -- Chokling has been recognized by some as the reincarnation of Tibetan yogi Chokgyur Lingpa, and his past lives allegedly go back centuries. What's usually a pretty sure thing, though, is that when an acolyte of any stripe makes a movie about his beliefs and religion, the results are safe as yak milk. Not so here.The story of Milarepa is one of persecution, revenge and spiritual redemption, fairly standard in the inspirational biopic but hardly what we associate with Tibetan Buddhism. And while the tale is told in broad-stroke acting and a soberly respectful script, the elements of the case are pure romanticism. Born into a well-to-do merchant family, to a father who was a leader of his people, the boy who would become the revered writer Milarepa was suddenly thrust into poverty via envy, lies and deceit. His father, Mila (Tenpa Choephel), knowing death is near, entrusts his fortune and his family to his brother Gyaltsen (Gonpo) and Gyaltsen's wife, Peydon (Tsamchoe), who promise to fulfill Mila's wish to give the fortune back to Milarepa upon his marriage. Mila apparently didn't know them very well: The uncle and aunt subject Milarepa and his mother, Kargyen (Kelsang Chukie Tethtong), to a kind of slavery and near-starvation. When Milarepa comes of age and his mother throws a party to announce it is time for him to get his fortune, she is told there is none. The villagers show her no support. She plots her revenge. Her son will study with the master sorcerer Yongten Trogyel (Orgyen Tobgyal) and return to smite his oppressors. And so Milarepa sets out to find his future master, with the blackest of intentions. Director Chokling, a rinpoche who has had experience in filmmaking via his monastery's involvement with Bernardo Bertolucci's "Little Buddha" and then as an actor in Khyentse Norbu's "The Cup," shot his movie in the Spiti Valley, a wind-swept spot on the Indian-Tibetan border, and makes tremendous use of landscapes, the backdrop of the Himalayas and the rawness of the terrain. All suggest a suspension of time and endow the film with an appropriately mythic quality, embellished by Chokling's deft handling of the film's magical-realist aspects, and its most violent episode: Milarepa will bring on an avalanche that kills his uncle and his supporters. But he finds revenge less than sweet and returns to his master to learn a new way. Jamyang Lodro brings to the role of Milarepa the seriousness of a true seeker and callow youth. He, too is a Tibetan monk, although like many of his peers, he doesn't live in the land of his culture, which is being not-so-slowly strangled by China. It's doubtful "Milarepa" will be opening in Beijing any time soon; all the more reason it deserves a look. Review by John Anderson, LA Times
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