By Curt Schleier

Hello, culture lovers.  My name is Curt Schleier and I am a freelance writer.  I like working alone because I tend to piss people off.  I currently live in a monastery.  When I first moved there I was surprised at how quickly I got all the monks angry; none of them would talk to me.  Turned out they took a vow silence.  Who knew?  At least they leave me alone to contemplate.

This has been a wonderful year for good movies, so it’s really difficult to pick out just one or two favorites.  CHARLIE WILSON’S WAR, I AM LEGEND, the skiing documentary STEEP, GONE BABY GONE, MICHAEL CLAYTON and BEFORE THE DEVIL KNOWS YOUR DEAD are all examples of exceptional filmmaking.

But in the “best of” category I am going to concentrate on two films that were largely overlooked, one because of its subject matter and tepid reviews elsewhere, the other because of its limited release.

I believe LIONS FOR LAMBS is the most important and bravest film of the year.  A gaggle of Big Stars – Robert Redford (who also directed) Meryl Streep and Tom Cruise – got involved in a film I suspect they all knew was destined to bomb at the box office.  It is in large measure a call to action to a nation filled with people who have a strong sense of entitlement – that is they don’t have to give, they are owed. (Ask yourself, when was the last time you voted?)

There are several different story lines in the film: one involves a reporter and a Senator (and Presidential aspirant) manipulating a media willing to be manipulated.    Another is about an intelligent discussion between a college political science professor and a student. The young man once showed great promise, but has since decided to go into investment banking.  His intelligent concern for the future of America became all about the Benjamins.  (You can check out my full review of this and other pictures on the site.)

LIONS FOR LAMBS is intelligent, balanced and thought-provoking.  If you see it and don’t walk away with a greater concern for the political process in this country (no matter your views) than you are not part of the solution, you are the problem.

The other film is a documentary, IN THE SHADOW OF THE MOON. Typical of docs, it was shown almost exclusively in major metropolitan areas and probably not in all of those, either.  The film is made up mostly of interviews with Apollo astronauts who landed on the moon.  It brings back a time when Americans believed they could accomplish anything, and just that desire seemed to make it so.  It was a time of great optimism and pride. And it was a time when the rest of the world looked up to us.  It was difficult for me to watch this film and yearn for a time when hope abounded.

Sad to say, this was a banner year for bad films, as well.  Some you kind of expected to suck.  But I’ll concentrate here on those few which held great promise and were therefore  ultimately far more disappointing.

MARGOT AT THE WEDDING was in part a major disappointment because of the high bar auteur Noah Baumbach set with THE SQUID AND THE WHALE.   LOVE IN THE TIME OF CHOLERA disappointed by its inability to translate a great book onto celluloid.  But to my mind the worst film of the year was THE ASSASSINATION OF JESSE JAMES BY THE COWARD ROBERT FORD.  I will just repeat the opening paragraph of my review:

There is a scene in the film where some characters drag a dead body through the woods and throw it in a ditch.  Sadly it was not mine.  My fate was to sit through this two-and-a-half hour mess.

By the way, did I wish you all a Happy Holiday?