Sunday Night Film Club – Boston

“A stunning conclusion to the trilogy begun with Amores Perros and 21 Grams, Babel is a grandly conceived and perfectly calibrated epic. Director Alejandro González Iñárritu and screenwriter Guillermo Arriaga seek nothing less than a modern version of the story of the Tower of Babel. Our inability to communicate, between cultures or even within relationships, is a jumping-off point for an astonishing series of interwoven stories covering the entire globe.”

“American couple Susan (Cate Blanchett) and Richard (Brad Pitt) travel to Morocco on vacation, where catastrophe stalks their already troubled relationship. As their tour bus passes through a mountain village, a shot rings out and a stranger’s decision to hand his sons a rifle creates an international incident. Meanwhile, in California, the couple’s two children are in the care of Amelia (Adriana Barraza), their nanny. When she has to drive to Mexico with her nephew, Santiago (Gael García Bernal), for her son’s wedding, Amelia illegally brings her young charges with her. And in Tokyo, a widowed father (Kôji Yakusho) struggles to reach his deaf-mute teenaged daughter, Chieko (Rinko Kikuchi), as she swings through emotional and sexual extremes.”

“Jagshemash! Sacha Baron Cohen, the star and creator of HBO’s “Da Ali G Show,” brings his Kazakh journalist character Borat Sagdiyev to the big screen for the first time. Leaving his native Kazakhstan, Borat travels to America to make a documentary. As he zigzags across the nation, Borat meets real people in real situations with hysterical consequences. His backwards behavior generates strong reactions around him, exposing prejudices and hypocrisies in American culture. In some cases, Borat’s interview subjects embrace his outrageous views on race and sex by agreeing with him, while others attempt to offer a patriotic lesson in Western values. Wa-wa-wee-wa!”

“The transformation of American life in the aftermath of 9/11 and the assassination of the U.S. President is the subject of this mock TV documentary broadcast in 2008. It is a type of journalism we have grown extremely accustomed to: a combination of archival footage and carefully composed interviews, presented in a respectful and dignified manner. Taking a page from Hitchcock’s playbook, however, director/co-writer Gabriel Range ratchets up the tension. History tells us that the President will be shot—we just don’t know when it will happen in the film. At this point, the documentary turns its attention to the search for the assassin, and traces the efforts of the FBI agent, the forensic expert and others, to find the truth.”

“From the time that they first met as young magicians on the rise, Robert Angier (Hugh Jackman) and Alfred Borden (Christian Bale) were competitors. However, their friendly competition evolves into a bitter rivalry making them fierce enemies-for-life and consequently jeopardizing the lives of everyone around them. Full of twists and turns, The Prestige is set against the backdrop of turn-of-the-century London. The cast includes two-time Oscar® winner Michael Caine, Scarlett Johansson and David Bowie.”

“In an incredible twist of fate, Scottish doctor Nicholas Garrigan (James McAvoy) becomes irreversibly entangled with one of the world’s most barbaric figures: self-appointed Ugandan President Idi Amin (Forest Whitaker). Impressed by Dr. Garrigan, Amin picks him as his personal physician and confidant. Though Garrigan is fascinated by his new position, he soon awakens to Amin’s savagery—and his own complicity in it. Horror and betrayal ensue as he tries to right his wrongs and escape Uganda alive. Co-starring Gillian Anderson and Kerry Washington. Directed by Kevin Macdonald (Touching the Void) and based on the novel by Giles Foden.”

“Years ago, a powerful Irish mafia figure placed a small selection of his youngest, brightest men into the Massachusetts Police Academy as cadets. Their purpose is to eventually rise within the prestigious ranks of the city’s police department, to serve as the eyes and ears of their boss. While somewhere else, a young cadet was assigned with an equally dangerous task: infiltrate the Irish syndicate headed by the man sending in his own to the Boston Police. Now, one cadet is an up and coming police official with a torn allegiance to his job and to the criminal mastermind that put him there. While the other cadet is the trusted number two of that man, only finding his professional duties are becoming blurred with his current state. But new clues have lead to unfortunate discoveries, when both sides realize they’re being watched by the enemy. It’s now all just a matter of time before the men assigned to find out whose the infiltrator, could come to a bloody end when someone’s identity may be revealed.”

“The Science of Sleep is a playful fantasy set inside the topsy-turvy brain of Stephane Miroux (Gael Garcia Bernal), an eccentric young man whose dreams constantly invade his waking life. While slumbering, he is the charismatic host of “Stephane TV,” expounding on The Science of Sleep in front of cardboard cameras. In “real life,” he has a boring job at a Parisian calendar publisher and pines for Stephanie (Charlotte Gainsbourg), the girl in the apartment across the hall. While Stephanie is initially charmed by Stephane, she is confused by his childishness and shaky connection to reality. Stephane’s co-worker, Guy (Alain Chabat) a vulgar but practical man, offers advice on the opposite sex, but Stephane is too far in the clouds to listen. Unable to find the secret to Stephanie’s heart while awake, Stephane searches for the answer in his dreams.”