The Astronaut Farmer *
Michael Polish, 2007
US
@ AMC Loews Kips Bay

Stylus Review

The word on the street is that the Polish brothers have gone and sold their souls to the studio system, and The Astronaut Farmer qualifies as evidence. Known for cult films such as Twin Falls Idaho and Northfork, Mark and Michael Polish were expected by both fans and detractors to continue tunneling down their own peculiar rabbit-hole toward further obscurity. This time around, it might be fairer to suggest that the pair have simply taken it upon themselves to make a film for which an audience already exists.

Set in West Texas (and filmed in New Mexico), the movie's opening shot depicts Charles Farmer (Billy Bob Thornton) riding out on his ranch garbed in spacesuit and helmet, but that's about as oddball as this affair is likely to get. We're quickly introduced to the wife and kids, as well as grandpa, the school psychiatrist, and a whole host of characters acquainted with the Farmer family, each of whom has an opinion on the rancher's desire to visit outer space. It seems that Farmer, as he's known, is building a rocket ship in a barn on his property, and though most laugh it off as nonsense, his startlingly supportive family seems to believe it's an idea so crazy that it actually might work.

Just conjure the phrase "family friendly," and you can largely infer the plot from there on out. Despite conflict from without and, in late moments of crisis, even from within, our hero will not allow anyone or anything to crush his innocent dream, no matter the consequences. That is not to say, however, that the script or its on-screen realization are without their charms.

Yes, Farmer will eventually finish his rocket and get his turn to play astronaut, but there are a few more wrinkles along the way than one might expect. An uncredited Bruce Willis, for example, delivers a bracing cameo very similar to his pink polo-shirted middleman in Fast Food Nation, comparable both in brevity and in pessimistic intensity. It might be no surprise in this libertarian fairy tale that Farmer gets in a few jabs at the federal government, but who saw the storyline about the illegal immigrant farmhand coming? And who but the most callous among us can deny the sheer thrill of a ride to outer space?

Particularly amid this season's dumping ground of slasher pics and non-award-winning holdovers from 2006, The Astronaut Farmer stands out as a pleasant little space journey and a good indicator that the heretofore insular Polish brothers just might wind up as respected and capable Hollywood artisans after all.

Colossal Youth (Juventude Em Marcha) ***
Pedro Costa, 2007
Portugal
@ Walter Reade Theater (Film Comment Selects)

"Solemn, entrancing, and ultimately undeniable." I, like many others, found this film a challenge to sit through, but then sometimes important moments in life can be much the same. Even a few hours later, I can feel the image and the atmosphere (of poor Cape Verdean immigrants in Portugal) growing like a seed in my mind.

See also: IMDb | Nathan Lee review | Girish on boredom in art/filmmaking

The Situation *
Philip Haas, 2007
US
@ Angelika Film Center

Stylus Review

The Situation is, at least in one sense, a very current story. An American journalist in Iraq, Anna (Connie Nielsen) is trying to shed some light on the effect of the ongoing US-led occupation on the lives of Iraqi civilians. With the help of her native-born photographer friend, Zaid (Mido Hamada), she navigates the Shia-Sunni-Kurd divide and, gaining access to key interviewees via her genial diplomacy (and striking good looks), spares no measure in her attempt to tell a multifaceted story about the drowning of an Iraqi boy in a troop-initiated skirmish.

Director Philip Haas uses a "network narrative," as David Bordwell might call it, to tell the film's story from many perspectives, fleshing out the extreme complexity of the situation in Iraq, all the while leading toward an inevitable convergence of all the disparate but ultimately interconnected storylines. While Anna emerges as the protagonist, the aforementioned Zaid struggles to maintain credibility as a faithful Iraqi, although he is seen as cooperating with the occupying force due to the photographs he sells to the Associated Press. Meanwhile, Anna's "sometime boyfriend" Dan (Damian Lewis), a liberal intelligence operative for the US military, attempts to get beyond the jingoistic perspective displayed by nearly all his superiors. We also meet Rafeeq, a father torn between diligent relationship-building and immediate violent action, and his friend Walid, would-be terrorist and enemy of the police. As in any good movie of this sort, Haas legitimates many conflicting views and decisions, heightening the level of moral confusion for the viewer attempting to sort out heroes and villains.

Thus, while The Situation does capture many specific difficulties of life in Iraq these past few years, the story is also as old as colonialism and empires themselves. Among the oppressed we find family and tribal ties, clannishness and desire for material gain, all of which may appear to detached observers as corruption, nepotism, and greed. The powerful display a painful lack of awareness and an itch for action of any sort; at one point when Dan is pressing him for a commitment to the diplomatic gesture of building a hospital, Major Hanks replies with the request, "just give me some shit to blow up." The natives are fearful, and rightfully so, but they have no real grasp of how to change the situation if such a possibility even exists. The cultural divide and vast potential for misunderstanding turn simple frustration to humiliation and devastating, mobilizing rage.

The Situation is an intriguing movie filled with often surprising characters and a good share of memorable moments and images, yet it also serves to reinforce that same feeling one gets upon summoning the courage to open the daily newspaper, only to discover once again reports of suicide bombings, catastrophic failures of government, insoluble differences between races and sects—a never-ending litany of disasters wrought by this war of pride, greed, or ill-conceived idealism. Perhaps we ought to ask ourselves whether it is the obligation of art and artists to depict the awful ugliness spread at home and abroad by our fumbling leaders, or if it might be preferable to revel in works of beauty such that we might rise above our pitiful moment?