Review 2005 / Film: Donald Clarke sees plenty of political subtext in the year's movies
WHILE discussing the reception his upcoming Breakfast at Pluto received in the US, Neil Jordan made a surprising comment to me. "People are classing it with all these films about Bush," he said. "And I suppose that's good."
So, a picture detailing an Irish transsexual's adventures in 1970s London is now regarded as a meditation on Bush's America. What's going on? "I compare it to Britain in the 1980s, when we were told that every film made then was a searing indictment of Thatcher's Britain," Jordan continued. "Now apparently every film is a searing indictment of Bush's America."
The situation is, in fact, more peculiar than he suggests. This year both right-wing and left-wing commentators have vowed to uncover attempts by their enemies to lead movie audiences astray.
Polly Toynbee, the Guardian's hand-wringer-in-chief, declared that The Chronicles of Narnia was an attempt to peddle the "most repugnant" elements of Christianity to children. Rush Limbaugh and Michael Medved, pinko-chewing bruisers both, revealed the surprise ending of Million Dollar Baby while campaigning against the film's perceived liberal bias. What maniac suggested that The SpongeBob SquarePants Movie was an argument for gay lifestyles? Which fruitcake decided that The Exorcism of Emily Rose was propaganda for the red states? Oh, hang on, that last one was me.
One could be forgiven for thinking that the politicisation of mainstream cinema is an invention of journalists desperate to fill spaces such as this here. But Revenge of the Sith, Land of the Dead, War of the Worlds and any number of other mainstream pictures this year featured unmistakable references to the war on terror. "If you're not with me, then you're my enemy," Sith's Anakin Skywalker says in a close echo of George Bush. "I don't negotiate with terrorists," mad Dennis Hopper says in George Romero's latest Dead film. Not since the days of Watergate and Vietnam have so many polemical subtexts been slipped into popcorn movies.
And here's the interesting thing. Whereas explicitly political films - Michael Moore's Fahrenheit 9/11, John Sayles's Silver City - tend to preach to the already converted, movies by George Lucas and Steven Spielberg reach heterogeneous audiences who, alerted to the barely coded messages by swivel-eyed columnists, can boo or cheer according to their inclination.
Everybody has a good time agreeing or objecting. What really disturbs contemporary American audiences is, it seems, the politically concerned film that doesn't take up a clearly defined position.
Team America: World Police, critically acclaimed and financially successful in Europe, was greeted with some dismay in its homeland. The right whinged that it diminished America's standing in the world. The left objected to the film's cynicism about pontificating liberal movie stars. Did the film-makers care? "Nobody should listen to our views on foreign policy," Matt Stone, co-creator of Team America, told me. "Because we don't know what the hell we are talking about."
PICK 2005
FILMS OF THE YEAR (In no particular order)
A HISTORY OF VIOLENCE
A consideration of the corrupting effects of violence on perpetrator and victim couched in the emblematic language of a parable. David Cronenberg's best film since Dead Ringers.
TARNATION
Jonathan Caouette's attempt to tell the story of his grim life through a collage of home movies and found images does have its moments of indulgence, but it still justifies claims made for the advance of laptop film-making.
2046
Something to do with a man in a boarding house and train in the future. Proof that, in the hands of a master such as Wong Kar Wai, narrative incoherence need not be a barrier to enjoyment.
SIDEWAYS
Though not quite the masterpiece some have claimed, Alexander Payne's tale of two middle-aged losers adrift in the California wine country dances nicely over the palate.
WALLACE & GROMIT: THE CURSE OF THE WERE RABBIT
The ancient conflict in the human psyche between reason and instinct is investigated through the medium of plasticine. Lots of risqué puns and cheese jokes into the bargain.
TEAM AMERICA: WORLD POLICE
The greatest film Michael Bay never made wishes a plague on both self-righteous liberals and right-wing crusaders. As Mr Spottswoode says: "Remember, there is no 'I' in Team America." There is, of course.
PRIMER
"Are you hungry? I haven't eaten since tomorrow afternoon." Mind numbingly confusing time travel flick made for the price of a cup of tea and a bun.
SERENITY
Joyfully unpretentious inter-galactic western from the creator of Buffy The Vampire Slayer. George Lucas take note.
DIG!
Neither The Dandy Warhols nor The Brian Jonestown Massacre produce particularly innovative music, but Ondi Timoner's documentary on their pathetic rivalry is an absolute hoot.
KING KONG
Every square of every frame bursts with invention in Peter Jackson's preposterously overstuffed remake of the great 1933 monster movie. A little tauter and it might have been a bona fide classic.
BIGGEST TURKEYS
WHAT THE #$*! DO WE KNOW
Worse than being merely incompetent, though it certainly is that, this attempt to use quantum mechanics to prove barmy new age claptrap is positively sinister in its muddle-headed fervour.
REVOLVER
After Swept Away, most sane people thought the only way was up for Guy Ritchie. This achingly pretentious metaphysical gangster fiasco proved us all wrong.
STEALTH
You probably think you have some idea how bad a film starring Jessica Biel and a deranged robot plane is likely to be. You do not.
PAPARAZZI
Mel Gibson's barber directed this stunning thriller to highlight the awful pressures celebrities endure as a result of press intrusion. They may not deserve such suffering, but, on this evidence, at least one of their hairdressers does.
ELIZABETHTOWN
OK, it may not be quite as bad as Deuce Bigalow: European Gigolo. But, unlike that Rob Schneider atrocity,
Cameron Crowe's numbingly boring, queasily sentimental paean to the plain people of America purports to be grown-up film-making.
