Fahrenheit 9/11

8/21

Documentary/US/English (Japanese subtitles)/110mins
Director: Michael Moore
Lions Gate/IFC Films

Fahrenheit 9/11 is not just about the attack on the US. It is the tale of George Bush's presidency to date and only the extremely sedated will have missed the controversy it has stirred up. Moore has a remarkable knack for research and the product of that labour is a pastiche of facts and images that would seem to undermine the Bush government's claims to be acting in the best interest of the American people. It also undermines the image created by Bush's PR people of a strong war president in control of the situation. We get an account of the Bush family's ties to the Saudi royal family and the Bin Ladens. We get the full seven minutes of Bush looking like a rabbit caught in the glare of oncoming headlamps when he is told of the second attack on the WTC.

What we also get, and this is often not emphasised, is a very well made documentary. For example, Moore presents the WTC attacks without images. We have seen those famous pictures so many times already — Moore gives us the sound of the attacks and the crowd reactions caught be cameras on the spot but with a blank screen. The effect is to focus on the humans there and their reactions. When the picture returns it is of the reactions of the people present, people watching the disaster unfold; New York people in all their diversity sharing the one horror of this calamity. The effect is powerful and clever, presenting the US people as one, and one deserving of dedicated and competent leadership. The effect of these images is to sever Bush and his crew from the rest of the nation. They with their bluster, idiotic facial expressions and tendency to suck hair combs (Paul Wolfowitz) seem to be something other; not one with the people. Manipulative? Could be — but with the body of objective fact that Moore has laid down, the artfulness sits on a solid foundation.

Whatever your take on Bush or these times, this film is a valuable lesson in the importance of informed scepticism.

Shrek 2

Now showing

Animation, comedy/US/English (Japanese subtitles)/105mins
Voices: Mike Myers, Cameron Diaz, Eddie Murphy
Director: Andrew Adamson, Kelly Asbury and Conrad Vernon
Dreamworks Pictures

Shrek the first was more of a phenomenon than a mere runaway success. Part of its appeal was the sheer unexpectedness of it.
The film was bursting with off-the-wall characters, irreverence and imagination. And so the sequel is greeted with much fanfare, even drawing the stars, Mike Myers and Cameron Diaz, to Osaka to promote a film whose public expectations were probably promotion enough.

Shrek 2 starts up where the first left off. Shrek the ogre is married to human Fiona, who has turned into an ogre herself. In this film Shrek has to meet the in-laws who have plans for him — but not the kind of plans that parents usually make for newlyweds.
En route to the folks' place — in the kingdom of Far, Far Away,
a parody of Hollywood — Shrek and Fiona hook up with Puss in Boots (Antonio Banderas) who has a mission of his own. The Donkey, once again voiced by Eddie Murphy, is not so pleased to see the moggy — "the position of annoying, talking animal has already been filled"— and many of the laughs and exuberance of the film come from their ill-natured relationship.

It can be tough meeting the in-laws for the first time, but when you have turned their daughter into a large green ogre the meeting has to be fraught. Mum and Dad have anyway decided that Shrek will just not do and have their hearts set on her marrying Prince Charming. To this end they enlist the help of the Fairy Godmother, and more than that I cannot tell you — I have said too much already.

So does it deliver in the way the first Shrek did? The imagination
is lacking compared to the first, the story is very straightforward, the irreverence toned down - it's a sort of house-trained version of the first film. Having said that, the jokes and the throwaway references to pop culture are in there in abundance. It is not the first Shrek, but it is in its own right a jovial film that deserves to be seen.

Film Reviews: Chris Page

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