P R O C R A S T I N A T O R S ’
Straight to Disc
Movies you might have missed
F
G U I D E
The Road to Guantanamo
BY CHUCK ADAMS
or the slobbering (but completely
harmless) cinephile on your list, what
better way to show your immortal hip-
ness than to get her a movie that she
probably hasn’t seen yet (unless she escaped to
Portland on an idle weekend and spent the day at
Fox Tower 10)? Here are seven highly esteemed
films that skipped Eugene on the big screen but
are now available at your local DVD outlets.
American Gun
Definitely not an across-the-board crowd or
critic pleaser, American Gun was released with
nary a dent in the early summer cinema block-
busting machine. But the film’s disparate stories of
children, teenagers, school officials and parents
Blood Tea and
Red String
G I F T
dealing with a nation of gunslingers demands our
undivided attention. One story thread follows an
Oregon mother (Marcia Gay Harden) through the
years of coping after her son guns down his class-
mates and himself. It hits home.
Twelve and Holding
Like his 2001 film L.I.E., a similar examination
of youth in conflict, director Michael Cuesta brews
up situations that are hard to look at, much less
explore in lurid detail. Here, the protagonists are
three preteens trying to make sense of their best
friend’s sudden death amid the swirling confusion
of parental neglect and puberty. Some of the
finest child acting you’ll see all year.
Lonesome Jim
Steve Buscemi’s answer to the schlocky,
uneven Garden State and the ego fluff of Jersey
Girl has big-city Jim (Casey Affleck) returning to
live amongst his extended family in a small
Indiana town. Like the painfully inert tavern set-
ting in Buscemi’s Trees Lounge, Jim’s hometown
acts as a ball-and-chain noose, pulling and
squeezing him to the breaking point, until, of
course, he meets the off-kilter girl with “issues.”
Blood Tea and Red String
For the budding stop-motion animation
cinephile on your list — hint: this person watch-
es both A Nightmare Before Christmas and A
Claymation Christmas Celebration every
December — there’s not much else to match the
awe and painstaking artistry seen in this tale of
the White Mice and the Creatures Who Dwell
Under the Oak, director Christiane Cegavske’s
13-year-long pet project. It’s a boatload of quirk-
iness, mystery and youthful imagination.
The Road to Guantanamo
A striking example of how cinema can
achieve poetic justice in the face of an outlaw
regime. As told by three Pakistani Brits, this is
their story of being swept up in the war in
Afghanistan while visiting relatives, “captured”
by the Northern Alliance, handed over to the
U.S. military, imprisoned/interrogated/tortured
in Gitmo for two-and-a-half years and, well …
you know the rest. This is damning cinema.
Water
The third film in Deepa Mehta’s “Elements”
trilogy, Water took a lot of brashness and bruis-
ing to get made; religious fundamentalists
repeatedly torched the set and threatened
Mehta’s life. Set in 1938, just prior to Gandhi’s
nonviolent revolution, the film chiefly follows
Chuyia, a widowed child (yes, widowed: Her hus-
band died shortly after their marriage), as she
slowly realizes that her move to a widows’
colony may be permanent. A work of subtle
force and powerful anger.
Kekexili: Mountain Patrol
A Beijing journalist is sent to report on the
armed conflict between antelope poachers and a
band of ten “unofficial” mountain patrolmen in
the uninhabited Kekexili region of Tibet. Kekexili
serves as both an awe-inspiring backdrop and a
silent antagonist in the movie; in one scene a
patrolman hops out of his jeep and is literally
consumed by the landscape. The poachers are
indeed ruthless, but then so is the patrol, fre-
quently beating confessions out of suspects or
selling some of their confiscated furs for money
(“We have no choice,” explains Ri Tai, after they
run out of food and gas). It’s a modern day Seven
Samurai : a masterpiece with no easy morals.
#1 for a reason. We save you thousands!
Just two examples of our nearly 3,000 Certified pre-owned vehicles online at: www.HertzEugene.com
®
05 Ford Mustang Coupe 2D
Customized “BOSS” Package STOCK #155347A
Incredible Car!
03 GMC Sierra 1500 Pickup Denali
Extended Cab 4D STOCK #298258
$23,988
Kelley Blue Book: $30,365
4689 West 11th (at Beltline) in Eugene. 1-888-851-3342. Open 7 Days.
Hertz sells premium pre-owned vehicles and cars from the Hertz rental fleet.All vehicles one only unless indicated. Subject to prior sale.
DECEMBER 21, 2006 21