octopod Reviews

Pan's Labyrinth (2006)

Fascinating, but politically crude

[7/10 · 19 August 2007]

This is an oddly fascinating film, which drew me in, notwithstanding some strange bits--the rather unconvincing but artful faun, for example.

The politics bothered me. The Franquistas are displayed as unremittingly evil caricatures, the guerrillas as noble peasant types. Anyone who reads the history of the Spanish Civil War objectively has to know that it wasn't that simple.

We get a hint of that in the end when the guerrillas go around giving the coup de grace to the dying soldiers. This, however, is deemphasized, while the viciousness of the Captain and his men is graphically displayed.

It's also odd that a film that sympathizes with an anti-religious politics resorts to a fantasy world of immortality. So much for dialectical materialism, I guess.

The Lizzie McGuire Movie (2003)

A formulaic but nice film for girls

[7/10 · 9 October 2004]

Hilary Duff is charming and wholesome. She doesn't try for saccharine sweetness, perfection, or precocious sexuality. This film is a vehicle for her and while it dangles the bauble of celebrity before the audience, it reminds them that the virtues of friendship and decency are more important.

Perhaps not super-sophisticated, but a good message.

And reasonably entertaining for a gray-haired father to sit through. Yes, it's for girls who still shouldn't go to the movies alone.