By Keith Uhlich
The most engaging parts of Che are the two animated maps (of Cuba and South America, respectively) that open each section of director Steven Soderbergh and star/producer Benicio Del Toro‘s four-hour-plus biopic of oft-appropriated revolutionary Ernesto ‘Che’ Guevara. It’s funny that, in what frequently feels like a droning historical lecture, it’s the doodles at the margins that inspire (something about the somber, dog-tired drudge of Alberto Iglesias’ music wedded to these color-coded illustrations speaks to the multifaceted ways—literal and otherwise—in which countries and continents divide themselves).
I gather that a good part of the film’s appeal comes from its mostly steadfast refusal to glorify Guevara in the way of many a dorm room knick-knack, but Soderbergh already took his shot against the ‘Che’erleaders in a pointed and hilarious image from The Limey (his last great movie) where Terence Stamp, cigarette dangling, silently contemplates a Che T-Shirt-sporting Luis Guzman.
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To read the rest of the review at UnderGroundOnline (UGO), click here.
Thursday, October 02, 2008
NYFF 46 (2008): Che
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5 comments:
A dispiriting review of a movie I was guardedly hoping would be incredible. I miss the "Limey" Soderbergh -- playful but intellectually serious, pushing narrative film syntax to the breaking point and having it snap back like a rubber band.
That screenshot, however, is a hoot. At the risk of getting so postmodern that my head will explode, I think I would like that image printed on a t-shirt.
A dispiriting review indeed. I concur that The Limey is Soderbergh's last great film, and I too miss that Soderbergh.
I have been hoping that Che would be a much-welcome return to form after what has been a creatively fallow period.
I have no idea why somebody so obviously hostile to Marxism would bother to make a movie about Che Guevara. More to the point, Soderbergh betrayed an inability to understand class questions in his remake of "Traffik". He should stick to what he knows best, the tortured lives of apolitical people like the ones who worked in the doll factory in "Bubble".
Fascinating reaction, Keith. I desperately want to see it again to confirm but I'm pretty sure Che is one of the better movies I've seen all year.
"Guevarabilia" -- hahaha. Great review.
I wasn't dispirited, cuz I don't have high expectations of Soderbergh when it comes to political seriousness. His crackhouse PSA histrionics in Traffic (It's 11pm-- do you know where your children are? Maybe out fucking a black basehead in a tenement???) told me he's just messing around, mostly.
I watch Soderbergh flicks for the eternal film student in me. He always finds interesting ways to make screen action feel subjective and lived-in, even when he clearly hasn't much more than superficial passion/interest in the subject/characters. He loves to play with film stocks, color temperatures, lenses, "real" locations. But four hours of that? Nah, man.
I remember in the documentary about the making of I Am Cuba, many of the Cubans involved in the production reported that their country was unrecognizable in the finished film. Mikhail Kalatozov, the Russian director, had focused on creating a pageant of light, shadow and wild camera movement, using iconic (or stereotypical) Cuban situations as Third World pyrotechnics.
But I doubt the future will give Che a second chance the way I Am Cuba resurfaced as a critical smash in the '90s. Kalatozov made boisterous, disarming visual music. Soderbergh is an egghead tinkerer. The films of his that will endure are the ones that connect genuine passion to his faux-verite sleight-of-hand. And those films are, yes, The Limey.
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