In the lead up to the Oscars earlier this year there did really only seem to be one title that would take out the Best Doco prize. The Cove
won pretty much everything in the lead up, from critics awards to audience awards at Sundance and Sydney Film Fests. There were contenders of course (I've just watched Food, Inc., which was also very good and will be up on here soon) but The Cove seemed to just grab people and not let them go.
And it's a damned good film. Even excluding it being a documentary, it ranks among the best films of the year, narrative or otherwise. This isn't just a good documentary - it's a thrilling and terrifying motion picture.
Ric O'Barry was the trainer of the dolphins for the original Flipper television series. However, after one of his dolphins 'committed suicide' in his arms one day he suddenly turned around, becoming an advocate for dolphin freedom, despite all of the work he had put into them becoming such popular entertainment in captivity. To this end he is followed to a little town called Taiji in Japan, where he is very well known for his attempts to expose and stop not only the capturing of dolphins for use in dolphinariums, but also the horrific slaughter that takes place in a hidden cove surrounded by unforgiving cliffs and entirely sealed off from prying outside eyes.
Director Louie Psihoyos and O'Barry set about exposing the truth of what is going on. They are motivated not only by the animal rights aspect, but also the sever health issues associated with eating dolphin, which is being sold as whale meat around the country and is even being pushed into schools for lunches. Dolphin meat contains very, very high levels of mercury, and no one wants a repeat of the Minamata incident of the 1950s.
So, the pair assemble a crack team of various skills to set about capturing footage and sound of what is going on. They have the world champion freedivers, who are going to plant cameras and microphones under water. They have help from Industrial Light And Magic, making false rocks to hide cameras in. People help them smuggle in equipment that is really only for the American military. All of them pitch in, risking a lot including being arrested, to help Ric uncover the truth. And it is a shocking, shocking truth, very confronting.
Psihoyos has crafted a terrific film in The Cove, utilising the conventions of heist films and thrillers to keep you on the edge of your seat. Under cover of darkness, with cameras picking up heat to warn of approaching guards or police, with Ric playing decoy, the team go in to plant all of the items, and it is tense! It's tense like any Hollywood blockbuster would hope for, but then it's also real.
It was one of the more riveting documentaries I've watched, not reliant on the standard talking head because everything else they're doing is so damned interesting. There is just so much intrigue and action going on. A remarkable achievement.
And, it must be said, I went to my supermarket a few days later to buy salmon and caught myself making sure it was farmed, worrying about whether or not I should be eating it at all, thinking about dolphins screaming underwater. It was a good film with a message that resonated deeply and strongly, and will continue to do so, I hope, for a long, long time. 5 stars.
are for his weight loss, which yes, while demonstrating incredible commitment, also demonstrates a level of insanity - boy, that's going too far. And he still seemed like Christian Bale. Emaciated, but still him. An interesting tale of being haunted by your conscience, it might have played better if Fight Club hadn't done such a bang up job a few years earlier. I remember being a little scared in a few points, but I shit myself over anything. 2 stars.
. It was fine, I guess, but it didn't grab me the same way. The family drama was all a little off. Moore was terrific, as always, but I didn't quite gel with Amanda Seyfried and Liam Neeson. I just don't think they quite worked. (Max Thierot was cute though...) And the cerebral nature of everything kept it all a little cool and distant - the white rooms and glass everywhere, I can see where it was going with the kind of sterile environment and how that plays against the drama within, but it was all a little too much. It was a fine film that could have been great but in the end I feel that it missed it because of lazy visual cues. 2.5 stars.
. Werner Herzog is one crazy, crazy guy. Like, seriously. Nuts. Brilliant, but loopy. I definitely don't think I can contain all that is this film in such a nutshell. Klaus Kinski is the titular Aguirre in a South American expedition to find El Dorado. He takes charge, seizes power if you will, and leads his troops or whatever onwards against all common sense, coming under attack from all sides, until eventually his men are hallucinating and he is proclaiming himself the wrath of god whilst covered in monkeys. No, really. Herzog really laid the groundwork for many of his latter films with this one. Kinski is terrifyingly mad, Herzog is terrifyingly creative, and the film somehow works for it all. It's mental, absolutely mental, but such a riveting piece of filmmaking, and seemingly such an influence on films such as Apocalypse Now (I'm seeing it - anyone else?)(In looking back, that's another film I watched and didn't write up. Damn.) 4.5 stars.
as well. His is an oeuvre I really need to explore in much more depth, and repeatedly. Here, he has ten episodes of customers (or a son) in the passenger seat of a van, driven by their psychologist, who is interacting with her as she drives them around Tehran. It's such a simple concept, all taking place within the car, but it is a masterclass in what can be achieved with so little, and so simply. It is truly beautiful and a wondrous look at the often ignored stories of the women in this part of the world, opening them up not as victims of repression but as people just like the rest of us. Without it ever feeling like that is what is going on. Truly marvelous. 5 stars.
is that is has changed the way I eat. Literally. I pay so much more attention to it now. To where my produce is coming from. To its content. I'm shopping more at farmer's markets when I can, but when I can't I'm doing everything within my means to make sure I pay attention to the lessons learnt from this film. Because they are many. The film follows in the footsteps of other docos like The Cove that are truly terrifying, particularly affecting (I've only eaten salmon twice since watching The Cove, and I used to eat salmon a lot. And they don't even mention salmon!) I can't recommend it highly enough, but be prepared to be very challenged about your habits. As a look at the global food industry, it is a horrifying exposé. Overly didactic and preachy in parts, perhaps, but when dealing with a subject as important as this one, a little bit of ramming down the throat probably doesn't go astray. 4.5 stars.
