Syriana (Stephen Gaghan, 2005). For his sophomore directorial effort, Gaghan returns to the sort of multi-thread, big issue storytelling that won him a screenwriting Oscar for Traffic. The result is dense, resolutely intellectual and dramatically inert. The unapologetic complexities of the film are admirable, but Gaghan almost entirely ignores the human element. Even the few details seemingly intended to flesh out the characters beyond their pawnlike roles in the major schemes of international intrigue come across as mere convolutions. As a treatise on the current ways of the world Syriana has some power. It could have used some more adept drama to make it into something more than a pointed essay.

Bug (William Friedkin, 2007). Seeing this in such close proximity to Revolutionary Road made me really hope for the chance to see Michael Shannon play a nice, well-adjusted guy fairly soon, the same way it alleviated some worry to see Mark Ruffalo follow up his stellar work as the agitated misfit brother Terry in You Can Count on Me by dancing to Michael Jackson songs in dopey romantic comedies. Shannon is thrillingly intense in this adaptation of a Tracy Letts play about a couple of people on the edge of society mentally melting down in a seedy hotel room. Ashley Judd is equally strong, providing a bracing reminder that, for all the dully interchangeable thrillers littered across her filmography, she can be a fantastic, fiercely dedicated actor when there’s some grit built into the role. The invitation to overstatement built right into the piece sometimes compromises its effectiveness as a film, but there’s something undeniably exciting about watching acting work that is so brutally fearless.

Primary (Robert Drew, 1960). At only thirty minutes, this documentary about John F. Kennedy and Hubert H. Humphrey campaigning during the the 1960 Wisconsin primary isn’t especially robust or hard-hitting. Indeed, it’s gentle, cinema verite stylings prevent it from being especially revelatory. It’s accomplishment is simpler: it stands as a nifty time capsule, a moving snapshot of a time when politics, even presidential politics, was much simpler than it is now. There’s a casualness to both men here, a sense that it’s just two well-meaning guys both applying for the same job. There’s some tension and some defensiveness, but mostly they just want to chat about their qualifications and ideas. Drew’s camera absorbs it all, as these men track back and forth through the springtime gray of the Wisconsin farm country.

Reservation Road (Terry George, 2007). Considering that the plot hinges on the death of child, it feels odd, even unfair, to grouse that Reservation Road is grinding, humorless affair. It;s not that the film needs some wisecracks or zippy slapstick, but what’s there is such a plodding parade of relentless dour scenes that any sort of variation in tone would be welcome. The principal players, Joaquin Phoenix, Mark Ruffalo and Jennifer Connelly, all deliver exemplary, finely crafted performances, but in the service of material that gives so little room for exploration beyond singular emotions like grief and guilt, that they wind up flat, redundant presences. Even the film’s few flashes of insight, such as a subplot involving the mourning father played by Phoenix finding solace in the affirming echo chamber of an Internet community, are quickly pummeled into insignificance by set piece’s of tiresome emotional fury.

Semi-Pro (Kent Alterman, 2008). There’s this one part where Will Ferrell says “Pancake.” I laughed out loud there. Admittedly, I am so very, very far removed from the target audience for this sort of nonsense, but this film seemed to miss the mark even for those disciples of the man’s brand of comedy predicated on running around wildly in various states of undress. It’s easy to note this given that Semi-Pro is one of Ferrell’s less financially successful outings, but the flopsweat does seem to be starting to show. The balance of plot and hijinks seems to be off, with the film trafficking in the plucky band of misfits sports movie tropes that Ferrell’s band of merrymen previously mocked. But, seriously, that pancake line? Pretty funny.

(Posted simultaneously to “Jelly-Town!”)