Film & BooksIssue: Scorpio 06
The Departed
Although “The Departed” does not have the have the emotional depth of other Martin Scorsese films, such as “Taxi Driver” or “Raging Bull,” it is an entertaining two-hour journey into the underworld with high-speed action, superb acting, and delicious dialogue.
“The Departed” is a remake of the Hong Kong thriller, “Infernal Affairs,” and it has a similar frenzy. It also has many vicious yet eloquent speeches that include quotes from Sigmund Freud and James Joyce. Scorsese’s version of this “double-mole” story sets Irish cops against career robbers in South Boston who infiltrate each other’s organizations.
Matt Damon plays Colin Sullivan, a fatherless boy who becomes a state detective, but is secretly loyal to the paternal crime lord Frank Costello (Jack Nicholson). Leonardo DiCaprio plays Billy Costigan, a straight cop with no family and perhaps nothing to lose, who goes undercover to become part of Frank’s gang of thugs. The two men have similar backgrounds, yet deeply different morals, which keeps them both locked on the wrong side of violent worlds. Throughout the film, they cross each other’s paths daily – and they even fall in love with the same police psychiatrist, played by Vera Farmiga. However, instead of focusing on the ties that bind similar minds to police work and criminal activity, the film works merely to create suspense as both men narrowly escape being exposed time and time again.
Since Martin Scorsese is clearly capable of digging deeply into the souls of his characters as he has done in past films, one could surmise that the shallowness of “The Departed” is a product of Scorsese’s affinity for Asian cinema and his homage to a certain genre of film from a culture not so steeped in individualism. Nevertheless, Leonardo DiCaprio gives a deeply convincing performance and provides the only emotionally captivating character in the film. Perhaps DeCaprio’s acting is too emotionally revealing for this style of film, which could be why so many moviegoers found the ending so shocking and too unsatisfying to accept. Or perhaps American audiences are just too emotional and spiritual to enjoy such blatant nihilism. 
Film & Books Archives (total entries: 29)
Capricorn 08 - The Career Issue
Sagittarius 08 & Honest Self Expression
Like real life-families who have a member struggling with drug or alcohol addiction, the focus of “Rachel Getting Married” isn’t on Rachel, even though it should be. It is on her narcissistic sister, Kym, who is out of rehab for the weekend to attend Rachel’s wedding.
Scorpio 08 - The Money Issue
At a time when our nation’s security is in question and our economy is in shambles “The Good Society: The Humane Agenda” by John Kenneth Galbraith has much to teach the abiding liberal as well as the dutiful conservative.
Honestly, I have never been one for self-help books, but what I liked most about "How We Choose to Be Happy" is that it celebrates the wisdom of a variety of literary greats balanced by the stories of ordinary people.
This book won the 2008 PEN/Faulkner Award for fiction for good reason. I started the “The Great Man” on Saturday morning and had to finish it by lunch the next day. When it started to rain I traded my lawn chair for the couch and kept on reading. This novel is fabulously funny, mischievous, and easy to read.
A quirky look at boyhood and film-making in the 1980s, “Son of Rambow” is a welcome diversion from the current deluge of blockbuster remakes and super hero epics in theaters this summer. Written and directed by Garth Jennings and produced by Nick Goldsmith, I like the way this film spins a standard, winning movie formula at a slightly awkward angle.
Although “The Maytrees” by Annie Dillard is marketed as a novel, it reads from beginning to end as a poem. Like body surfing, the poetry will move emotions in directions that the mind may not understand. When this wave brought me to shore, I needed air and I wasn’t quite certain where I had been or where I had landed, but I was, in the truest sense of the word, in awe of the experience I just had.
April and May are notoriously bad months to go to the movies. The Academy Award hopefuls of 2008 won't be released until the fall, and the summer blockbusters won't be out for a few months. So what is a film reviewer to do when all the movies in the theaters are lame? This reviewer is going to suggest that you catch up on the best movies of 2007!
After an unsuccessful attempt to climb K2, Greg Mortenson stumbled into the village of Korphe in Pakistan’s Karakoram Himalaya region. The generosity and hospitality of the Korphe villagers inspired Mortenson to establish the Central Asia Institute (CAI). Since the establishment of CAI ten years ago, the organization has built 55 schools serving Pakistan and Afghanistan’s poorest children, especially girls.
Based on Marjane Satrapi's books, the film “Persepolis” tells the poignant story of a young girl coming of age in Iran in the midst of revolution and war.
