Bloodless Coup

Breakfast on Pluto and The Chumscrubber

I'd give both of these films 3 stars, on a 4 star scale. Binky and I saw Breakfast on Pluto a couple of weeks ago, but it occurs to me that neither one of us ever posted about it on the blog. It's a fable of sorts - an Irish, Catholic transvestite lives life, and endures all kinds of awful things (and a few lovely moments) while drifting through the 1970's - but Kitten stays true to Kitten, and all turns out well in the end. Or as well as can be expected. I mean we are talking about a time and place when apparently the "Christian" thing to do - after a priest takes the homeless Kitten and a soon-to-be single mother into his church and home - is to fire-bomb the church and parsonage. It's a little long, but the film is well-crafted, the music is extremely good, and Cillian Murphy gives one of the best performances of the year in the lead role. He really should get an Oscar nomination.

While Breakfast on Pluto's quality is pretty much constant throughout, the same can't be said for The Chumscrubber. There are times when it is an extremely good movie. But, sadly, there are times when it's a big mess. Still, it's enjoyable and I bet it would even be better on multiple viewings, so I'll give it 3 stars too. It covers ground that's been covered many times before, and on several key points it lacks anything remotely resembling subtlety (we are talking JoAnne Worley, Gong Show-clanging, over-the-top, been-there-done-that obviousness). It's about suburbia, and isolation, and our druggie society (in all shapes and forms), and alienation, and suicide, and generations not communicating, and a sort of new age spiritual connection between us all (well, between some of us). So, basically it's something like 8 after-school specials rolled into one. But while the themes lack originality, it's structured and presented and acted in a way that makes it worth watching, at times very much so. I like the set design and the score and the way in which a lot of the scenes were shot. But it's the acting and casting really stands out. It's hard to take your eyes off some of these people, particularly Jamie Bell (the star, best known as Billy Elliott), Ralph Fiennes, Allison Janney and Carrie-Anne Moss - and some of the younger actors are quite good too. Well, for that matter a lot of the other older actors are as well (how did this little movie get casting this good - look it up on imdb, it's remarkable). So, basically, even if it's not saying much new, and even if parts of it are so done and predictable that they really are excruciating, there are still several things about this movie that I quite liked and on the whole I enjoyed it.