Cinematical

If you still haven't watched any of the million documentaries about the Iraq War because you're still not quite ready for that kind of subject matter, you might want to check out Full Battle Rattle. It is a documentary, and it is related to the Iraq War, but you may consider it more like a simulation of a documentary about the Iraq War than an actual example. Think of it as like a practice piece until you can handle the real deal.

How is Full Battle Rattle different from the rest, you ask? Well, it's not set in Iraq or even in the Middle East. It takes place in America, in California's Mojave Desert, to be exact. It's there that the U.S. military has built a bunch of fake Iraqi towns, complete with fake Iraqi people, some of whom are played by actual Iraqi immigrants, others of whom are played by soldiers preparing for combat before being deployed overseas.

And then there are the other thousands of soldiers who basically play themselves on the unscripted side of partially scripted training exercises designed to simulate possible scenarios that they'll be faced with once they're shipped out to Iraq. In a way, watching the simulations documented in the film is like watching Civil War reenactments, except that in this case it's more like pre-enactments.

Back in May, Miramax grabbed a spec for the remake of an Israeli thriller called The Debt. Matthew Vaughn, director of Layer Cake, wrote the adaptation along with writing partner Jane Goldman. But he wasn't interested in directing it himself, for whatever reason. Now it looks like the bunch of directors who were circling the project have been whittled down to one, and according to The Hollywood Reporter, the winner is John Madden, who is currently in negotiations. (The director, obviously, not the football man.)

This is definitely an interesting choice, but one that should suit the material well. In the past, Madden has brought us literary fare like Shakespeare in Love, but he's also the man behind Mrs. Brown, Captain Corelli's Mandolin, Proof, and the new Elmore Leonard adaptation, Killshot.

To refresh your memories, this is the story of three Mossad agents who learn that an old Nazi criminal they had captured years ago is still alive. The problem is: The man had escaped their clutches, so they just claimed he committed suicide to save their skins. With the war criminal alive and ready to admit to his crimes, the agents set out to finish the job and save their reputations.

Let's face it, family dramas are universal: one generation raising the next, the young resisting the old, conflict, tears, intense feelings, "you don't let me," "why don't you," and so forth. Watching Sunflower, a Chinese film from 2005 that finally hit DVD last week, I had the feeling that director Zhang Yang (Shower, Quitting) must moonlight as an alchemist. Working with very familiar, common elements, he makes something fresh and new.

Joan Chen (The Last Emperor, Twin Peaks) may be the most familiar face in the cast; she has quietly turned in one marvelous performance after another over the past 10 years outside the US studio system. (Check out the devastating, difficult The Home Song Stories.) Here she plays the pivotal role of Xiuqing, left to raise Xiangyang, her young son, after her husband Gengnian (the equally memorable Sun Haiying) is sent to a labor camp in 1967.

Gengnian returns from camp unable to continue his career as a painter, and so he transfers his artistic ambitions to his son, who wants nothing to do with this stranger who has taken over the household. Gengnian has a powerful will, though, and is determined to see his son succeed, whether he wants to or not.

The story takes place over four different eras of recent Chinese history as Xiangyang grows into a man and eventually contemplates fatherhood himself; Zhang Yang drew from his own life experiences for inspiration. Sunflower is simply told. The rich period details look gorgeous (Christopher Doyle served as visual consultant) and each episode leads inexorably to the next.

The DVD from New Yorker Video includes a "making of" feature and the original theatrical trailer. Sunflower is perfect for a summer evening's rental, a contemplative consideration of love, destiny, and the strongest bonds of all.

Harry Potter has got to end sometime, and by "sometime" I mean in less than three years when the second cinematic half of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows sees release. And some people would like to still have a career when that happens, thank you very much. To that end, Rupert Grint -- a.k.a. Ron Weasley -- has taken a role in an indie film called Cherry Bomb, which sounds about as far from Harry Potter as you can get without developing an erotic fixation on horses.

The film, written by acclaimed playwright Daragh Caville, focuses on three teens who set out for a wild weekend of drugs, sex and crime only to see it escalate into something far more serious than they imagined. It co-stars relative unknowns Robert Sheehan and Kimberley Nixon, and is set for release next year.

While Daniel Radcliffe has tried more extreme methods of branching out (mainly by taking that infamous role in Equus, which is coming to Broadway per the above link) and Emma Watson hasn't done very much at all (she voices a character in this year's The Tale of Despereaux, but that seems to be it), Grint has spent what spare time he has toiling away in indieville. Cherry Bomb was preceded by the reasonably well-received and much less racy Driving Lessons, about a troubled boy's friendship with a retired actress.

While the film lover in me might be happy to see Matt Damon branching out with roles that don't trade on his looks, the red-blooded girl in me is happy to see Damon back in fighting form. Empire has the first still from the Iraq drama, The Green Zone, and he's back to the Matt Damon that we all know and love.

Zone is based on the 2006 book Imperial Life in the Emerald City, by journalist Rajiv Chandrasekaran. Damon stars as Chief Officer Roy Miller, a soldier stationed in Iraq after the overthrow of Saddam Hussein charged with the task of locating weapons of mass destruction. During the investigation, Miller begins to suspect that the WMDs may not exist, and then things really get dangerous. Amy Ryan also stars as a NYT correspondent, along with Jason Isaacs and Brendan Gleeson as fellow military men.

Studios might have a 'complicated relationship' with Iraq war films, but there is no chance that Zone is going to fall into the same trap of preaching to audiences. Damon made it pretty clear to Empire that Zone is strictly a Hollywood affair: "[We're] not trying to make a statement, particularly with a movie that costs $80 or $90 million. Hopefully this will feel like an accurate portrayal of what things were like for these guys. You can't do a polemic – you should be blogging if that's what you want to do." Maybe it's for the best, but I happen to think there is nothing wrong with mixing a little politics into your entertainment -- how about you?

Green Zone is expected to arrive in theaters in 2010.

I'm not even going to spoil this simply beautiful film with an introduction, except to thank film critic Erik Lundegaard for posting it on his blog. Enjoy!

Where the Hell is Matt? (2008) from Matthew Harding on Vimeo.

I don't know the last time I felt like a kid at the movies, but while watching Journey to the Center of the Earth 3-D this past week, I honestly reverted to my 8-year-old self. That isn't to say the movie is necessarily as good as the movies that astonished me as a kid -- because of the subject matter, I'd think about comparing it to Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom and The Goonies, both of which came out when I was around that age, and neither to which this film holds up in terms of originality or storytelling craft. But as far as holding onto my sense of wonder, Journey is up there.

Of course, it's necessary to point out that Journey would be nothing without the digital 3-D factor. It's actually the first live-action narrative feature to be shot and released in the new format (the non-fiction concert films, U2 3D and Hannah Montana/Miley Cyrus: Best of Both Worlds Concert Tour were technically the first live-action 3-D features), and while it's far from perfect, it is a terrific pioneer. I shall continue favoring the look of animated 3-D films, especially those directed as well as Monster House, and I anticipate that James Cameron's Avatar will blow away all live-action 3-D films released prior to its arrival. For now, though, I'm telling you, with the utmost cinemaphilic urgency: you need to see this ASAP.