Weekend Preview: Ignore the New Releases, Go for Children of Men

MaryAnn Johanson,  Jan 05, 2007

You know what? I'm just gonna pretend that there are no new releases this week. Why should I bother my beautiful mind with dreck like the 187th Shrek knockoff, Happily N'Ever After? (I've already thought about it more than the filmmakers of this half-assed, cheaply animated flick did.) Why should I be forced to contemplate the prospect of an amnesiac janitor turned FBI hitman, or whatever, that is Code Name: The Cleaner? Haven't I already seen the idealistic-white-teacher-goes-to-the-hood-and-inspires-all-the-brown-children movie that is Freedom Writers about three dozen times already? Do I need to subject myself to the "Christian horror" of Thr3e, which ain't even half the film Se7en is?

No, I do not need to do these things to be a happy, well-adjusted movie lover. And neither do you. Hell, even Home of the Brave [my review], a melodrama about soldiers returning from Iraq that has plenty of problems of its own, is powerful enough just out of sheer relevance to make it worth your while (it's expanding from its earlier, very small release).

But if you want a cinematic experience that will linger with you for a long while, then do not miss Children of Men [my review], getting a major expansion this week. If there was any doubt that Alfonso Cuaron is one of the most innovative, most creative, most passionate filmmakers working today, this utterly compelling film will crush those doubts forever. This is one of the best science fiction movies ever made, so good that it's the kind of science fiction that people who don't understand science fiction jump to hastily explain that it's not science fiction at all. These people don't understand that SF is not about laser guns and spaceships but about what makes us human; SF is about exploring the fundamental nature of what makes us, as a people, us. The laser guns and the spaceships -- and here, the exploration of what might happen if we could no longer reproduce ourselves -- are but the trappings. SF is the most strongly humanist genre of fiction, and it doesn't get more human than this. See. This. Movie.

-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
MaryAnn Johanson
author of The Totally Geeky Guide to The Princess Bride
minder of FlickFilosopher.com