Sundance Thursday, January 26

Best day yet. Three movies, all of them great.

The Other Dream Team

This is a documentary about the 1992 Lithuanian Olympic basketball team. I had never heard of them before (I have never really followed the olympics), but this was the first year Lithuania had a team there. In previous years, the Lithuanians had played for the Russian national team.

This movie gives us a pretty good lesson on Lithuania. During World War II Russia occupied Lithuania and it did so until 1991. Many Lithuanians were sent to labor camps in Siberia during Stalin's reign. In 1991, there was a movement to get the Russians out of Lithuania. Many people died before Russia finally left the country.

This is a real feel good movie. The country has no money, so a few people start looking for help to fund the team. The Grateful Dead end up being the sponsors. The team does get beat by the US dream team, but they end up playing against the Russian team for the silver medal.

The Surrogate

John Hawkes plays a journalist named Mark O'Brien. Mark has been living in an iron lung since he was a boy. He is able to get out for a few hours a day, but his muscles don't work so he has to be wheeled around in a Gurney.

He decides to lose his virginity, and he hires a sex surrogate played by Helen Hunt. For guidance, he goes to a priest played by William H. Macy (perfect casting). This is a very sweet and beautiful love story. This is the most honest portrayal I have ever seen of a sexual innocent learning about intimacy. The nudity and sexual dialogue is very frank and honest, but never gratuitous. This movie is for adults, but in no way is it dirty. I think this movie will be an Academy Awards contender next year, and John Hawkes will definitely get a nomination.

The Raid

Set in Indonesia, this movie is about a police SWAT team going to conduct a raid on a rundown tenement in Jakarta. Their target is to take out a crime boss named Tama. But the entire building is full of criminals loyal to Tama. What follows is wall to wall action between the SWAT team and the residents.

This movie has some of the best fight scenes I have ever seen. The movie doesn't use a bunch of cuts to show a fight - they are actually played out in unbroken long shots. You can see that the actors actually had to choreograph the fights to precision.

The movie is very bloody. It is a grindhouse movie in the best sense of the word. There are many moments that made the entire audience erupt in cheers. The climactic fight between the main henchman and two brothers is just incredible. I could watch this movie again right now.