News-Letter

Shadow Company is by no means the finest
documentary of this or any year, but the film, which documents the
presence of private military contractors (a euphemism for mercenaries)
in Iraq, remains almost necessary viewing. According to Shadow Company,
there is one private contractor for every 10 soldiers in Iraq, and the
companies employing them do not always act in the interests of the
American government or the Iraqi people. The film asks a variety of
important ethical question, most vitally: What are the consequences of
surrendering the state monopoly on violence? The documentary's greatest
strength, however, lies in its use of footage from the ground in Iraq.
It shows the chaos and carnage that the U.S. media, in conjunction with
the government, has decided we ought not see.

In a break from his recent action-oriented Hero and House of Flying Daggers, famed Chinese director Zhang Yimou returns to the more personal, sentimental style of classics like Raise the Red Lantern and To Live. His newest film is Riding Alone for Thousands of Miles,
the story of a Japanese fisherman, Gou-ichi Takata (Ken Takakura), who,
upon learning of his estranged son's diagnosis of terminal liver
cancer, travels to China to film a performance of an ancient opera with
which the younger Takata was enamored. Gou-ichi encounters a variety of
obstacles in the process, but so begins his path toward understanding
his son. The imagery is gorgeous and the acting understated but
effective. In a larger sense, the movie is a paean for reconciliation
between China and Japan as well as an idealized vision of Chinese rural
life.

Guillermo Del Toro, brother of Benicio and director of the chilling Devil's Backbone and less enjoyable Hollywood fare such as the putrid comic adaptation Hellboy, writes and directs Pan's Labyrinth, the story of a young girl struggling through the aftermath of the Spanish Civil War.

Ivana Baquero is terrific as Ofelia, the child who attempts to
come to terms with the brutality of the fascist regime surrounding her
by creating a vividly imagined fable. The artistry of the film is nigh
breathtaking -- the visual effects are outstanding, but not overused as
in many recent computer graphics vehicles, and the dark palate lends
the movie a palpable air of desperation. The film is, at times,
spectacularly violent.

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