theOneliner.com: Handling the Truth

The gang's all here! Be afraid. Be very afraid. This ain't no chick flick. You'll laugh. You'll cry. You'll hurl. This might hurt a little. Join theOneliner.com chaps as they examine the intricacies of Green Zone, Crazy Heart and Shutter Island. The horror ...the horror.

Please excuse the inexplicable audio quality drop out early in the podcast. It's only for twenty seconds or so, and salvaged as best as we can, but it's pretty hiss-tastic.

Green Zone sees Matt Damon's Chief Warrant Officer Roy Miller going hunting for WMDs in an immediately post-war Iraq, but struggling to find any. In trying to find out why they've been acting on inaccurate intelligence, he's drawn into a shady world of political intrigue and back-stabbing. It's not as action-oriented as the promotional material would have it, but there's a very competent thriller in there and well worth a look. The usual Paul Greengrass shakycam irritants are on display, but we assume you're used to that by now.

Jeff Bridges' Oscar winning turn in Crazy Heart proves to be well deserved in this tale of a more-or-less functional alcoholic, struggling, ageing country musician trying to get his life turned around. With believable characters in believable situations, the script pleasingly avoids taking any extreme cliches and proves that you don't need to drop arbitrary, unlikely drama twists to create a compelling, great film. Highly recommended.

Martin Scorsese and Leonardo Di Caprio team up again for Shutter Island, De Caprio playing a U.S. Marshal investigating the case of the disappearance of an inmate on an island-bound facility for the criminally insane. However, as with most mental facility based films, Things Are Not What They Seem. While this is in no way a bad film, it leaves us somewhat cold for reasons we're annoying unable to fully describe, in large part to avoid the dreaded spoilers. It's very well shot, well acted and punchy enough, but seems perhaps to by trying too hard to work backwards from a defined ending rather than flow forward easily. Perhaps demands further investigation and another look, but not something we can unreservedly recommend.

That is all for now. We'll be back sometime soon, so until then keep your nose clean and if you can't be good, be lucky.