Mark and Barb Go to the Movies

**** The Departed (dir. Martin Scorsese) Glory hallelujah, Martin Scorsese gets his mojo back. Jack Nicholson chews scenery gloriously, Leo DeCaprio and Matt Damon and Mark Wahlberg play to their strengths, and the story is as twisty and as full of betrayals and counterbetrayals as any fan of morally compromised crime stories could ask. My only question is where the hell Marty has been hiding this one? After Bringing Out the Dead and Gangs of New York and The Aviator, I was starting to wonder.

**** The Queen (dir. Stephen Frears) I've been a fan of this director since My Beautiful Launderette, and it's no accident that this docudrama about the political machinations around Princess Di's death and the subsequent commemorations is just a little cynical and very funny. And what a dream cast: Helen Mirren, of course, but also James Cromwell and Michael Sheen and Sylvia Sims and Alex Jennings, all the type of dramatically-schooled, expressive British actors that make Americans look slack and lazy. Veddy British, but not uncritically so, and a much less ham-handed critique of mass media than most American films on the subject.

*** Marie Antoinette (dir. Sofia Coppola) I think reviews that complained about this movie's frivolousness are on point, but they also miss what Sofia Coppola's movies have always been all about. You could play most of her films as silents and not miss a lot. She wants to communicate how it felt to live lives of bored luxury and decadence by showing the expressions on people's faces after days of dancing, drinking wine, playing cards, and gossiping about each other. All the fabrics and food spreads and gardens are very beautiful, of course, and very beautifully photographed.