Movie Diary 12/20/2008

Che (Steven Soderbergh, 2008). This conceptual exercise offers few conventional moviegoing pleasures, but one of them is surely Demian Bichir’s performance as Castro, a juicy impersonation. You can’t call it an interpretation, because this movie doesn’t do that. (full review 1/16)

Age of Consent (Michael Powell, 1969). From a new DVD package with the Powell-Pressburger A Matter of Life and Death (the two films don’t really belong together, this one falling well short in the comparison). The very young Helen Mirren and the salt-and-peppery James Mason star; the new DVD allows the movie to be appreciated as an exercise in color, which is about the best case that can be made for it.