Movie Diary 10/27/2009

This is It (Kenny Ortega, 2009). Okay, better than anticipated. Dude may have been a freak, but at the end he had it together physically and creatively, and you can’t argue with his sense of theater. (full review 10/30)

The Horse Boy (Michel O. Scott, 2009). Doc about an autistic child, carried by his try-anything parents to the steppes of Mongolia. Raises a few questions about various kinds of responsibility in making a nonfiction film, but an interesting trip. (full review 11/6)

Skin (Anthony Fabian, 2009). Sophie Okonedo, with her refreshing quietness, plays a character from a bizarre true story of apartheid South Africa. She’ll get the Oscar push, which takes something away from a nicely-stated turn. (full review 11/6)

Act of God (Jennifer Baichwal, 2009). True tales of people hit by lightning, and the ways folks try to make sense of such random events. It’s got some gorgeous weather in it, and the different testimonials are tied together by Paul Auster’s memoir of being caught in a deadly lightning storm at age 14. (full review 10/30)