Ryan Watches A Motion Picture #71: Che: Part Two (2008)

I resume my journey into the biopic'd life of El Che!

Che: Part Two has a different flavour than Part One. Where Part One uses broken narrative, Part Two is linear and straight-forward. Since Che's character has been established already, it pulls few obvious cinematic punches and focuses simply, and still satisfyingly, on Che and his comrades' struggles against a hostile Bolivian government and its impossibly isolated and un-revolutionary populace.

While I detected a Soderberghian flatness in the first part, Part Two feels a bit more intimate now that the frenetic narrative style has calmed down. It's just as well shot, though there is admittedly less in terms of captivating imagery, thanks to the constantly dense, dry bracken of the Bolivian forests. It is, like Part One, engrossing and unique in its tone and sensibility. Despite knowing my history enough to know what would happen by the end of the film, the finish is perfect, and I suspect that it will stay with me for a long time.

So: It's a moving look at the way ideals don't always work out, and the very man that has come to represent that problem.

Ryan Watches A Motion Picture #52: Che: Part One (2008)

Having just visited Cuba, I suddenly felt the need to learn more about the history of its world-changing revolution. After some reading and some documentary viewing, I gave Soderbergh's big Che biopic a look. It's a double whammy since there's a lot of ground to cover, and was released in two honkin' parts.

Che: Part One is partially told as a broken narrative - while disorienting at first, once you get a sense of the three or four timelines explored in Che's life, it doesn't jerk you around too harshly. Shot in a documentary style, it lets the viewer make sense of the film's personalities and narrative on their own with little exposition or clear judgement, for the most part. The only place where it clearly takes a stance, as far as I can tell, is with Che himself. Che has, as you very likely know, become a legend. An icon. As a result, moreso even than Fidel Castro, it's pretty hard to tell where the real story is and where the myth and romanticism has been added. Soderbergh's film, at least in part one, presents a Che that's idealistic, intellectual, and pure of intention. That's certainly how he's been remembered, but I was hoping to see something in terms of flaws. I suppose any he might have had have been lost to history, and anything added would be a wild guess that'd serve little purpose in the end.

So: Che: Part One suffers from a flatness typical of newer Soderbergh films, but managed to keep me interested. I like Benicio Del Toro a lot, despite The Wolfman.

Pose Reviews a Movie. #4: The Girlfriend Experience (Soderbergh, 2009)

I’m not quite sure what I was expecting from this one, but it definitely didn’t deliver it.

Or anything, really.

Like, at all.

Steven Soderbergh’s emotionless and fragmented Girlfriend Experience provides a potential framework for a story that might have been good, had it been presented with people who can act, and taken more time to investigate its (too) many plot dimensions.

The main trouble with this recent effort of Soderbergh’s is that there just isn’t a single likeable character. The protagonist is a high-class escort by the name of Chelsea, whose style of prostitution incorporates an interpersonal connection as opposed to straight-up sex (hence, The Girlfriend Experience). And her long-term boyfriend, Chris, is a personal trainer who continuously whines about money when he isn’t whining about his relationship.

Neither character is appealing enough to make the audience to care about their story, and neither actor can make their character three-dimensional enough to change that. As "actors," they both lack the ability to exhibit basic human emotion, which I suppose could be interpreted as an artistic choice exhibiting the removal of “true emotion” from the “life of a sex trade worker,” but which could also be interpreted as the removal of “talent” from the “movie.”

And although the plot throws a couple of cool emotional curveballs, the characters just aren’t backed well enough by their actors to react fittingly. I enjoyed the concept of the film’s events, but their execution was disappointing and dull.

So what can I say that’s positive? Well, it’s only 78 minutes. And as luck would have it, there are no awkward sex scenes. And of course, it’s well-shot, since Soderbergh employs the same gifted use of light filters and quality cinematography that inhabits some of his less awful films like Traffic and the Che epic. But just because Soderbergh knows how to shoot a movie doesn’t mean he can save one. And he sure didn’t.

Sorry Steven. I still love you, and I'll still watch ANYTHING you make. But I’m afraid your Girlfriend Experience just...isn’t worth experiencing.