Freedom or stop-loss

FILMS WORTH WATCHING Robert Alstead

Photo: François Duhamel

L to R: Ida (Linda Emond), Brandon (Ryan Phillippe) and Roy King (Ciarán Hinds) celebrate upon the young man’s return home from his tour of duty in Stop-Loss.

One of the most popular films at the Vancouver International Film Festival last year, win- ning the audience award for best nonfiction film, was the Common Groundsponsored Garbage Warrior. Director Oliver Hodge shot the film over three years, largely in the desert of New Mexico where maverick architect Mike Reynolds builds his “earth ships,” as well as in the Tsunami-struck Andaman Islands and Mexico. The documentary, released on February 22, was reviewed in detail in this column last September, so suffice it to say that it’s a fresh and stimulating take on the difficulties of green home building, in terms of both politics and design.

Another VIFF favourite, and Aus - tria’s submission to this year’s Oscars in the foreign film category, is World War Two-set The Counterfeiters (Die Fälscher), another film I reviewed at some length last September. The film is based on a true story of how, during the latter part of the war, the Nazis tried to swamp Britain and the US with counter- feit money produced by concentration camp victims. It should be out by the time you read this.

Following the critically well-received dramas In the Valley of Elah and Rendi- tion (they didn’t fare so well at the box office, however), comes another fiction- al story about the US occupation of Iraq. Stop-Loss (out on the 28th), the latest from Boys Don’t Cry director Kimberly Peirce, takes as its starting point what has been dubbed the “backdoor draft.” Stop-loss is the practice of extending the contract of a soldier’s term of mili- tary service against his or her wishes. In this case, after a celebrated tour of duty in Iraq, Sgt. Brandon King (Ryan Phil- lippe) is trying to re-adjust to civilian life in a small Texan town, when he is stop-lossed back to Iraq.

While the story is fictional, it echoes recent incidents of conscientious objec- tors who decided that the more they learned about the situation in Iraq, the more they felt they could not continue to serve there. The trailer for Stop-Loss shows Ryan Phillippe’s character strug- gling to reconcile his conflicting emo- tions about patriotic duty, love, friend- ships and honour. When he goes on the run, he is handed a Canadian passport and told, “Here’s your new ID. You go... you’re going for good.”

At the time of writing, the MTV-made film had had little exposure to the media so it’s difficult to know whether the film is any good. But Peirce has com- mandeered both an appealing cast and an experienced crew so there’s plenty of promise. The film features rising stars Abbie Cornish (she plays the romantic interest) and Channing Tatum who plays a fellow Iraq veteran and best friend to Phillippe’s character.

Behind the lens is cinematographer Chris Menges, who won Oscars for The Mission and The Killing Fields, and the film’s editor Claire Simpson won an Oscar for Platoon. This being an MTV film, the soundtrack and treatment are likely to have a youthfulness and energy that should appeal to the very generation being called upon to support US govern - ment policy in Iraq.

If you’re looking for something a little more light-hearted, Brit actor Simon Pegg (the skinny one from Shaun of the Dead and Hot Fuzz) returns as an overweight under-achiever trying to win back his ex-fiancée, who he jilted at the altar five years earlier, by running the London marathon. Problem is he is overweight and she now has a wealthy, good-looking fiancé. The film has been unanimously described as (sorry) runof-the-mill, but funny in parts.

Robert Alstead made the Vancouverset documentary You Never Bike Alone, available on DVD at www.younever bikealone.com