AMREEKA DEPICTS PALESTINIAN IMMIGRANTS TO THE UNITED STATES
A mother and son on the West Bank have long dreamed of life in Amreeka (the Arabic word for America). One day they receive approval to immigrate, thanks to a lottery drawing, but the letter arrives close to the American invasion of Iraq in 2003. Muna Farah (played by Nisreen Faour) leaves behind an estranged spouse, an acerbic mother, a supportive extended family, and a secure job in an Israeli bank that requires a two-hour commute through checkpoints. Along with her son Fadi (played by Melkar Muallem), she packs up a few belongings and places $3,000 in a tin containing cookies that will be used on arrival while living with relatives in suburban Chicago. While distracted during customs inspection, the tin is confiscated, a fact that she does not discover until unpacking at the new residence, where her fellow Palestinian female relative grows increasingly restive at the expenses run up by apparent freeloaders at a time when their host, a physician (played by Yussef Abu Warda), is losing clients because of his Arab appearance. While she disappointedly hunts for a job, Fadi finds punk schoolmates who are eager to avenge 9/11 by picking on him. Eventually, Muna lands a position as a fast food server and fryer, but pretends that she is working at a nearby bank to keep up appearances. When Fadi gets into a tussle at school, Muna is summoned, and Mr. Novatski, the Jewish principal (played by Joseph Ziegler), takes a personal interest in both. One day the punks hassle Muna at her place of work, she falls accidentally, and Fadi is eager to retaliate, resulting in yet another unfortunate subplot, though one in which Novaski’s intervention saves the day. Although the two Palestinian immigrants eventually find some peace of mind, the major loose end is how conflict at the school will be resolved. A second anomaly in the film is that the two Palestinian Christians never attend church, a likely place where they might find a way to reconcile conflicts at school and at work. The film is directed by Cherien Dabis, a Jordanian who observed similar prejudice while growing up in Dayton, Ohio, during the Gulf War. MH
THE INFORMANT! IS A TRAGICOMIC BIOPIC OF MARK WHITACRE
Biochemist Mark Whitacre blew the whistle on price fixing by Archer Daniels Midland (ADM) but served nearly nine years in prison while those he exposed served three years. The Informant!, directed by Stephen Soderbergh, tries to explain why. Soon after the film begins, in 1992, filmviewers learn that Whitacre is providing the FBI information in a three-year investigation that ADM is colluding with competitors in Europe and Japan to fix prices. He hopes to have ADM executives mired in such scandal that they will be removed, leaving him as the next president of the company. However, he is not completely honest about his own actions, and the FBI soon has more questions about his financial behavior than about his bosses, causing him to crack up. Indeed, his misconduct is easier to document. But he imagines that he will be given a free pass so that the FBI, conflicted about the case, can nail the biggest crooks at ADM. There are two problems with the film. One is why Matt Damon was chosen to play a pathetic nerd, Mark Whitacre, rather than a comic who plays occasional serious roles, such as Robin Williams or the often enigmatic Bruce Willis. Problem two is the very peculiar music, which purports to demonstrate the absurdity of what Whitacre does and says, as the theme from Matlock would have been more appropriate in evoking laughter at what is intended as tragicomedy. Problems aside, The Informant! brings to light little-known facts about how the government clumsily tries to regulate the corporate culture of deception and greed, even in straight-laced, unpretentious midstate Decatur, Illinois. The book is based on the 2000 book of the same title minus the exclamation point by Mark Eichenwald. For that reason, the Political Film Society has nominated The Informant! as best film exposé of 2009. MH
MICHAEL MOORE’S CAPITALISM: A LOVE STORY REVIVES THE SECOND BILL OF RIGHTS
An exposé of the causes of the current economic crisis, the main agenda of Capitalism: A Love Story is to plug for Franklin Delano Roosevelt’s Second Bill of Rights, which Moore believes could have avoided Wall Street’s coup of the American government that began under the presidency of Ronald Reagan. MH