Being a big Pan fan, I was geeked about the movie Pan’s Labyrinth from the first moment I heard about it, and for once a movie I was looking forward to didn’t let me down. I’ll skip the self-important faux review to just let loose with some of the phrases they use in ads like Fantastic, Moving, Brilliant or just plain Great. I brought the whole family and they all loved it, even my thirteen year old son who had to be dragged there and hates subtitles. I found the reviews I’d read kind of misleading – they suggested it was an awkward combination of Jim Henson and For Whom the Bell Tolls, but it was much more accomplished and seamless than that. It’s not a movie that could even be made in modern Hollywood, and it exposes ballyhooed product like Million Dollar Baby as overblown, sentimental claptrap. I would have liked to see it get an Oscar nomination for Best Picture, not just Best Foreign. (Parenthetically, I’m sure I’m disparaging a fine film I know nothing about but I had to laugh when I heard the Canadian entry was called Water – how exciting, how colorful! Why not just call it White Bread?)

And like all great movies Pan’s Labyrinth makes you think long after you’ve left the theater. I don’t know enough about the situation, but how did Franco, alone of all the fascist dictators survive the end of the war? No doubt America’s pathological dread of communism was involved, but we let a guy with a lot of blood on his hands stay in power and die in bed. Which inevitably brings up current events – the awful villain and his fascist crew with their torture, macho posturing, bellicose religiosity and insane moral certitude masking brutal acts can’t help but remind the astute viewer of the shameful Bush/Cheney regime.

Unbelievably enough I’ve seen two good movies in a row. The Queen was excellent too, well deserving of its own Oscar nomination, and another victim of misleading reviews. They seemed to imply that it was a slight piece, memorable only for great acting. My esteem for Helen Mirren is second to no man’s, and I will cheer lustily when she picks up her Oscar, but the film itself was expertly written and directed, a penetrating portrayal of character, destiny and death. I couldn’t help wondering about current events after this one too – how did Tony Blair go from being so acute about Diana’s death to being so obtuse about Iraq?

As my devoted readers well know, I like to cavil about the decline of contemporary culture, but even I have to admit its been a good year at the movies with Little Miss Sunshine, The Departed, The Queen, and Pan’s Labyrinth not only being great, but getting the recognition they deserve. Now if your pal UBU could only get some of the same – but don’t hold your breath on that one!