Stone's sabotages integrity in 'South of the Border'

Reel Life review: 'South of the Border'Director/host Oliver Stone's unbridled butt-kissing interview style sabotages whatever journalistic integrity his new political doc "South of the Border" might have had.Stone blows through South America, interviewing leftist leaders with such fawning admiration that a Michael Moore doc seems like a right-wing production approved by Rush Limbaugh. In one on-camera smooch-fest, Stone pats a leader on the back, shakes his hand and announces loudly, "You're a good man!" Kinda makes you wanna shout, "Hey, get a room!"Stone first interviews Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, going so far as to "direct" the leader through reliving memories of his harsh childhood. (Note: Stone does not ask Chavez what kind of tree he would want to be.)Never one to be upstaged by his own subjects, Stone bounces a soccer ball around with Bolivia's President Evo Morales, then, in a moment that other filmmakers would have edited from the final print, puts a full-court mack on Argentina's President Cristina Kirchner.Meanwhile, the movie's journalistically sound, eye-opening charges that the United States used its power to destabilize democratically elected South American leaders get lost in a parade of self-serving scenes in which the preening director takes precedence over his subjects and the rules of responsible journalism."South of the Border" opens today at the Showplace ICON Theater in Chicago. Not rated. 78 mercifully short minutes. #9733; #189;Note: Native Chicagoan Mark Weisbrot, co-writer of "South of the Border," will conduct a Q and A after the 7:30 p.m. showing today at the ICON Theater.Reel Life review: 'La Mission'Director/writer Peter Bratt's drama "La Mission" launches a direct assault on Hispanic machismo and the cultural condoning of violent behavior to express feelings and establish control over women and men.Bratt's actor brother, Benjamin, renders a frighteningly authentic portrait of dominant male authority as the tattooed Che Rivera, a former inmate and recovering alcoholic who's now become a dedicated public bus driver and a respected member of the Mission district in San Francisco.Since his wife died, Rivera has worshipped his college-bound teenage son Jes (Jeremy Ray Valdez). Dad has built him a lowrider car, a work of art on wheels, as a high school graduation gift.All that changes when Rivera discovers photos of his beloved son in a clinch with another guy. "I didn't mean for you to find out like this," Jes says. Mad Dad nearly beats him senseless in the street. "You're dead to me!" he shouts.Apparently, Rivera is the only male in the Mission district who feels this way toward gays. Most people, especially his young, liberated neighbor Lena (the charismatic Erika Alexander), have no problem with gays in the 'hood.Even when the movie's resident villain, a vengeful street thug, uses Jes for target practice, it's not because he hates gays. He wants to get back at Rivera for kicking him off his bus and embarrassing him."La Mission" has the earmarks of a direct-to-cable production, but the cast lifts the material, and Peter Bratt's affectionate depiction of the district's car culture pumps his drama with personality and insight."La Mission" opens today at area theaters. Rated R for language, sexual situations and violence. 117 minutes. #9733; #9733; #189;Celebrity alert! Benjamin Bratt will conduct Q and A sessions in person today following the 7 p.m. screening at the Riverside 21 in Chicago, and after the 9 p.m. screening at the Evanston CineArts 6.Reel Life review: 'The Girl Who Played With Fire'Daniel Alfredson's sequel to the international hit thriller "The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo" plays like a neo-noir version of a 1990s 007 caper mixed with a sleazy Sidney Sheldon soap opera."The Girl Who Played With Fire" reunites crusading magazine journalist Mikael Blomkvist (Michael Nyqvist) and super cyber punk computer wiz Lisbeth Salander (Noomi Rapace) as they investigate the fatal shootings of two reporters just before they published names of prominent Swedish citizens linked to an illegal sex industry.The cops think the anti-social rebel Salander is the killer, since her fingerprints are on the gun. Blomkvist thinks she's been set up."Girl Who Played With Fire" is the combination of two 90-minute Scandinavian made-for-TV movies. With its unpleasant scenes of sexual assault, unapologetic violence and a titillating lesbian encounter, "Fire" can hardly be compared with soft, American made-for-TV fare.I have not read the Millennium Trilogy books (by the late Stieg Larsson) upon which these movies are based, but critics have complained that the novels' thinly veiled criticism of Sweden as a corrupt, misogynistic nation has been filtered out of the movies, robbing them of a bigger political context.I would agree, since Alfredson directs "Fire" as a simple noirish potboiler removed from any larger political canvas.Still, "Fire" chugs along with an unpredictable plot involving bizarre characters (including a blond giant enforcer who cannot feel pain) and shocking family revelations that rival Darth Vader's paternal confessions to Luke Skywalker."The Girl Who Played With Fire" opens today at the Renaissance Place in Highland Park, the Evanston CineArts 6, plus ICON, Music Box and River East 21 all in Chicago. In Swedish with subtitles. Rated R for brutal violence, sexual situations, language, nudity. 129 minutes. #9733; #9733; #9733;The third film in the series, "The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet's Nest," will be released by local Music Box Films on Oct. 15.'Prisoner of Her Past'Join Chicago journalist Howard Reich and Chicago filmmaker Gordon Quinn for a screening of the doc "Prisoner of Her Past" with a Q and A after the show. The film details Reich's investigation into his mother's troubled past, and the reason she became a victim of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. She was one of about 100 survivors of a Nazi purge of her town in Eastern Poland where 12,000 Jews were executed. The After Hours Film Society presents this doc, directed by Quinn of Chicago's prestigious Kartemquin Films, at 7:30 p.m. Monday, July 12, at the Tivoli Theater, 5021 Highland Ave., Downers Grove. Tickets cost $9. Call (630) 534-4528 or go to afterhoursfilmsociety.com.