Movies this weekend

Last night I saw "Control Room," the eye-opening documentary about Al-Jazeera’s coverage of the US invasion of Iraq. It focuses on how Al-Jazeera (and other media outlets) covered the war, what they aired – which unlike US coverage showed a lot of bloody civilian casualties – and how they struggled with balancing their journalistic ideals with their Arab allegiances. It also showed the spin the US military spokesmen gave reporters. It asks what is more or less truthful, the coverage by Al-Jazeera or that of Fox News, and questions how much “truth” one can present in war coverage. It also presents some interesting alternative views of events, such as so-called Iraqis pulling down the statue of Saddam, which appears to have been staged. And there were several fascinating, complex characters as well.

Some ironies: The clips of Donald Rumsfeld saying of Al-Jazeera, “We are dealing with people who are willing to lie to the world to make their case,” got a big laugh from the audience in Cambridge where I saw it. Equally ironic was the clip of Bush deriding Al-Jazeera for airing footage of the American soldiers taken prisoner and then saying how well the US treats its prisoners and spouting platitudes about adhering to the Geneva Conventions.

After the movie, we walked a few blocks away and ate at The Helmand, appropriately enough. The Helmand serves delicious Afghani food and is owned by the sister of that most elegant of world leaders, Harmid Karzai, the president of Afghanistan. (Note to bald men everywhere: lose the baseball caps, here’s how you top a bald pate with style.)

If you get a chance, you should definitely see "Control Room." Oh, and eat at The Helmand, too, if you’re in the Boston area. Did I mention how delicious the food is?

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I saw “Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban” Friday night. I hadn’t seen either of the first two Harry Potter movies and have not read one word of the books, though intend to, but I still enjoyed this movie very much. I love the director, Alfonso Cuarón, of "Y Tu Mama También" fame, and my companion said he thought this one was better than the previous – more atmospheric and darker. My only problem was that I was so cold in the theater that I thought one of the Dementors had swooped in and sucked my soul right out of me. These movie theaters should hand out blankets like they do on airplanes, especially in the summer when they turn the A/C up full blast.

After the movie, I warmed up with a glass of wine and some yummy grilled fish at the nearby Outback Steakhouse while my companion tried out his pantomimes of characters (human or otherwise) from the movie for me to guess. I’m afraid I was very bad at it, mainly because I didn’t know who anyone in the movie was, really, this being my first exposure to the stories. The only one I could imitate was Harry (okay, just make two circles with your fingers and put them around each eye – I know, very lame). Then we came home and watched the Red Sox come from behind to beat the Giants, heh heh.

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