(Theatrical viewing="*"; Repeat viewing="/ /"; Shorts
[shorter, em, than 45 mins]="sXX"; past first hundred shorts: t,
signifying one in the hundreds digit)
Now some sort of weird D'Angelo/Odell/Heilman hybrid w/ comments. I am
weird.
go to zee bottom Months: January
February March April
May June July
Festivals: Sundance Portland Tribeca Seattle
001. (01 Jan) Confessions of a
Dangerous Mind (George Clooney, 2002)* [C+]
Clooney, slow the fuck down. The filters and constant expressionism are cool
enough, and some of it is funny, but it feels patched together and adds up to
very little (ex. when the agent from the FCC is counselling the Dating Game
contestants before the show, it's funny and all, but why would the girl and the
guys be allowed to meet each other before the show, huh? Isn't that against the
rules?). This biopic of a TV personality also manages to be even more obsessed
with sex than Auto Focus, which had every right, being about a sex addict and
all. Charlie Kaufman will one day learn that the taboo of sex just doesn't
translate that humorously to the screen especially if he keeps banging it into
our heads. And disappointingly, Clooney acts like a director (too confident)
and directs like an actor (too showy). At least he's trying. Should be better
than Sonny.
002. (01 Jan) Le Jour se Leve (Marcel
Carne, 1939) [A-]
Carne here is a master of light and fog, bathing his characters in just the
right amount at just the right moments. It's a lovely film about the momentary
nature of love, contrasting two young lovers, both named Francois(e), against
their aging counterparts. The structure, which has badass Jean Gabin hiding out
in his apartment from the police as his predicament flashes before him, is
unique and heightens the poetry here to another level.
003. (01 Jan) The Trial of Joan
of Arc (Robert Bresson, 1962) [B+]
Not as overtly emotional or powerful as Dreyer's version, but it is a totally
Bressonian version of the story, allowing him to see a complex kind of irony in
it all: why does this religion, built around faith, allow for so little faith
in the rest of humanity? The film slowly builds in power as it goes along, as
usual stressing vigorously barren circumstances over overt psychologics.
Bresson's realism makes the confidence in otherworldliness here all the more
intense and ambiguous.
004. (01 Jan) La Captive (Chantal Akerman,
2001) [D+]
Joyless, lifeless, and very, very French. The lead actor in particular is
especially blank; so bad, it might have been a mediocre or even sorta good
movie without him. Mostly unbearably inept as far as versimilitude goes; picks
up once or twice when it sorta channels Antonioni.
005. (02 Jan) /Le Jour se Leve/ (Marcel Carne,
1939) [A-]
...
006. (02 Jan) Rivers and Tides
(Thomas Riedelsheimer, 2001)* [B-]
007. (02 Jan) Life and Nothing
More (Abbas Kiarostami, 1991) [B-]
"if this is modern movie mastery, then our medium is gone and this is
funerary art" - David Thomson. Oh hell yeah David. I am finally being able
to recognize the fact that Kiarostami has made extraordinary art (dig that last
shot, friggin' amazing) but I still don't have much fun watching it. His lone
great film remains Where Is The Friend's House?, where we have at least have a
skeleton of a story to contemplate the moral mystery and questions on.
008. (03 Jan) Antwone Fisher (Denzel
Washington, 2002)* [D-]
Basically Antwone giving himself candy for being a good little boy and
pretending that his righteousness cancels out the goodness of anyone else in
the world. Disgusting. The final exchange between Antwone and the Washington character (Antwone: "Thank you." Washington: "No, thank you. It's you that helped
me, you're the king of the universe, blah blah blah-") cemented my
feelings about this. During much of the movie I was even trying to look for
accidental insight on Fisher's self-aggrandizement, but hey, this wasn't
directed by De Palma, this was directed by Denzel "I want another Oscar so
I'll sell out if I hafta" Washington.
009. (03 Jan) Ruggles of Red Gap
(Leo McCarey, 1935)* [B]
Derives its laughs from Laughton's bizarre facial contortions most of the time,
and most of the time, it's funny, although the scene that had me laughing the
hardest was the party where the English lord dude was instructed to play the
bass drum by "Nell." As funny as Broomfieldesque seductiveness gets.
010. (04 Jan) Crooklyn (Spike Lee, 1994)
[B+]
This is essentially Spike's Boogie Nights, using pop music and obligatory
stylishness to evoke our deepest feelings about family and togetherness through
the guise of a sitcom atmosphere. I loved it. On a side-note, I noticed a song
playing in the background here from 25th Hour (something like "it's alright,")
and it works here in an entirely different way. Even when he rips himself off,
he's original!
011. (04 Jan) Nothing But a Man
(Michael Roemer, 1964) [A]
A quiet masterpiece, probing into what it meant to be a black man in 60's America,
all the more impressive because it was made in 60's America. This is really the
exact opposite of Antwone Fisher: while that pile of garbage worked overtime to
justify all of Antwone's actions, Nothing But a Man knows that the main guy
gains our sympathy because his behavior is instigated by the atmosphere of the
world around him. He's not "wrong," but he's not "right,"
either. His integrity and self-control are always left to be judged, which is
why the title is so apt.
s01. (04 Jan) I'm Hungry, I'm Cold
(Chantal Akerman, 1984) [B+]
The first short on the Akermania video, which shows 2 young girls who function
on forcedly energized opportunism, taking into account just their needs and
putting us in their shoes, in a way, since we only see what they need and what
they get. The short ends by reversing the emotional tone, as opportunism leaves
no room for any other kind of connection than an aesthetic one, hence ours.
s02. (04 Jan) Blow Up My Town (Chantal
Akerman, 1968) [C+]
As observant and emotionally subjective as the above short, but the movie
really only serves as a game; we know the ending already.
012. (04 Jan) Hotel Monterey (Chantal
Akerman, 1972) [B]
Silent journey through a hotel, with every shot seeming to search for action.
At first I didn't like it much, because it didn't seem like there was much of a
point to filming a place without people who interact, but Akerman is actively
and successfully challenging our ideas about space and movement here.
013. (04 Jan) Get on the Bus (Spike Lee,
1996) [B]
Not exactly one of Spike's best; the politics are scattered and provocative as
usual, and the movie evokes an understanding between the men on the bus which
is enough to recommend it, but the metaphor of sticking together and facing tragedy
comes off as a bit contrived.
014. (05 Jan) Duck Soup (Leo McCarey,
1933)* [A]
Absolutely hilarious, even if there's absolutely nothing going on
beneath the hilariousness. Still, this is one of those (extremely) rare times
when I was laughing so hard I wasn't even sure whether I was having a pleasant
experience.
s03. (05 Jan) Mighty Like a Moose
(Leo McCarey, 1926)* [B-]
s04. (05 Jan) His Wooden Wedding
(Leo McCarey, 1925)* [C+]
s05. (05 Jan) Pass the Gravy (Fred
Guiol & Leo McCarey, 1928)* [C]
s06. (05 Jan) Don't Tell
Everything (Leo McCarey, 1927)* [C-]
s07. (05 Jan) Big Business (James W.
Horne & Leo McCarey, 1929)* [B-]
s08. (05 Jan) Liberty (Leo McCarey, 1929)* [B+]
The first few wore on me as they went along (and there were undertones of
anti-semitism lurking in there). I mean, how much fun can be had from watching
caricatures run around and act like caricatures? Saving graces: the spectacular
pianist playing along with them, and the last one, a riveting, vertigo-inducing
liberal allegory starring Laurel & Hardy.
015. (06 Jan) Fury (Fritz Lang, 1936) [B+]
Engaging and politically ambiguous if somewhat implausible thriller.
016. (06 Jan) Made in U.S.A. (Jean-Luc Godard, 1966) [C-]
And the back of the box at Kim's brags "one of Godard's most inaccessible
films." Well, yeah. Most of the time I felt like I had to be a history
major to tell what the fuck he was talking about, although some of the more
cinema-based pieces got to me.
017. (06 Jan) Park Row (Samuel Fuller, 1952)
[A]
The second best movie ever made "about" newspaper publishing. The
endearing thing is that Fuller seems to actually believe in those old American
ideals we now see as ironic.
018. (08 Jan) Pulse (Kiyoshi Kurosawa, 2001)
[C-]
Struck me as a kind of "Ringu as directed by Antonioni," trying to
cover up contrived schlock with contemplative ennui, but it doesn't work, and I
guess I'll just compare it to a) L'Avventura -- the premise of it too is rather
nightmarish and fantastical, but I suppose it's successful because it's about
the fear of not being able to feel anything in life as opposed to the fear of
turning into a weird black oozy thing when you die and being lonely forever
(which I have, for the record, NEVER been afraid of; I suppose to engage with
Pulse on any real allegorical level you have to accept the idea that you may
become some wandering ghost, which is so not universal), and b) Ringu -- which
is a piece of trash, but a fun one, because it doesn't waste time pretending to
have a point; it's pure premise and delivery (and the premise "what would
you do if there was some video that you watched and died shortly after" is
every bit as thought out in my humble opinion as "what would you do if you
became a ghost who moped through cyberspace.") The difference is, one of
them is actually scary, because death is innately more viscerally scary than
eternal solitude. Because we've never experienced death.
019. (09 Jan) The River (Jean Renoir, 1951)
[A-]
A film about the personal impact of culture (Indian culture, here) with a
melting pot of confused, mixed emotions -- the movie is only off when the mix
is over-explained. This is really B+ stuff; extra points for the protagonist, a
glamorously unglamorous teenage girl, who I desperately wanted to grab a time
machine and fuck.
020. (09 Jan) Scarface (Howard Hawks, 1932)
[A]
Really hit me hard, this one: I had never seen a Hawks before where so many
people died (although Rio Bravo and The Big Sleep came close) and I just really
care about Hawks' people, er, characters. And, this being made just
after the silent era, I loved how the major female characters (Poppy and the
sister, who serves as a sort of metaphor for how we feel about Tony; he's one
of us, but then again, he's not us) sounded so much deeper and more
seductive than what we get today. They seem like, I dunno, women.
021. (10 Jan) *Corpus Callosum
(Michael Snow, 2002)* [A-]
022. (10 Jan) /25th Hour/ (Spike Lee, 2002)* [A-]
Anything that felt remotely hokey or forced the first time (i.e. the very
moving opening credits) diminished the second. Those scenes with Hoffman and
Paquin are so... incredible...
023. (11 Jan) To Have and Have Not
(Howard Hawks, 1944) [A]
Wonderful Casablanca rip-off. The sing-alongs with Lauren Bacall are enchanting
enough to make Davy Thomson's placing of them on the cover of his book
understandable.
024. (12 Jan) Twentieth Century
(Howard Hawks, 1934) [A-]
'Nother good Hawks 'un; it seems to bring the fear of organization and
modernity that can be found in some of his other work to the forefront.
025. (12 Jan) No Such Thing (Hal
Hartley, 2001) [B-]
On the whole it's a bit too caricaturistically deadpan for my taste; still,
there are funny moments and the photography is striking. Hartley doesn't seem
to know what he's exactly doing with the monster figure; most of the real
intrigue here is derived from the Shakespearian madman archetype... the monster
as poet coming to grips with his being. Finally, though, it's too damn messy.
026. (12 Jan) Jungle Fever (Spike Lee,
1991) [C+]
Occasionally, it's very insightful; the goal here is obviously to delve into
the cultural subtext inherent in modern interracial relationships. But the
fierce opposition that drives a lot of Spike's movies comes off here as rather
contrived, and the movie ends up being more about its ideas than its people
(i.e. what the fuck was up with that ending? "NOOOO!!!"??? Gimme a
break.) Spike wants to save us from ourselves but the movie fails because the
danger doesn't feel real enough to want to be saved from.
027. (13 Jan) Millennium Mambo (Hou
Hsiao Hsien, 2001) [C+]
It's so obviously beautiful, and the soundtrack's kickin' (which is why
the opening shot is really the high point of the whole film) but, I mean, there
is so little that Hou is actually saying here. People change. Gradually.
And the philosophical blabber and metaphors that come with that utterly
brilliant observation. And, by the way, it is successful at portraying gradual
change. Really successful. That's so obviously not what I watch movies for
though. It's not like I changed with her... and I realize that's the point
(watching things from the past) but it's inevitably underwhelming.
028. (14 Jan) School Daze (Spike Lee,
1988) [C+]
Some very cool scenes (the thing in the salon is... so... awesome) but there is
a certain line that social allegory can cross into becoming rather preachy and
School Daze pretty much jumps over that line in that last dream sequence/reconciliation/whatever
the hell it was.
029. (14 Jan) The Day I Became a
Woman (Marzieh Meshkini, 2000) [B+]
I suppose the reason this
more-political-exercise-than-actual-piece-of-filmmaking works so well is
Meshkini keeps her eyes on the moments of freedom that are possible in women's
lives moreso than the oppression that it is of course opposed to. The last
segment suggests a celebration of childish absurdity in the face of tradition,
which I am obliged to agree with.
030. (15 Jan) Il Bidone (Federico Fellini,
1955) [B]
Whatever. I guess I liked this one, because Fellini restrains himself and
actually manages to get some real life out of this sad story.
031. (15 Jan) Obsession (Brian De Palma,
1976) [B-]
Ooh, look at me, I wish I made Vertigo. Despite the heartlessness of the
affair, though, some of it still got to me. It's amazing how he makes
unoriginality seem so original.
032. (15 Jan) Joe's
Bed-Stuy Barbershop: We Cut Heads (Spike Lee, 1983) [C]
Mostly over-mapped out crap, but gotta love some of the evocative images; he
certainly knew how to shoot on B&W back in the day. Also interesting from
an auteuristic perspective, there being a fear of the mostly encouraged later
on "unity".
033. (16 Jan) Raising Victor Vargas
(Peter Sollett, 2002)* [B+]
Just the kind of movie that makes you fall in love with it, regardless of how
repetitive the story strands can get, because it just knows what it's like to
be in love... it felt a little airy when I was watching it and then immediately
proceeded to expand in my heart. Even the "cute" scenes with the fat
kids are sweet, because they refuse to give in to cliches and one-sidedness.
And while Sollett isn't exactly a poet on the level of David Green, he
certainly knows lyricism -- a quiet cut to a night shot of the city near the
end seems perfectly removed yet somehow in tune with the romantic longing of
the characters (Note to Hou Hsiao-Hsien: coming-of-age movies are more fun if
the people coming-of-age actually fucking interact). I'm seeing it again next
Saturday and the rating may even get a bit higher.
034. (17 Jan) Madame Sata (Karim Ainouz,
2002)* [C-]
Utterly unrevealing, tediously flamboyant biopic about an asshole/drag queen.
By the end of the film, those are still the only descriptive phrases we can
really apply to the guy. I guess it sort of achieves "punctuated
equilibrium," though (aka boredom) if you're into that sort of thing. The
Brazilian Blow.
s09. (17 Jan) Pan With Us (David Russo,
2003)* [B]
035. (17 Jan) The Mudge Boy (Michael
Burke, 2003)* [C+]
A contrived and awkwardly disturbing (OZZY!) coming-of-age flick, almost saved
by graceful direction and, for a while at least, confronting complex attitudes
in a male friendship.
036. (17 Jan) thirteen (Catherine
Hardwicke, 2003)* [D]
Let's just say it felt extremely co-written by a thirteen-year-old girl.
"Like, oh my god! You have to put this thing in, it happened to a friend
of mine! It would be so incredibly cool and realistic!
037. (17 Jan) The Singing
Detective (Keith Gordon, 2003)* [B-]
Never seen the mini-series; this version is sporadically enchanting if a bit
sedate. I still prefer its brand of sleazy fantasia to Chicago, though. Robert Downey Jr. is good in
a very coked-out role.
038. (17 Jan) People I Know (Daniel
Algrant, 2002)* [B]
A leisurely yet incisive parable about the modern kind of trust (not to, not
"to"). Occasionally implausible screenplay helped out by a typically
brilliant Pacino.
039. (17 Jan) Woman of Water (Hidenori
Sugimori, 2002)* [B-]
Your average metaphysical Japanese romance between a woman emitting rain and a
man sort of emitting fire, involving her scary-ass smiling mom and the dad who
paints awesome Mt. Fuji shit in bathhouses, culminating in an orgasmic death
ritual forces of nature thingie. Obviously nothing you've never seen before,
but it gets the job done.
s10. (18 Jan) Lucy & Ricky (Jesus
M. Rodriguez, 2003)* [C+]
040. (18 Jan) Rhythm of the Saints
(Sarah Rogacki, 2003)* [C-]
Yeah, it doesn't pretend to forgive its protagonist's actions like thirteen or
something; still, it's tiresome, rote, indiewood bullshit, with laziness
shining through in the screenwriting and acting. And the whole "let's kill
the abusive cartoony lover" ideology feels a tad shaky to me.
041. (18 Jan) Party Monster (Fenton
Bailey & Randy Barbato, 2003)* [D+]
Shallow, idiotic, and slapped together. Macauley is still a bad actor. It looks
terrible. Chloe Sevigny, who I love usually, shows up for some reason looking
like she just crawled out of a sewer. At least it sort of has a (terrible)
sense of humor.
042. (18 Jan) Comandante (Oliver Stone,
2003)* [B]
At its best when Stone reveals as much about himself as about Castro, and we
can see their relationship forming. What are the boundaries here? What can
Oliver dig up without it seeming like Fidel is evasive? As usual, Stone's
editing is superb, and even questions that seem insignificant on their own are
made richer by the balance that can be found in all those bits of footage he
likes to squeeze in so much.
043. (18 Jan) It's All About Love
(Thomas Vinterberg, 2003)* [B+]
Doesn't make much sense as a narrative at all, and the dialogue was so obviously
written by a Danish guy. Still, it has a raw visionary inventiveness that's
been altogether lacking from the fest in recent hours. Ugandan people flying
upwards attached to cords. Sooooo cool.
044. (18 Jan) dot the i (Matthew Parkhill,
2003)* [B]
Starts out as amiable, formulaic, and occasionally bizarre; then the Thing
happens, fun ensues, cleverness is praised. I guess it feels a tad muddled in
meaning at the very end but hey, I HAD FUN!
045. (18 Jan) Benjamim (Monique Gardenberg,
2003)* [C]
Kind of interesting that for a while here Gardenberg directs so compellingly
with so much storytelling possibility that I could almost ignore the fact that
this is basically an old man's Bergmanesque wet dream. Couldn't, though. Eww,
by the way. Gross.
s11. (19 Jan) Tim Tom (Romain Segaud &
Christel Augeoise, 2002)* [A-]
046. (19 Jan) Pieces of April (Peter
Hedges, 2003)* [C+]
Really just an above average sitcom, but it's personal and it leaves you
feeling something for this family; I still hate Derek Luke though.
047. (19 Jan) All the Real
Girls (David Gordon Green, 2003)* [A]
048. (19 Jan) Cremaster 3 (Matthew
Barney, 2002)* [B]
It is rather brilliant, finally, but also sometimes just weird and
impenetrable. The last bit, a climb through the floors of the Guggenheim and a
man's artistic drive, is awesome though, especially the dueling punk bands
juxtaposed against the dancers. I can't imagine anyone who's seen it thinking the
second half wasn't much more exuberant than the first though.
049. (19 Jan) The Event (Thom Fitzgerald,
2003)* [C-]
Self-congratulatory, liberal-ham-fisted crap (they even try to unsuccessfully
mix in bizarrely insubstantial 9/11 allegory shit) with some artificial regret
tacked on for good measure. Even Parker Posey and Sarah Polley, bad in this
film, cannot escape the maudlin dullness.
050. (19 Jan) Confidence (James Foley,
2003)* [B-]
Adds up to next to nothing, but while it was in front of me it was slick,
sprightly, and cool as hell. The cast is terrific, too (when's the last time
you saw a couple of badasses like Robert Forster and Luis Guzman for example in
the same friggin movie?).
s12. (19 Jan) Olivia's Puzzle (Jason
DaSilva, 2001)* [C+]
051. (19 Jan) The Murder of
Emmett Till (Stanley Nelson, 2003)* [C]
A decent history lesson, I suppose. My intellect prohibits me from giving it
more than a C and my conscience prohibits me from giving it less.
s13. (20 Jan) Little Failures (John
Dilley, 2003)* [B-]
052. (20 Jan) Dopamine (Mark Decena, 2003)*
[C]
A lot less insightful than it thinks; it talks about physiology rather than
actually making it seem integral to the film's conventional rom-com structure.
Especially weak when compared with something as open-ended and poetic as All
the Real Girls.
053. (20 Jan) The Technical
Writer (Scott Saunders, 2003)* [B]
Not always believable, but always compelling. The lead Michael Harris carries
the movie with a subtle, conflicted mixture of paranoia and sexual
satisfaction.
s14. (20 Jan) The Long and Short
of It (Sean Astin, 2003)* [D-]
054. (20 Jan) The Maldonaldo
Miracle (Salma Hayek, 2003)* [D-]
Bland, worthless, unfunny, caricaturized, inconsequential, artless, inane, offensive,
indistinctive bile. It got a standing ovation. I hate the public.
055. (20
Jan) Soldier's
Girl (Frank Pierson, 2003)* [A-]
056. (20 Jan) The Shape of Things
(Neil LaBute, 2003)* [B+]
Really awesome, maybe LaBute's best since In the Company of Men. I kind of get
why Scott thought it was too theatrical, but the dialogue is fascinating and
hilarious, and LaBute keeps a pretty consistent sense of mise en scene that
admittedly only erupts around the end. The main reason this is such a great
film is because it's so provocative in such an interesting way -- the closing
sequence drew applause and gasps, sometimes alternately, sometimes
simultaneously. And I think I know why: it directly relates to what a lot of
people at Sundance argue about, the basis of purely expository art. In a way,
the "project" is brilliant; in another way, it's worthless.
057. (20 Jan) The Sea (Baltasar Kormakur,
2002)* [C]
Certainly some decent production values here, but not once could I feel
emotionally connected at all; I could hardly even follow what was going on.
Still not sure whether to blame this on the director's ineptitude as far as
tone and pace go, or some kind of burnout I've been suffering from.
058. (21 Jan) Die Mommie Die (Mark
Rucker, 2003)* [B]
Really damn funny; a Tennessee Williamsish satire that captures the rhythm and
artifice of something like Suddenly Last Summer or one of those Sunset
Boulevard crazy aging diva movies perfectly. And there are some just plain
terrific set pieces here, like the De Palma-esque LSD freak-out. I guess it's not quite
as much fun as 8 Women, but it has the same deliriously plastic
screw-subversive-politics spirit.
059. (21 Jan) Buffalo Soldiers
(Gregor Jordan, 2001)* [B-]
Mostly successful because of its oddly conflicted attitude towards war (so odd,
in fact, that a woman tried to throw a water bottle at Anna Paquin during the
Q&A), but the jabs at the military felt ordinary and even forced compared
to the deeply fair resonance of Soldier's Girl.
060. (21 Jan) Normal (Jane Anderson, 2003)* [C-]
Wonderful acting gets bogged down in conventional love-rules-all logic, which
quite literally rules all (the teenage girl actually wants to wear her dad's
old clothes, that's how contrived it feels). It's got the cumulative impact of
a pat on the back, basically, and it has an unbelievably sour aftertaste of
dishonesty. And the soundtrack is soooo annoying.
061. (21 Jan) In America (Jim Sheridan,
2002)* [B]
Okay, okay, the center of the movie is a little hokey and muddled, but this is
the kind of schmaltz I can believe in, because it's balanced schmaltz, schmaltz
that never sacrifices its metaphorical integrity, its emotional intelligence,
its personal sense of place, time, and family. We never see Ireland, but we still feel in transition; to me, that's
accomplishment enough.
062. (21 Jan) Northfork (Michael Polish,
2003)* [C]
Could even be overrating this one; it's got some nice pieces here and there
(the creepy thing made out of wolf parts, the listing of names) but overall
it's a boring, pretentious mess that never manages to address in a compelling
way what the hell it's actually about.
063. (21 Jan) AKA (Duncan Roy, 2002)* [C-]
Facile, plodding, and just plain out-dated "skewering" of the class
system; to distract us from the simplicity of the trajectory of his story, Roy
tries to juice the thing up with the Triple Screen Gimmick and some Vague
Homoerotic Stuff but it never amounts to anything; this is trash in disguise.
064. (22 Jan) The Cooler (Wayne Kramer,
2003)* [B+]
Really well-acted -- Baldwin is in Glengarry mode again, finally -- and
immensely satisying on its own terms, because we care so much about what each
character is trying to do. And the luck stuff actually works, because unlike
Intacto it relies on emotion rather than... bullshit.
065. (22 Jan) American Splendor
(Robert Pulcini & Sheri Springer Berman, 2003)* [B]
Solid form-bender that ain't exactly Ghost World but has its own brand of
existential deadpan, switching between the real Harvey and the fake one, asking
them if accepting the world as it was was worth it.
s15. (22 Jan) Devil Talk (Illeana Douglas,
2003)* [B-]
066. (22 Jan) Laurel Canyon (Lisa Cholodenko, 2002)* [C]
If this movie were a rap group it would be called "2 Dull N Inane 4
U." I seriously remember next to nothing from it.
067. (22 Jan) Masked and
Anonymous (Larry Charles, 2003)* [D]
What a disaster. Lots of cameos and muddled political commentary but never any
kind of laughs, thematic coherence, or genuine energy. The fact that he said
this movie is like Cassavetes or Altman doing Shakespeare is just plain
insultingly arrogant for such a clearly bad director and character-producer.
068. (22 Jan) Off the Map (Campbell Scott,
2003)* [C+]
Not bad, perse, but it really just puts a bunch of feelings out there, not
necessarily with the knowledge of what they feel like. And it has an annoying
little girl of course.
s16. (22 Jan) firepussy (Laurel Almerinda,
2003)* [C+]
s17. (22 Jan) Request (Jinoh Park, 2003)* [B]
s18. (22 Jan) OPENMINDS (Joe Sedelmaier,
2003)* [D+]
s19. (22 Jan) Family Tree (Vicky Jensen,
2003)* [D]
First two: decent. Second two: suck. Bad. Shorts suck.
069. (23 Jan) Quattro Noza (Joey Curtis,
2003)* [D+]
Wish I could have a little more affection for this one but the truth is that
it's boring as ass... Curtis has no idea what to do with his story to make it
sing or engage AT ALL, it's just a Romeo rehash. Yet yes, some of the Brakhage-esque
images are real cool-lookin', if somewhat hollow. Just stop making stupid
movies Joey, you can do it.
070. (23 Jan) The Station Agent (Tom
McCarthy, 2003)* [B-]
Quirky characters making quirky connections. Light and kind of amiable, but
where the hell is all that insane praise coming from?
s20. (23 Jan) O beautiful (Alan Brown,
2003)* [C-]
s21. (23 Jan) Struggle (Ryan Fleck, 2003)*
[B]
s22. (23 Jan) Come Nightfall (Abigail
Severance, 2003)* [C+]
More decent this time, especially the second one, which presents an
intriguingly vague allegory about racial freedom.
071. (23 Jan) /All the Real
Girls/ (David Gordon Green, 2003)* [A]
072. (23 Jan) Owning Mahowny (Richard
Kwietniowski, 2003)* [C+]
If you've ever seen a movie about a compulsive gambler before, you'll know
where this one's going. Hoffman is great, but I mean, duh, and the internal
logic of his character's spiral downward is never really explained that well.
073. (24 Jan) What Alice Found (A.
Dean Bell, 2003)* [C]
Writing pretty mediocre enough to make me look for some agenda looking
underneath the utterly contrived premise but couldn't really find anything
offensive. Still, pretty stupid. I mean, come on.
074. (24 Jan) The United
States of Leland (Matthew Ryan Hoge, 2003)* [F]
One of the most deeply offensive movies I've ever witnessed, one that uses
doe-eyed depressed self-consciousness as an excuse or the MURDER OF OTHER HUMAN
BEINGS. There isn't a moment when we aren't supposed to believe that what cute
little Ryan Gosling did was completely justified because he's a whiny
pseudo-poetic teenager. And all the other actors, including Don Cheadle and
Kevin Spacey, are at their just plain laziest here, hamming it up to make sure
we get the forced lack of motivation.
075. (24 Jan) City of Ghosts (Matt
Dillon, 2002)* [C]
Um, Matt, did you really feel that passionate about this typical, stupid,
atmospheric yet just nothing blah "thriller"? May I ask why?
076. (24 Jan) The Secret
Lives of Dentists (Alan Rudolph, 2002)* [A-]
Marriage noir: deliriously cynical yet fully justified and felt, making us feel
inexorably trapped between worry and tranquility. Scott (and Davis is good too)
is so great here that the way he looks at her in the final shot seems to embody
everything the movie has showed us beforehand. Even the wacky bits with Leary
are engaging and fun because they're so intensely involved in Scott's
worldview.
077. (24 Jan) Capturing the
Friedmans (Andrew Jarecki, 2003)* [A]
Jarecki goes all out here, showing us evidence that constantly contradicts each
other (for a while I was completely convinced he did it, but then I wasn't so
sure once the whole forceful interrogation/lack of concreteness/memory lapse
thing came into play) and then he ends by embracing this family and at the same
time wondering about how they must feel not being able to say those things to
each other. The one who made the biggest impression on me was David... because
he really does look like he's repressing the truth. At those moments when I
felt pretty confident I could key into what was going on it became a story of
denial and trying to escape a self-inflicted lack of communication. But it's
also very politically ambivalent which truly pissed some audience members off
at my screening due to some serious bias. Good I say.
s23. (25 Jan) Fits & Starts (Vince
De Meglio, 2002)* [B+]
078. (25 Jan) Camp (Todd Graff, 2003)* [B]
Sets itself up from the beginning as a Fame done by a minimally stylistic
version of Paul Thomas Anderson, and it's a bit of a soap opera, but at the
same time, it's genuinely celebratory, huge fun, and I like it more than
Parker's version.
079. (25 Jan) Whale Rider (Niki Caro,
2002)* [D+]
Some young girl wants to become a chief and control the whales, no you can't
become a chief little girl, yes I can says the girl, then she does, it's all
triumphant and heartwarming and shit and fits in with all this tribal spiritual
crap and that's the end. How's it sound, Harvey? Won the big audience prizes at Toronto and Sundance!
080. (25 Jan) /Raising
Victor Vargas/ (Peter Sollett, 2002)* [B+]
Just as sweet and free-flowing as the first time. Kind of interesting how it
starts out accepting the girls' ambivalence toward the guys' affections and
gradually falls into a standstill where they're all able to accept each
other, which is so sweet.
081. (25 Jan) Levity
(Ed Solomon, 2003)* [C-]
082. (25 Jan) Irreversible
(Gaspar Noe, 2002)* [A-]
083. (26 Jan) /All the Real
Girls/ (David Gordon Green, 2003)* [A]
s24. (27 Jan) La Jetee (Chris Marker, 1962)
[B+]
Yes this is the sci-fi short that Terry Gilliam ripped off. It's a pretty
brilliant allegory for the fleeting nature of time and relationships but
there's a bit more intellectually preconceptualized annoying Resnais
meta-romance stuff than I thought there would be.
084. (29 Jan) Rosemary's Baby (Roman
Polanski, 1968) [A-]
The first Polanski I've liked, and I liked it a lot. Like Repulsion, explores
how a woman is gradually driven insane by how her friends forcibly communicate
with her... but unlike Repulsion, it doesn't appear to live by some bizarre
sexist insanity to get its point across, rather grounding its fear in oncoming
parenthood and then suggesting that Rosemary's obsession may drive her to... not
care so much. Basically, it doesn't feel like an excuse for obligatory horror,
but an actual meditation on alienation.
085. (31 Jan) Final Destination 2
(David R. Ellis, 2003)* [B-]
Cruel and stupid... but alas, still very enjoyable, squeezing palpable aimless
dread out of everything despite its self-contained ridiculousness and getting a
lot of mileage out of the ways different "types" deal with impending
death to boot (like Irreversible, there's a pregnancy to remind us that
worrying about the future can breach into the unknown territory of familial
connection). So damn hilarious, even if we do sort of know what will happen,
yet so easy to get into and feel for despite its glossy throwaway sadism. For
some reason.
086. (01 Feb) /George Washington/ (David
Gordon Green, 2000) [A+]
Still rocks. "They'll get your picture right someday." That's what it
means! A movie that connects history to everyday life that isn't a bunch of
bullshit!
s25. (01 Feb) Pleasant Grove (David
Gordon Green, 1996) [C]
s26. (01 Feb) Physical Pinball
(David Gordon Green, 1998) [C-]
s27. (01 Feb) A Day With the Boys
(Clu Gulager, 1969) [B+]
The first being a less modulated, atrociously acted, shortened and
ideologically next-to-null version of George Washington (although it rules to
see Paul Schneider), the second being a very paint-by-numbers coming-of-age
story complete with the heavy-handed going-ahead-of-your-time streetlight
metaphor (though a few juicy Greenisms, and don't think I'm not considering
watching it again just for auteur worship reasons), and the third being a
totally kickass, absa-fucking-lutely gorgeous montage of nostalgic experimental
blahblahblah. Gotta watch more Criterion extras.
087. (01 Feb) A Woman Is a Woman
(Jean-Luc Godard, 1961) [B-]
The emotional lack of confidence, flares, and colors of Punch-Drunk Love (the
guy even wears a blue suit) meets the fussy tribute of The Truth About Charlie
(they even listen to Aznavour) (why is a tribute particularly intelligent or
stimulating though) meets Godard's self-criticisms about the way his aesthetic
depicts women meets Godard whining about his inability to depict comedic grace
because he has to criticize those ol' aesthetic limitations (there are Lubitsch
references). I guess I kind of liked it; I'm really interested to hear what
raving Karina-fetishist Jared Sapolin
would think, as he walked out of Demme's film and thinks Anderson's
is one of the greatest eva. {Post-Jared-commentary:
well, yeah, I'm basically with you. I guess I'm among the few who like Godard
better when he's challenging himself to be purposeful (see Ici et Ailleurs
below) as opposed to just hollowly self-referential. The B- is probably because
I can always have fun with his sensibility either way, unless he's in a very
glum, dull JLG/JLG-ish mood. And yes young Anna Karina is very hot, very Melora
Walters/Emily Watson.}
088. (01 Feb) Safe Conduct (Bernard
Tavernier, 2002)* [B-]
Pretty compelling when put next to something as petty and uninspired as The
Pianist, because Tavernier (well NOW I know) attempts to relate his brand of
historical truth to the attitudes of the filmmakers he's paying tribute to
here, and I actually got the goddamn Le Corbeau reference and some others too,
but eh, he really should have brought it together more often. This is the price
you have to pay for having your movie center around two barely-knew-each-other
protagonists.
089. (02 Feb) Mister Roberts (John
Ford & Mervyn LeRoy, 1955) [B]
Hesitant to get into this at first. Sure, it knows the vibrant mundanity of
out-of-combat army life and even weaves its own philosophy out of that living
towards the end, but Hawks, Ray, and Curtiz have done things with Bogart that
make what Ford and LeRoy do with Fonda seem like an odd joke of sorts. Then
again, there is the powerfully affirming (if predictable) last sequence with
Jack Lemmon...
090. (02 Feb) /Tears of the
Black Tiger/ (Wisit Sasanatieng, 2000) [B]
Didn't really hold up; now it reminds me of that famous Shakespeare equation,
S+F=0. But what S, what F. Unlike 8 Women/Die Mommie Die, I'm afraid it kind of
proves empty, mocking nostalgia isn't always that funny. Still really cool
though.
091. (02 Feb) My Wife Is a
Gangster (Cho Jin-Kyu, 2001) [C-]
Stultifyingly idiotic, unfunny Korean gangster rom-com. This is really as
screenwriting class bland and fundamentally uninteresting as movies get. Note
to self: stop listening to Jeremy's Asian cinema recommendations. Not to
mention billypilgrimnz's.
092. (03 Feb) Ici et Ailleurs
(Jean-Luc Godard, Jean-Pierre Gorin, Groupe Dziga Vertov, & Anne-Marie
Mi�ille, 1976) [A]
Startlingly cogent filmmaking, about activism, promoting activism, questioning
activism, and questioning promoting activism, and everything left. Not only
does it force us to consider the repercussions of our own ignorance, but as it
considers the repercussions of its own dishonesty, it becomes a plea to look at
ourselves the same way we look at other cultures in need of political
grounding/assistance of some sort. It's all the more important to me because,
well, because aw shucks, I recently joined an activist group (for no particular
reason other than I have little other to do) and Ici et Ailleurs makes little
actions like that seem all the more historically worthwhile.
093. (03 Feb) Flowers of Shanghai
(Hou Hsiao-Hsien, 1998) [B-]
Men control women, women can't escape, neither can men, opium, static history
in retrospect to approach a deeper understanding of escaping one's culture, gotcha.
094. (05 Feb) My Sassy Girl (Jae-young
Kwak, 2001) [B]
Yes, so the main guy in this movie is a dumbass with a lot to learn (and yes
that is kind of tiresomely the average situation for modern rom-coms) but he is
a dumbass with genuinely good intentions, and when he learns what being
connected with a person in a way you haven't felt before can feel like, I think
we grow a little bit with him. The trajectory is similar of course to All the
Real Girls, and this film doesn't have the expansive emotional complexity of
that one; but it is really about the connections we make and take away, both
with other people and past events, and I took away plenty from it.
095. (05 Feb) El Topo (Alejandro Jodorowsky,
1970) [D]
The ultimate film-as-representative-nightmare... but unlike the nightmares of
Lynch, Godard, etc., it's so gratuitously inhumane and pretentious and removed
and religiously overwrought and utterly incoherent that it's just, well,
torturous. And I can't believe the first recommendation I got on it was fucking
Ebert. Blue Velvet is exploitative and this isn't?
096. (06 Feb) Man With a Movie
Camera (Dziga Vertov, 1929) [B]
Gloriously pure and beautiful; very much the basic components of cinema smashed
together from life into a symphony: light, darkness, motion. Unfortunately
there's not much more to it than its purity, making it a rather light and
insubstantial kind of glory. Oh well. If you rent the dvd, listen to the score.
It's surprisingly worthwhile even though it's pretty synth-y.
097. (07 Feb)
City of God
(Fernando Meirelles, 2002)* [F]
098. (08 Feb) /The Piano Teacher/
(Michael Haneke, 2001) [A]
A very internal movie, where you're either ready to get buried under years of
repression and disappointment or you aren't. I was. The first time I saw it, it
was about hate, now it's about love. Maybe it's about substitution...
099. (08 Feb) Clockers (Spike Lee, 1995)
[B-]
Probably a great movie, but once you get the idea of all the questions Lee is
grappling with, what is there to savor about it? Get out of the hood, stop
smoking crack. I will, thanks.
100. (09 Feb) L'Argent (Robert Bresson,
1983) [A]
Shattering because it doesn't make "sense"; because it doesn't need
to. Bresson isn't a moral director because he rewards the good and punishes the
bad; he is because as the typical societal imbalance goes out of control, he
always casts a sympathetic yet stern gaze.
101. (09 Feb) On Dangerous Ground
(Nicholas Ray, 1951) [A-]
The first Ray I've seen where the lead character's escape from boredom and
dissatisfaction could almost be described as fetishistic.
102. (09 Feb) Late Spring (Yasujiro Ozu,
1949) [B+]
When they say all Ozus are alike, they aren't kidding. Nevertheless, I was more
than a little gripped by his very rectangular compositions, and it goes to show
you that Ozu thinks all the transitions in life are really the same, with
acceptance, denial, reluctance, etc. He's right.
103. (13 Feb) Frenzy (Alfred Hitchcock, 1972)
[C+]
Strong, tightly controlled scenes all over the place... then why does the film
feel like such an exercise in
we-can-never-know-the-Truth-as-long-as-we-keep-watching-movies-blah-blah-blah?
Auteurism or no auteurism, it's just doodling, sorry.
104. (14 Feb) The Man Without a Past
(Aki Kaurismaki, 2002)* [B]
Have to say it pleased me; Kaurismaki is less self-consciously formal than a
deadpanner like Tsai or Jarmusch (though on the whole I like their films
better), giving into just plain warmheartedness every now and then. Call it
alternating between two types of honesty; better yet, The Majestic done introspectively.
The substance, the love-whatever-life-gives-you business, pales beside the
style.
105. (15 Feb) A Wedding in
Ramallah (Sherine Salama, 2002)* [D]
What's wrong with me that makes me so resistant to inane, crude, casual
documentaries like this one that approach such entirely innocent subjects as
cultural differences/arranged marriages/the after-effects of 9/11? Beats me.
Politically conscious, schmolitically schmoncious.
106. (15 Feb) The Wild Bees (Bohdan
Slama, 2001)* [C]
Let's see, ideas for a movie, ideas for a movie... a dysfunctional family! A quirky
dysfunctional family! With dark humor! And some vague existential undertones
and nice cinematography! Yessss! (basically, The Sea pt. 2: incoherent,
rambling, perhaps quite impressive to the chosen few who were meant to see it.)
107. (15 Feb) Lilja 4-ever (Lukas
Moodysson, 2002)* [C+]
A well-oiled tortue mechanism, for certain, but I wanted it to be a bit more.
You see, I haven't loved a character as intensely as Lilya... in well... forever
(ha ha ha). It was immensely painful to see her get hurt because I wanted to
help her out so much, but I only wanted to help her out so much because she was
getting hurt, etc. The movie is certainly socially responsible, not
exploitative, and just damn gripping, but you know what? It's like being
punched in the stomach for nothing, kinda.
108. (15 Feb) /Soft Shell Man/ (Andre
Turpin, 2001)* [B+]
First time I saw this lovely gem was at Sundance more than a year ago; now that
I've taken a philosophy course since, I got the implications set by the woman
reading Kierkegaard at the beginning and I realized this was the ultimate
Kierkegaardian allegory: a man (perhaps the opposite of Morvern Callar), intent
on expressing and fulfilling all the needs of those around him, becoming an
exact replica of his own surroundings, trying to expand the possibilities of
his Self but eventually exploding with nothingness as the crab eats away at his
brain. It's a visually dazzling piece of work; especially that love-making scene
at the gallery, which may use some surreal symbolism to enact his longing for
irresponsible peace but sure as shit works.
109. (16 Feb) Dressed to Kill (Brian
De Palma, 1980) [B]
At first I just thought it was damn gross... have you ever seen someone more
repellingly desperately plastic than Angie Dickinson? Do you have any desire to
see her stroking her vagina? (I know, I'm an anti-intellectual dick). And then
I sensed some homophobic undertones with all the he-kills-cause-he's-gay stuff,
but I realized De Palma was working on another level here (sub-Sirkian, maybe),
commenting on the stereotypes we have of cultures and sexual orientations with
a hum-drum faux-Hitchcock murder story. Plus, there's the ending, which is like
the inverse of the typical idea of repressed maleness, and is so deeply
provocative for it... And of course Nancy Allen. is hot. here.
110. (16 Feb) Devdas (Sanjay Leela Bhansali,
2002)* [C]
Was having fun with it at first, and continued sporadically throughout, but the
movie is just so... underwhelmingly... product. Nice musical sequences; wish
they could have given warnings to go to the lobby between 'em.
111. (16 Feb) To Be and to Have
(Nicholas Philibert, 2002)* [A-]
Anyone with confidence in the idea that documentary can work as poetry should
see this movie... right... now. Such an amazingly beautiful and heartfelt piece
that really makes you get in touch with your own experiences, your own feelings
about learning and growing, because there's so much variety of naivete here.
The "point" is that no matter what age we are, we can always be
transfixed and frustrated by life's unworkables and givens. If growing up is
knowing a moment is just a moment, when do they stop being more? Why are they
more? We get a little hint of that here.
112. (16 Feb) Monday Morning (Otar
Iosseliani, 2002)* [B-]
What the hell...
113. (17 Feb) At the First
Breath of Wind (Franco Piavoli, 2002)* [C+]
Surprisingly absorbing for a bunch of pretty shots of people sitting around
doing nothing. It's almost as if the movie is afraid of joy; it's a poem about
being held in place. Often laughable (i.e. the dude typing the
"essay" about DNA; the woman yelling "Jean!" and us having
no idea what the fuck is going on); also quite beautiful.
114. (17 Feb) Sweet Sixteen (Ken Loach,
2002)* [B-]
Involving enough, I suppose; it just feels routine. The consensus is it's tense
while it goes on, and it feels like a sociological message movie when it's
over, but I pretty much felt the familiar escape your drab surroundings bit the
whole way through, sorry.
115. (17 Feb) The Magdalene
Sisters (Peter Mullan, 2002)* [B-]
Political motivations here even more obvious than Sweet Sixteen; still, a lot
of fun (hot British girls! evil nuns! die nuns die!). May have worked better as
a straight satire, though satisfying as it is.
116. (17 Feb) Dazzling (Xin Lee, 2002)*
[D+]
Collection of timeless moments done shallowly and redundantly; like At the
First Breath of Wind as directed by Roger Avary. You may connect to the
pseudo-philosophical relationship Calvin Klein ad mumbo-jumbo; I just felt like
I wasn't really getting anywhere.
117. (18 Feb) The Man on the Train
(Patrice Leconte, 2002)* [C]
What a lazy, uninsightful little movie this is. Never really punishing; still,
pretentious, unfunny, and just plain uncourageous.
118. (18 Feb) The War (Alexei Balabanov,
2002)* [B-]
I guess war satire just isn't a fresh genre any more, but at least there's some
decently interesting shit going on in this movie. I'm beginning to feel like a
broken record here because I called Buffalo
Soldiers interesting for its casually conflicted outlook on war. Here the
direction itself seems conflicted; at one moment Balabanov's camera can feel
cold and threatening; at another, the alt-rock music will surge up and make
everything seem oddly slackish... increasing the weight of the cruelty at hand,
in a way. Whatever, the movie's cool. There's a great scene with rocks...
119. (19 Feb) Stevie (Steve James, 2002)* [B]
Moving, resilient, deeply personal, etc.; unfortunately suffers from some
editing problems, because James probably just wasn't able to convince himself
to edit certain sorta-redundant sections out concerning Stevie's family life,
influence, etc. Despite this, it's quite an expansive journey. The film is
asking if there's anything in Stevie that can be changed, or rather if there's
anything that demands to be changed. After seeing that moving-on-optimistically-after-the-Event
stuff in movies like 25th Hour/All the Real Girls there's something just really
really affirming-- in Stevie's best moments-- about the fact that people
actually do that, ya know?
120. (20 Feb) Hukkle (Gyrgy P�fi, 2002)*
[C-]
Rhythmic leisure at its most pure; hiccups, creaking noises, bugs, and vaguely
disgusting sights abound. Too bad it's just sort of precious and irritating and
never really about anything other than some obvious similarities between visual
and aural textures, I mean, duh.
121. (20 Feb) Dragonflies (Marius Holst,
2002)* [C-]
Older guy, younger women, friend between the two of them butts in,
Polanski-esque obligatory psychosis intact, some pat metaphors... gee, what
will happen next? Maybe some insanity/adultery/pattery?
122. (21 Feb) Bend It Like Beckham
(Gurinder Chadha, 2002)* [C-]
Folks, it's been a long night. As if anyone cares about this fucking horny
Adidas commercial of a movie.
123. (21 Feb) Blissfully Yours
(Apichatpong Weerasethakul, 2001)* [A-]
124. (22 Feb) Minoes (Vincent Bal, 2002)* [F]
Why do people make loud, witless, shamelessly derivative, offensively
insubstantial movies like this? Where do they live?
125. (22 Feb) House of Fools (Andrei
Konchalovsky, 2002)* [C-]
Okay, so war satire is
beginning to become tiresome. Not only is this movie allegorically obvious (get
it? it's a mental institution, and there's a war! and like, insane people are
at a mental institution, and also, war is insane! so, therefore, they are on
the same level of sanity! ha ha ha ha I'm so clever!), it's lazy; all we get
are the usual types acting up and the odd (attractive; normal) one out who's
actually conflicted. Some cool scenes with Bryan Adams though.
126. (22 Feb) Respiro (Emanuele Crialese,
2002)* [C+]
Paint-by-numbers come-of-age-and-help-your-mentally-unstable-mother flick,
enlivened by some indelible images and terrific acting.
127. (22 Feb) Divine Intervention
(Elia Suleiman, 2002)* [B-]
Obviously not even-handed at all, so while I was watching it, it just felt dry
and cynical and almost politically useless. But it does feature many impossibly
cool scenes (i.e. the kick-motherfucking-ass faux-Matrix training sequence; the
balloon trip; "I Put a Spell on You"), and the coolness of those
scenes I guess sort of transports you to the ethnocentric world of the
Palestinian side of the conflict... I guess... Call it In the Company of
Israelis...
128. (23 Feb) Spellbound (Jeffrey Blitz,
2002)* [B+]
After my invariably gripped and uplifted reactions to this and To Be and To
Have I'm beginning to have nightmares of me standing next to my wife the soccer
mom going "These kids are so cute, aren't they!?" A bit too much Americana for my taste, but it just makes you feel so
good (made with a [David Gordon] Greenian sense of compassion and respect; and
an "expansive", I guess, perspective of the American Dream)!
s28. (23 Feb) Bamboleho (Luis Prieto,
2001)* [B-]
129. (23 Feb) Mondays in the Sun
(Fernando Leon de Aranoa, 2002)* [B]
I'll take this resonating economic instability with a terrific understated
performance by Javier Bardem over the new Loach or Leigh any day; unlike their
films it respectively doesn't OD on didactic familiarity or gooey
reconciliation.
130. (23 Feb)
/Russian Ark/ (Alexander Sokurov, 2002)* [B+]
Russian girls have real purty skin (as with the first time, moments of
revolutionary beauty with thankfully occasional lapses into historically
referential incoherence)...
131. (24 Feb) Bolivia (Adriďż˝ Caetano, 2001)* [C+]
Been-there-done-that working class angst explosion... I believe that there are
two other better versions of this movie called Laws of Gravity and Manito that
actually have both naturalism and energy. Nice B&W photography
though.
132. (24 Feb) /Blissfully Yours/
(Apichatpong Weerasethakul, 2001)* [A-]
133. (25 Feb) Deserted Station
(Alireza Raisian, 2002)* [C]
I was thinking of writing De Palma : Hitchcock :: Raisian : Kiarostami but
realized the analogy wouldn't work because a) Kiarostami, like, wrote the story
for this movie, and b) it would be an insult to De Palma, who still actually
strives for creativity and self-reflection inside his anguished, wank rip-off
aesthetic. Raisian, on the other hand, uses smug philosophy talk (sample
dialogue: "In one's life, one lives and one dies") and cloying cuteness
(the girl who had to be carried resolving the woman's desire to care; the lamb
resolving the desire to give birth; why the hell do desires have to be
resolved anyway?) where Kiarostami is subtle and giving. Also paled in
comparison to To Be and To Have; this is not a movie about how students
influenced a teacher's life, but How Students Influenced a Teacher(how
ironic)'s Life.
134. (25 Feb) Octavia (Basilio Martďż˝
Patino, 2002)* [D-]
Can't really suggest you do anything other than stay far far the fuck away;
this is one of those movies where the violins drone on and on and the dully
complacent (and oh-so-existentially-serious) main character, the old man
who is oh-so-profoundly looking back on his life and is oh-so-wise and
knowledgable and cultured, and knows how to "appreciate
beauty" (which is, according to this movie's twisted logic, looking at
pretty buildings and flowers and giving into mindless anti-transcendence),
talks to you about how Octavia (oh, Octavia!) is going to die and that
she was young and that is Sad and that this boring-ass piece of trash is 130
minutes long (it's like the inverse of thirteen, giving into the attitude that
comes with experience and refusing to accept any new ideas, forever holding
onto the soiled teddy bear of Artfulness); thankfully, its seriousness and
ignorance get to be more hilariously laughable as it goes along.
135. (26 Feb) Waiting for
Happiness (Abderrahmane Sissako, 2002)* [C+]
I guess it says something moving about transcending cultural monotony, but
it's just not that, you know, distinct. It's one of those art movies about a
community of African people...
136. (26 Feb) Derrida (Kirby Dick and Amy
Ziering Kofman, 2002)* [B]
Very cinematic representation of Derrida's ideas because it seems to unsure of
its ability to embody them (i.e. the difference between someone and something
being represented by our relationship to what we are shown of Derrida's actions
and what he knows about the filming as it occurs). It's also about the
inseparability of the man's actions and his thoughts (and our actions and our
thoughts)...
137. (27 Feb) /George
Washington/ (David Gordon Green, 2000) [A+]
*wipes tear from eye* I feel like I get closer to this film every time I watch
it.
138. (28 Feb) /All the Real
Girls/ (David Gordon Green, 2003)* [A]
139. (28 Feb) Japon (Carlos Reygadas, 2002)*
[D+]
Something like Herzog meets Kiarostami meets Dumont, and the "meets"
thing is pretty apt here since it felt like Reygadas didn't have a creative
bone in his body (in the program notes he said something about wanting to make
the most beautiful film ever made; pity he didn't want to say anything
remotely interesting). This is a bunch of contrived, tiresome dread, like
the male version of The Hours, with some wacky sexual angst and a cool-ass
final shot as sole merit.
140. (01 Mar) The Invisible Children
(Lisandro Duque Naranjo, 2001)* [C]
Bearable but still clumsy nostalgia piece. Ooh, this is a what it is a like to
a be a child!
141. (01
Mar) /All
the Real Girls/ (David Gordon Green, 2003)* [A]
142. (01 Mar) /The Dancer
Upstairs/ (John Malkovich, 2002)* [B+]
Not on the top ten any more but I still think it's damn wonderful despite its
occasional flaws and awkwardness. And super-duper-restrained Javier Bardem is
awesome! (p.s. in a pivotal emotional moment, the sound started getting
laughably distorted... which was kind of depressing)
143. (01 Mar) Bedtime
Fairy Tales for Crocodiles (Ignacio Ortiz, 2002)* [C-]
b-L-a-f-n-f-g-i i-c-n-e-h-o-t-e-r-n. d-n-a
144. (02 Mar) Le Petit Soldat
(Jean-Luc Godard, 1963) [C+]
(Yes, katemossmightbelieveingod, I am that lazy), and this just sort of seemed
like the dry intellectualized version of The Dancer Upstairs in the uneasiness
it presented towards war and governmental collapse, and The Dancer Upstairs has
soul!
145. (02 Mar) Spellbound (Alfred
Hitchcock, 1945) [D+]
What kind of psychoanalytical bullshit is this movie encouraging? The end makes
it like the much more didactic version of Signs, only without the
scares, of course. Freudianism is not that cool!
146. (02 Mar) Kamchatka (Marcelo Pineyro, 2002)* [C-]
More childhood nostalgia, zzzz...
147. (02 Mar) Hejar (Handan Ipekci, 2001)* [D]
Kill me now! This is the cute Turkish movie about the cute Kurdish girl who
bonds with the cute stubborn old man! Ahhhhh!!! Die mercilessly sappy crap!!!
148. (02 Mar) /Monday
Morning/ (Otar Iosselliani, 2002)* [B-]
My teacher: "it's about, when you try to get out of the routine, it's all
the same"; my friend: "it's about how everyone plays their
roles"; Theo: "work vs. leisure"; me: "?"
149. (03 Mar) /Frailty/ (Bill Paxton, 2001)
[B]
Oh come on this movie is pretty provocative and unresolved and provocatively
unresolved despite the fact that Paxton lacks the mise-en-scene skillz to turn
it into a full-out satire. It is in a way making mincemeat out of the personal
requirement of having a spiritual guide in your life (which may be morally
corrupt itself) and that's what's important.
150. (04 Mar) Fox and His Friends
(Rainer Werner Fassbinder, 1975) [C]
There isn't much to this besides a clear-eyed view of passive myopia and
inevitable dread. Gained my sympathy alright, but never particularly
stimulating.
151. (04 Mar) Sleuth (Joseph L. Mankiewicz,
1972) [C-]
Was thinking of giving it a pass as it went along (it is a serviceable con game
movie, maybe) but what the hell? I don't think there's an awareness here of how
deeply depressing this material is, having to watch Caine and Olivier play
childish tricks each other until they fall into an abyss of reality. The reason
it didn't work was, the childish tricks had no philosophical/human grounding.
They were just tricks. Empty games. Blah.
152. (05 Mar) The Beguiled (Don Siegel,
1971) [B-]
A sick, campy, soft-core joke of a movie; most of the acting is terrible and overdone,
the thing's resoundingly pointless and awful, but I had some fun watching young
girls gradually grind the Eastwood persona down.
153. (05 Mar) /Freddy
Got Fingered/ (Tom Green, 2001) [B]
"Playtime implies that empty space becomes alive (and curved) once it
assumes a social function -- and the shortest distance between any supposedly
unrelated individuals within the same public space is comedy." - says J-Ro
of Tati's masterpiece, and it's the quote I was thinking of while giving
Green's movie another go. If comedy is energy and distance is psychological
abstraction created by unknowing personal interpretation, than Green's
aesthetic has something vaguely in common with The Time for Playing. I'm not
sure whether FGF is smart enough to tell us what to do with it, but it does
have a unique kind of energy, created by the space between poignance and
madness and ruined by the world around you, most brilliantly embodied by the
sausage/drawing/music scene. We can't have it all, but the only thing we can have
is all of us.
154. (07 Mar) I Was a Male War
Bride (Howard Hawks, 1949) [B+]
More intelligent than it is funny, but Hawksian intelligence is quite a ride in
itself; IWaMWB views love as a seesaw, with brief moments of assurance but an
overall sense of utter hopeless confusion, the last shot signifying that the
unfortunate thing is this turmoil happens faster than it seems to. But don't
worry, Hawks reassures us; love is still possible on set terms. Oh well.
155. (07 Mar)
/8 Women/ (Francois Ozon, 2002) [B+]
Is it really misogynistic or a send-up of misogyny? Did the women make
the man die or did the man make the women kill him? I'll never tell, especially
since we get to watch Ludivine Sagnier cross her legs so jubilantly.
156. (07 Mar) Full Frontal (Steven
Soderbergh, 2002) [B-]
Incoherent, a masturbatory mess of insider jabs and confusing
self-consciousness, and I'm amazed it got distributed. Still fun most of the
way through though.
157. (07 Mar) Ugetsu (Kenji Mizoguchi, 1953)
[A-]
One of the great poetic films, probably, even if I don't have that much to say
about it: it's essentially about disillusionment, how life can only be a dream
if you reach for sublime happiness, how it can only be held together if you
know when to quit.
158. (07 Mar) Pickup on South Street (Samuel Fuller, 1953) [A]
Everything you could want in a thriller: bombastic sexuality, chronic
desperation, heat, tension, etc. Plus, plenty of interesting
paranoid-of-communism-and-"communal"-behavior undertones going on
here. The best films about politics always look at them as an expanding game
(check out the resonating last line of this movie) than an ongoing battle.
159. (08 Mar) Resident Evil (Paul
Anderson, 2002) [B]
Not as good as its rampant defenders say it is, probably, but it does have an
original concept of escape (created by enclosed spaces in both the physical and
mental world, as exhibited by the oddly shattering ending and the way it
begins, with a lack of knowledge and breadth of recurring memories on Milla's
part) and a character who is actually conflicted, Michelle Rodriguez the
bad-ass reluctant martyr.
160. (08 Mar) Sawdust and Tinsel
(Ingmar Bergman, 1953) [B+]
As soon as you get past the familiar feeling of Bergman pretense (ooh, sadness!
B&W high contrast! ooh baby!), there's a lot here in this dream of a movie:
it has a lot to say about acting for the public and for others, and how (sex,
appreciation, as opposed to consistency) one can become more concerned with one
than the other...
161. (09 Mar) L'�e d'or (Luis Buuel, 1930)
[A-]
Like a song where the lyrics and music are mismatched, L'�e d'or attempts to
redefine our idea of continuity and coherence by fucking with feelings we get
from cinema rooted in convention, by mixing blood, love, acceptance, and
expositional technique in ways we don't expect. Not sure it completely even
came together for me, but it's a ride.
162. (10 Mar) The Ring (Gore Verbinski,
2002) [D+]
Either Gore Verbinski is the shitty music-video-ish director he seems like or
I've grown as a moviegoer or this concept seems different or all three, 'cause
I enjoyed Nakata's version. And people are calling Gaspar Noe immoral and
cruel, it made me think, because not only is The Ring an immoral (i.e. the
implausible-as-the-rest-of-the-damn-thing faux-Spielbergian ending,
substituting cipher-survival over ambiguity), cruel, mechanical, emotionally
inept, contrived, etc., it makes Noe seem like a friggin humanist, and unlike
his film it has to strain for sincere compassion. Because, let's face it, there
is about as much compassion and resonance and trueness to The Ring as a Korn
video. Ugh. I was honestly never even scared, it was so cold and removed. The
"+" may be for some generational observations, but even those are based
on Modern Coldness: "Can you just pretend for one minute that I don't read
video geek magazine?"
163. (12 Mar) /Indiana
Jones and the Last Crusade/ (Steven Spielberg, 1989)* [C]
The other week I was arguing with Jeremy
about Spielberg, defending him as subverting his reliance on paternal nostalgia
and avoidance of existential emptiness in all of his recent films; pity I had
to see this one projected at my field studies camp thing, which is at least as
misogynist (the ending includes the Nazi femme fatale trying to dumbly escape
away with the grail and make amends with Indy, who decides that Daddy Sean is
the only safe thing to turn to) as Rosenbaum mistakenly thought Catch Me If You
Can was, and as ploddingly anti-German as some people mistakenly thought
Schindler's List was. So why am I being nice? There are still some God-like
scenes here (the leap of faith) and the gooey paternal stuff actually worked on
some weird auteuristic delusion level for like a second.
s29. (14 Mar) My Friend (Gus Van Sant, 1988)* [B-]
Hormones vs. sentiment. "He was good looking," you
"thought", but you floated off in a boat.
s30. (14 Mar) Junior the Cat (Gus Van Sant, 1988)* [B]
Dance, kitty, dance!
s31. (14 Mar) Flea Sings (Gus Van Sant, 1991)* [C]
What the hell was he even talking about?
s32. (14 Mar) A Thanksgiving Prayer (Gus Van Sant, 1982)*
[C+]
Amusingly contradictory but so obviously self-congratulatory.
s33. (14 Mar) The Discipline of D.E. (Gus Van Sant, ????)*
[B-]
... but it means serious shit!
s34. (14 Mar) DeWitt Clinton Choir (Gus Van Sant, 2000)*
[D+]
I really needed to see this offensively benign outtake from Finding Forrester,
thanks.
s35. (14 Mar) Four Boys in a Volvo (Gus Van Sant, 1996)*
[B-]
Like Gerry, only hornier.
s36. (14 Mar) Ballad of the Skeletons (Gus Van Sant, 1996)*
[C+]
More fun, self-congratulatory liberalism.
164. (14 Mar) Mala Noche (Gus Van Sant,
1985)* [B-]
Stereotypical idealizations, realized as they're defeated: talking about crazy
Mexican teenagers while driving 'em somewhere and cutting away to video game
race car footage; calling someone a fat bitch; accepting that you're a gringo.
But it's really about caring inside the cynicism; it's altruistic
sentimentality at its most convincing, roasted to a dopey, horny crisp, with
longing and masculinity and fear found in the bright lights, soft shadows, and
boiling water of (shout out time!) Portland, OR.
Like Gerry without a thorough sense of perspective.
165. (14 Mar) Open Hearts
(Susanne Bier, 2002)* [C]
166. (15 Mar) Undercover Brother
(Malcolm D. Lee, 2002) [C+]
Has its smart moments, but too many; it's just too damn politicized a comedy to
be funny.
167. (15 Mar) Austin Powers in Goldmember (Jay Roach,
2002) [B]
... as opposed to this hilariously irreverant, energetic, full-of-dead-scenes
but still surprisingly wonderful and ingratiating sequel.
168. (16 Mar) The Merchant of
Four Seasons (Rainer Werner Fassbinder, 1972) [B-]
Quote that came to mind while watching this was "the two things human
beings need to be satisfied are work and love," (from some workshop I took
at my field studies thing), and then I read Jeremy's insightful review pointing
out that these characters deserve our sympathy because of the economic system
they're trapped in, and then I realized, well, the merchant is trapped in a
love life that mirrors his working one, implying that social and financial systems
both can run out of room very quickly (love, work) and cause the same damage
that Fox did in the movie about Him and His Friends.
169. (16 Mar) Lost in La Mancha
(Keith Fulton & Louis Pepe, 2002)* [C+]
Cute enough, but basically this is a doc about the importance of visionary
hunger which is made in the most obvious for-DVD type of way, lumbering about
bouncily, always ready to draw conclusions. Those two wavelengths of filmmaking
are at odds with each other in my opinion.
s37. (16 Mar) /My
Friend/ (Gus Van Sant, 1988)* [B-]
s38. (16 Mar)
/Junior the Cat/ (Gus Van Sant, 1988)* [B]
s39. (16 Mar)
/Flea Sings/ (Gus Van Sant, 1991)* [C]
s40. (16 Mar) /A
Thanksgiving Prayer/ (Gus Van Sant, 1982)* [C+]
s41. (16 Mar) /The
Discipline of D.E./ (Gus Van Sant, ????)* [B]
s42. (16 Mar)
/DeWitt Clinton Choir/ (Gus Van Sant, 2000)* [D+]
s43. (16 Mar)
/Four Boys in a Volvo/ (Gus Van Sant, 1996)* [B]
s44. (16 Mar)
/Ballad of the Skeletons/ (Gus Van Sant, 1996)* [B-]
170. (16 Mar) My Own Private Idaho
(Gus Van Sant, 1991)* [C]
Seemed to promise to offer a perspective of narcolepsy as a philosophical
outlook, and forgive the pun, but it just gets tiresome. Why should I care
about someone purposefully trying to rid themselves from directionality?
171. (17 Mar) Party Girl (Nicholas Ray,
1958) [A-]
Nothing incredibly "special" here, just a straight up sexy, energetic
yet tired old movie, filled with the usual slew of Ray characters who live a
certain way for a long time and still find themselves asking for guidance along
the way. Cyd Charisse does a mean redux of her repressed mob bitch from Singing
in the Rain too... because it's the sadder, more aware version, the one that's
not part of Gene Kelley's magical music video.
172. (18 Mar) Domestic Violence
(Frederick Wiseman, 2001) [B+]
Only thing I can say is it changed me. Changed my knowledge about domestic
violence, about the way people escape from situations, about feeling hated for
a long, long time and not doing anything about it. It may have taken a while,
but it feels good to understand people, you know?
173. (18 Mar) The Ballad of
Narayama (Shohei Imamura, 1982) [C+]
Begins as an intense, elemental study of the effects of cultural arbitrariness,
of the act of sustaining and knowing and continuing. Then it just sort of
melted down in my head into one of those incredibly generic Ikiru Ugetsu Tokyo
Story Japanese Death Poems of Doom, with the old woman in the snow and
everything. Oh well.
174. (19 Mar) Sansho the Bailiff
(Kenji Mizoguchi, 1954) [A]
Up there with Au Hasard Balthazar, Schindler's List, and George Washington on
the shortlist of truly great films about the possibility of kindness in the
world. Also up there with Paris,
Texas on the shortlist of great films about
the inexorability of returning home and not finding what you expected. Etc.
175. (19 Mar) Violence at Noon (Nagisa Oshima, 1966) [D]
Rape rape rape rape fetish fetish fetish fetish biological necessity offensive
exploitive nonsensical bullshit blah blah blah blah blah. (P.S. the reason I
rented Violence at Noon is because for the very first time I
grabbed an absolutely random video from the shelf at the store while closing my
eyes. Adventure can be dangerous.)
176. (20 Mar) Rebel Without a
Cause (Nicholas Ray, 1955) [A]
Let me tell you something -- some of my friends got suspended on the 20th. One
of them tied an American flag with the word "bullshit" inscribed on
it around his knee; another possibly mistakenly printed out 3000 copies of the
same anti-war protest flyer on the school printer; another walked out at 2:00,
being the only one without permission and having to take detention. There are a
few feelings going through your head when something like that happens: a)
teachers suck; b) tough times; c) wonder what they'll have to do; d) were my
friends right? This is what makes RwoaC so brilliantly unresolved; Jim doesn't
have to grow up, he has to decide what growing up means to him. He has to be a
hypocrite.
s45. (20 Mar) /Junior
the Cat/ (Gus Van Sant, 1988)* [B]
177. (20 Mar) To Die For (Gus Van Sant,
1995)* [C+]
Dated as hell. Rewards its audience's hormones by "thematically"
asserting their importance in the media. Young Casey Affleck is funny. Nicole
Kidman was overrated in this movie.
178. (21 Mar) Willard (Glen Morgan, 2003)*
[B-]
Works because it has an old-fashioned,
who-the-fuck-cares-if-we're-going-to-be-campy-and-poignant feel to it,
and Glover gets the twitchy loner just right so we care and don't feel dominated
by his need to dominate, and the relationship with the rats was really his
relationship with himself ready to manifest, but when it all boils down to it,
is this more than a revenge/having intercourse with Laura Harring fantasy?
Nah...
179. (21 Mar) /Gerry/
(Gus Van Sant, 2002)* [A]
s46. (22 Mar) The Rocking
Horse Winner (Michael Almereyda, 1997) [A-]
Thematically, it's nothing terribly new -- kid, through his filtered childhoody
mind -- takes risks, gets money, yet still comes to terms w/ power -- but it's
a short made with the emotional intelligence of Ozu, where the Eric Stoltz
character has just as much propulsive potential as the kid, filled with rich
overlapping visual textures like when the pool's waves shine in pixelvision,
creating a haze of black and white dots. Best when it gets to the heart of the
abstraction of obsessive forwardness -- the rocking horse being a rather
obvious metaphor for the kid's stationary self-analysis as he plummets through
life, but the outside world creating a horrifying balance.
s47. (22 Mar) Aliens (Michael Almereyda,
1993) [B+]
Will kids who play videogames, talk shit and make references to UHF be
remembered in the pages of history? Or are they the ones who're gonna write
them? That's what I think this thing is about.
180. (22 Mar) The Eighties (Chantal
Akerman, 1983) [B+]
One of the strangest "musicals" I've ever seen in that it's
essentially an ethical preparation for a musical, an examination of the issues
a musical can explore and leave out. Ritualistic, but plenty of fun, especially
towards the end...
s48. (23 Mar) Cremaster 4 (Matthew
Barney, 1994)* [B]
This one has Barney trying to tap dance in front of a mirror, all the while
being tempted by multi-gendered beasts and facing the two sides of himself that
can only be balanced for so long. That's right, ascension and descension.
181. (23 Mar) Cremaster 5 (Matthew
Barney, 1997)* [B-]
Yeah, but why does descension have to be so... slow... and... monotonic?
182. (23 Mar) Spider (David Cronenberg,
2002)* [B]
Good... good... good... good... BAD! I honestly can't believe anyone who
doesn't think that the ending is just screaming "ooh, he didn't really
know what he was doing because it was his subjective reality, ooh!" It did
with a sledgehammer what the rest of the film did with a screwdriver. I'll see
it again, but c'mon...
183. (23 Mar) Another Girl
Another Planet (Michael Almereyda, 1992) [B-]
Title could mean a couple things: man can't deal with change in himself enough
to move from one relationship to another; or, a relationship is always the
same, but always so different from handling himself. Maintaining a childish
sense of awe is here (Dancing on the Moon), so is the sudden horror of facing
your attitudes about relationships, but at 56 minutes it drags a bit.
s49. (24 Mar) Cremaster 1 (Matthew
Barney, 1995)* [B+]
Pure ascension, of course; in other words, it's a work about lightness, and the
trouble sustaining it. This one doesn't even have Barney but it's the best one
I've seen yet.
184. (24 Mar) Platform (Zhang Ke Jia,
2000)* [B]
Bit of a muddle -- you can tell it's been edited down quite a bit, since we
never really get to know the characters, and seeing as the theme is
consumerism vs. political idealism in my opinion there isn't much ordinary
"momentum," (bearing in mind when I watch a movie I'm usually not
thinking about how much I'm "enjoying" it anyway), but once I got
into the rhythm of a scene, I really enjoyed myself most of the time, unlike
Hou's stuff, but maybe that's because I don't even really know what his movies
are about...
185. (25 Mar) Ten (Abbas Kiarostami, 2002)* [B-]
For someone who wasn't that blown away by the film (the whole women stuck in a
conditioned society is just getting old, guys), I was really impressed
by how formally apt a stunt this was: the car has plenty of meaning, as in it's
the only freedom the woman has from the burden of societal responsibility and
still entrapts her with the values of anyone else who's in it. Plus the movie
does feel directed, or at least it is kind of beautiful: like in any car ride,
lights shine past, objects create a shadowy haze, etc. {On
further reflection I realized the preceding sentence is perhaps the most
laughably inane thing I've ever written. What I might have meant is that the
lightness and darkness are the ongoing cycle of to-be-manifested threat and
safety in the woman's life. Darn.} The most interesting thing about it
is probably the camera placement Kiarostami chose in relation to the
characters: never showing the night-time arrogant prostitute, giving a sense of
affectlessness and affectedlessness; the first shots of the boy, complaining
and attempting to figure out whose lives he's in control of, what
responsibilities he must take on, etc.; the tete a tete with the distraught
woman who just got dumped, a feeling of understanding resonating between the
shots. I dunno... it left me intellectually fulfilled but sociologically
worn-out and kind of apathetic...
186. (25 Mar) Fulltime Killer (Johnny
To & Wai Ka-Fai, 2001)* [C+]
Pretty much announced from the get-go here that these are movie characters,
living in a movie world, and that any subtext is incidental. Thankfully, it's
hyperactively referential (some Alain Delon movie, Point Break, Woo movies, itself,
other stuff) and filled with ambiently amusing details (there are some
Snoopy's, some scowling, some foaming at the mouth, some grandstanding, that's
what I remember) so it's watchable despite the fact that it made no fucking
sense in my opinion.
187. (26 Mar) Sans Soleil (Chris Marker,
1982) [A]
A movie so packed with ideological intrigue (to reduce, it's about the process
of how we watch film and how we think of films that examine us and what cinema
can do for our perspective of communication) that maybe I shouldn't have
written that hasty parenthetical thought; it's a documentary, in a way,
plastered together into an immensely personal movie. The world around Marker
becomes part of him. Pity the damn English-version-dubber was female, which just
made it kind of weird...
188. (26 Mar) Rebels of the Neon
God (Tsai Ming-Liang, 1992) [B]
Tsai's take on Rebel Without a Cause, or rather his answer to it: our hero
Hsiao-Kang looks at a poster with James Dean about halfway in, somewhat
oblivious of its relation to his and his generation's ennui. And what RotNG
might be setting out to prove is that the generational gap isn't the only one
that keeps us from understanding each other; these people play video games,
dance wildly to spite their politely cautious parents (in the funniest scene in
the movie, which is reprised when one finally comes to terms with pain), steal
shit to do better for themselves, and feel pretty apart from each other, which
makes the almost gratingly heartfelt resolution, a plea for sexual comfort
after injury, so moving. In other words, these kids will never know the
devotion Jim had for Plato, because they're too busy playing games. Pity Tsai's
formal skillz weren't quite up to What Time Is It There/The Hole standard back
in the day...
189. (26 Mar) Toute Une Nuit (Chantal
Akerman, 1982) [B]
You know the pretentious writer guy in Waking Life, the one who says something
about capturing moments, people, emotions, passions, all fleeting, and
therefore, everything? If he made a film with Edward Hopper as director of
photography, this might be it. It's desperately, desperately romantic -- there
are who knows how many characters, all in love, reluctant to be in love,
looking for love, something. A bit thin, maybe (I think the quote I read on the
back, "about the inability of the cinema to capture the immediate passion
of life," is correct in that that is true, but incorrect in that that is
to be focused on; that inability is inherent to all films with any kind
of unresolved or unmanifested emotion, I mean jesus), but I could imagine
popping it in the VCR and smiling on a rainy day.
190. (26 Mar) Mother and Son (Alexander
Sokurov, 1997) [A-]
Earth to emo: see this
movie. I liked Russian Ark, but wow. What a ridiculously sublime movie, devoid
of all the self-conscious intellectualism and dread that make Bergman a chore.
Watching Mother and Son is like... visiting the portal to heaven or hell or
wherever. It's certainly not like being on earth. To say it's not
philosophically complex is absurd, but what's important is its omnipresent
belief in the infinite, in love, in purpose, in togetherness. Woah.
191. (26 Mar) Hero (Zhang Yimou, 2002) [B-]
Has such an ornate (or contrived) plot that I will watch again soon, but
talkin' about what I saw, I guess it was a) really superficially beautiful, at
least, b) deeply modern, what with all the cgi fight scenes and
fashion-commercial-esque "designs", c) something about political
restoration coming with occupational resolution... like I said, need to watch
again.
192. (27 Mar) Dracula:
Pages From a Virgin's Diary (Guy Maddin, 2002) [B+]
Great movie and everything, but there's hardly anything to say about it other
than this is is the expressionist lyric ballet version of Dracula as directed
by the Canadian master of cinema Guy Maddin, uh...
193. (27 Mar) Bus 174 (Jos�Padilha, 2002)*
[B+]
At the very least it kicks City of God's ass, because this is voyeuristic
filmmaking that's actually weary of its own motives; it's a counterpoint,
really, a searing indictment of searing indictments in general; of the will of
the public and the police and us to make judgements, yet still not very
sympathetic to the gangsta in charge (the question is never directly asked
"why did he do this?"; we're asked to accept him as a truly crazy
fucker). Up until a point, it feels too sociologically direct (get outta the
slums! c'mon, Billy!), but the final slow-mo sequence achieves a Tarkovskyesque
sense of visceral chaos.
194. (27 Mar) Wind Across
the Everglades (Nicholas Ray, 1958) [B]
Should probably firstly note that I did not in fact see this at Moma, instead
on a crushingly awful vhs, which transformed these vast rainforests into a
bunch of green lines. The one quote I had to go on was from the program notes
online, which say Serge Daney and J-Ro prefer it as an idealist vs. brooding
warlord fable to Apocalypse Now. Now surely, the conclusion to be reached from
WAtE is ecologically sensible, sincere, communicative, tough. And sure, AN's
conclusion was obtusely insane -- which makes it a much better movie in
my opinion.
195. (28 Mar) Unknown Pleasures
(Zhang Ke Jia, 2002)* [C]
Thin and tiresome: "see, the teenagers, who are the myopic and the lazy
and the forgetful and the continuous, the newness, they represented the
delapidating culture of the China." While the folks in Platform had
to struggle with the changing tides of their country, all these guys do is laze
around. That's the point, but it's dull.
196. (28 Mar)
/Hero/ (Zhang Yimou, 2002) [B-]
I'm sad to say it's still just not about a whole lot...
197. (28 Mar) Bitter Victory (Nicholas
Ray, 1957)* [B-]
Memorable moments include usual sexual tension, heart-wrenching final scene,
but I mean, this war-is-futile stuff is so dated and tired...
s50. (28 Mar) A Ninja Pays Half
My Rent (Steven K. Tsuchida, 2003)* [B-]
Funny as hell... until the last scene.
198. (28 Mar) Infernal Affairs (Wai
Keung Lau & Siu Fai Mak, 2002)* [B]
Says the Buddha: "Longevity is a burden in continuous hell." So much
for profundity, but that is the funniest line of the year, and this is a
cheesy-yet-crackerjack-and-unlike-Fulltime-Killer-actually-coherent shootin'
out story; we believe in the conflicts because on some level we can all relate
to the unfortunate karma of occupational angst and satisfaction.
s51. (29 Mar) This Is John (Jay Duplass,
2003)* [B-]
Really pathetic and amateurish but still gradually funny as hell... until the
final scene, which shoots and misses for greater resonance.
199. (29 Mar) Angel on the Right
(Jamshed Usmonov, 2002)* [B-]
Conflict here is something like spiritual measurement vs. freedom, taking into
account the central metaphor, the aggressive, enervated man, his crazy mother,
his vague, underestablished son, the underdeveloped girlfriend character.
Interesting, but rather small.
s52. (29 Mar) Short Before the
Movie (Janet Merewether, 2003)* [B-]
An anti-conventional movie that's too (expositionally) conventional.
200. (29 Mar) Ticket to Jerusalem (Rashid Musharawi, 2002)* [D-]
In every respect, unwatchable. Don't worry, there's a "story": it's
one of those triumph of the happy children things, where the noble lumbering
bad actor restores their faith in the "magic" of complacent
spectatorship (think The Cup); but it's a film without style or grace or any
internal sense of conflict, a petty game of Good-in-the-face-of-Bad for the
masses to pretend is important because it's about that thing, you know, the
people who are mad at each other, like, in the middle east, and there's some
moody sitar-strumming. Yuck.
201. (29 Mar) My Architect (Nathaniel
Kahn, 2003)* [C-]
What would it be like if every sort-of-filmmaker decided that when a personal
tragedy happened he had to make a movie about the simplistic unwinding of his
unexplored reactions to said tragedy? That's right, it would suck ass.
202. (29 Mar) The Embalmer (Matteo
Garrone, 2002)* [C+]
Okay, there's a midget, there's a taller guy, there's the mob, throw in some
sexual desperation and a childish reappropriation of homicidal perspective and
you have a movie, right?
203. (29 Mar) Trouble Every Day
(Claire Denis, 2001) [B+]
Arty cannibalism=love=music=salvation-from-sexual-angst flicker. I'm a sucker
for this pretentious shit. What a beautiful movie...
204. (29 Mar) The Second Circle
(Alexander Sokurov, 1990) [C]
Without the impressionistic distortions of Mother and Son, or the philosophical
complexity and/or virtuosity of Russian Ark, this feels rather like one of
those ooh,
dread-really-sucks-and-I-need-to-spiritually-slowly-purge-myself-of-all-that-dread-ooh-ooh
things. Like Japon or The Hours in its unbearable whining, but of course more
subtle and complexify and stuff... these types of trying to find spiritual
resolution things just aren't for me the technology-happy atheist, afraid...
205. (30 Mar) Home Movie (Chris Smith,
2001) [B+]
I love these people, I love their houses, I love Smith's affection for them, I
love their (modest) affection for themselves and their lifestyles, I love love
love love it all...
206. (30 Mar) Mysterious
Object at Noon (Apichatpong Weerasethakul, 2000)
[B]
Even more revolutionary in technique than Blissfully Yours, but borders on
Kiarostami-esque obligatory village insignificance. Still a lot of awesomely
challenging stuff here; thanks for reinventing cinema and everything,
Apichatpong, way to go.
207. (31
Mar) /Irreversible/
(Gaspar Noe, 2002)* [A-]
208. (31 Mar) /Femme Fatale/ (Brian De Palma, 2002) [A-]
So much better on the second viewing, now that I know what themes and symbols
to mine through and how to appreciate the visual passages.
209. (01 Apr) Seven Brides for
Seven Brothers (Stanley Donen, 1954) [A]
Like a reverse of Irreversible, pardon stupid ass pun: a movie that categorizes
male as messy but still obsessively organizational (the dad named the children
alphabetically) and women as a spiritual force whom men need to finish anything
(the mom gave the kids bible names). Joyously affirming and confrontational and
all that shit; there were sequences when I felt the fabric of my romantic
preconceptions being ripped apart, rolled up into balls and juggled with. Very
much a movie that you can't get the "gist" of by watching a scene or
two; it keeps on commenting on itself and changing attitudes.
210. (01 Apr) Make Way for
Tomorrow (Leo McCarey, 1937) [A]
Tokyo Story, done subtler and funnier and with a finer ear for human judgement
and unfairness and the big gap, so to speak. Every scene that is uplifting is
also depressing. What a magical two movies...
211. (03 Apr)
/Femme Fatale/ (Brian De Palma, 2002) [A]
Sorry, 25th Hour, see you later...
212. (03 Apr) Les Carabiniers
(Jean-Luc Godard, 1963) [D+]
Think Michael Moore is didactically anti-establishment? Take a look at this
uninsightful sludge. Only a beautiful (if clumsy and incoherent) scene in a
movie theater redeems it.
213. (04 Apr) Phone Booth
(Joel Schumacher, 2002)* [B]
214. (06 Apr) Attack (Robert Aldrich, 1956)
[B]
The review over at senses of cinema covers the father-son regression problem
here quite well; what it doesn't cover is Jack Palance's character, the sort of
man whose slight jokiness can be intimidating but can only accomplish his goals
through his influence on other people. Is the film completely asserting the
last action taken in the film as needed (and if so, is this an anti-war film or
an anti-father-son-wish-fulfillment film, or both, or neither, a piece
meaning to put in perspective how men are swayed by the admiration of other
men)?
215. (07 Apr) Diary of a
Country Priest (Robert Bresson, 1951) [B]
Wish I could be a little more enthusiastic about this but its introvertedly
spiritual nature didn't really appeal; while other Bresson films seem to be
about the ways of the world this is really a One Man deal (but maybe just
'cause of the voice-over). Still, interesting stuff abound: like, is that
sexual anxiety causing his sickness, or the pain from trying to cover up
anxiety? Is it possible to have no opinions?...
216. (07 Apr) The Mystery of
Picasso (Henri-Georges Clouzot, 1956) [B+]
Yeah, Clouzot and Picasso are basically high-fiving each other's organically
artistic asses, but so what? This features some of the most beautiful
image-music sequences this side of Fantasia; what's more, the paintings are
both redundant and alive, the ink dripping and colors showing through amidst
the black in little splotches, as Picasso spins variations on the theme of
something in nature transforming into something else.
217. (08 Apr) Sherman's March (Ross McElwee, 1986) [B]
Somehow completely all over the map (varying types of romance [everything from
slightly condescending to embarassed to servile to frustrated] against nuclear
fallout/apocalypse and modern perspective of abstract historical motivations?)
but it all works. McElwee isn't that sophisticated or even confident, but his
honesty and confusion form the essence of personal documentary.
218. (09 Apr) Yol (Serif Goren & Yilmaz
Guney, 1982) [C-]
Unreasonably well-intentioned and dull and obvious... or maybe I was just put
off by the intro my vhs copy stating pretty directly "this is the
director, he is such an acclaimed, important filmmaker, he was arrested but he
will still bring politically important information to you despite the
possibility that he may be tortured." So it's an expose, basically. Which,
like, sucks.
219. (11 Apr) The Good Thief (Neil
Jordan, 2002)* [B]
This achieves resonance because Bob is alternately graceful and a drunken
buffoon, and by the end his "success," is still up in the air, his
confidence inherently wounded in a world of games. No I haven't seen the
original.
220. (11 Apr) /Solaris/ (Andrei Tarkovsky, 1972)*
[B+]
221. (11 Apr) Spun
(Jonan Akerlund, 2002)* [C+]
222. (12 Apr) The
Hunted (William Friedkin, 2003)* [B]
223. (12 Apr) Blind Spot:
Hitler's Secretary (Andre Heller & Othmar Schmiderer, 2002)* [C+]
Okay, so there's like this woman who spent some time with Hitler. And, being
barely aware of his horrible crimes at the time, she now feels regret for doing
so and is still trying to forgive herself and find answers in her old age.
Let's film her, c'mon. It'll be like, the soberest movie ever made, dude.
s53.
(12 Apr) Fireworks (Kenneth Anger, 1947) [B]
224. (12 Apr) The Fury (Brian De Palma,
1978) [B+]
So what is this movie about? The embarassment of familial disconnect, in my
opinion. I have this vague memory of already typing something about this film
but I'll let it pass. The redemptive crap at the end is a fusing of two
elements, paternal gratification and romantic idealization. The outside world
cannot be relied on (to the extent that it needs to go boom) but is there a way
to escape its influence...?
s54. (12 Apr) Puce Moment
(Kenneth Anger, 1949) [A]
225. (12 Apr) Mo' Better
Blues (Spike Lee, 1990) [B-]
s55. (12 Apr) Rabbit's
Moon (Kenneth Anger, 1950) [A]
s56. (12 Apr) Eaux D'artifice (Kenneth Anger,
1953) [B+]
s57. (12 Apr) Kustom Kar
Kommandos (Kenneth Anger, 1965) [A-]
s58. (13 Apr) /Puce
Moment/ (Kenneth Anger, 1949) [A]
s59. (13 Apr) /Rabbit's
Moon/ (Kenneth Anger, 1950) [A]
s60. (14 Apr) /Puce
Moment/ (Kenneth Anger, 1949) [A+]
s61. (14 Apr) /Rabbit's
Moon/ (Kenneth Anger, 1950) [A]
s62. (14 Apr) /Kustom Kar
Kommandos/ (Kenneth Anger, 1965) [A-]
s63. (15 Apr) En Diez Anos (David
Forrest, 2003) [B-]
Does this count as a real movie? This is David's perception of himself in the
future. Unintentionally it comes across as a depiction he uses premonition to
resolve ambivalence toward his little sister. Hehe.
226. (15 Apr) Juha (Aki Kaurismaki, 1999) [C+]
All the particulars are practically irresistable: expressively under-the-top
rock 'n roll, melodrama with a superb sense of place. It's just... kind of...
unnecessary.
227. (15 Apr) Abraham's Valley
(Manoel de Oliveira, 1993) [B+]
Somehow, the overly high-minded, literalized atmosphere works in the film's
favor: this is a film about beauty in the same way I'm Going Home is a film
about death, tip-toeing, evading, and approaching a formal perfection in
representation of external attitudes toward the center issue while ever so
slowly going mad. The ending could even be interpreted as an act of fetishistic
sadism on De Oliveira's part, but who cares, this movie is freaking beautiful.
s64. (15 Apr) /Puce
Moment/ (Kenneth Anger, 1949) [A+]
228. (15 Apr) Esther Kahn (Arnaud
Desplechin, 2000) [B+]
[personal moment]Esther Kahn (the movie, not quite the girl) is like a girl I
might become obsessed with: conventionally expository and emotionally operatic
merely because it has to be, underneath holding the burden of
self-consciousness and introspection. Fact, Esther Kahn may be a horror film
with self-consciousness as the monster. Is the only way to overcome it sublime
emulation of acting normal? This is depressing stuff, but the
feminist-personal-control ending changes things. Phoenix is just heartbreaking here, partly because of
her inexpressible dilemma and partly because she's not very likeable. Maybe she
is like a girl I might become obsessed with, and maybe everything is
just aesthetically in sync for once.
229. (16 Apr) The Bridge on
the River Kwai (David Lean, 1957) [A-]
Shocking that a movie so gloriously oscarized could be so good too.
Early on, when the question is asked "Are you going to build this
bridge?", it isn't just some caricature acting intimidating; the question
of whether or not building the bridge in honorable and whether or not
destructing the bridge is honorable is at its shaky core, which makes the
ending so morally exhilarating: we don't feel ambivalent, we feel both good and
bad.
s65. (16
Apr) /Puce Moment/ (Kenneth Anger, 1949) [A+]
s66. (16
Apr) /Puce Moment/ (Kenneth Anger, 1949) [A+]
s67. (16
Apr) /Puce Moment/ (Kenneth Anger, 1949) [A+]
s68. (16
Apr) /Puce Moment/ (Kenneth Anger, 1949) [A+]
s69. (16
Apr) /Puce Moment/ (Kenneth Anger, 1949) [A+]
s70. (16
Apr) /Puce Moment/ (Kenneth Anger, 1949) [A+]
230. (17 Apr) Anchors Aweigh (George
Sidney, 1945) [C]
A few "entertaining" numbers, but there's not a whole lot here. Sure,
Gene Kelly as is to boy as he is to Sinatra, and everybody gets their
something, but it's ultimately one big overwrought lesson in the fact that
Kelly gets what he wants more than the very anorexic-in-this-movie Sinatra
does. Can you get any more inane than that interminably rote fairy-tale
nonsense toward the end of this picture folks.
s71. (17 Apr) /Puce
Moment/ (Kenneth Anger, 1949) [A+]
s72. (17 Apr) /Puce
Moment/ (Kenneth Anger, 1949) [A+]
s73. (17 Apr) /Puce
Moment/ (Kenneth Anger, 1949) [A+]
s74. (17 Apr) /Puce
Moment/ (Kenneth Anger, 1949) [A+]
231. (18 Apr) The Mirror (Andrei
Tarkovsky, 1975)* [A-]
s75. (18 Apr) /Puce
Moment/ (Kenneth Anger, 1949) [A+]
232. (19 Apr) /Better Luck
Tomorrow/ (Justin Lin, 2002)* [B]
233. (19 Apr) Charade (Stanley Donen, 1963)
[C+]
I didn't like The Truth About Charlie that much but it is a better movie than
this probably because this is a Hitchcock homage and TTAC was a Truffaut
homage, fitting the setting/style less awkwardly, plus Hepburn (as opposed to
Thandie Newton) has so much charisma when she tries to act distraught it's a
joke. Minus a couple more points for having a less cool soundtrack/no DV/no
multiculturality whatsoever.
234. (19 Apr) Ivan's Childhood
(Andrei Tarkovsky, 1962)* [B+]
235. (19 Apr) Cabin in the Sky
(Vincente Minnelli, 1943) [A-]
Should've had problems with this one, but by the last time Ethel sang
"takin' a chance on love," I was given that wonderful feeling I only
get from movies every so often, and most of the way through I was enchanted by
the film's morally playful grace. It pretends to be a fable about doing as
right as you can in life, but of course faith is transferred from divine entity
to stable, endless love (which are, in a way, the same thing). What makes the
movie magical is that everyone, even the temptress Lena Horne, is allowed to be
happy for a while. The "consequences" she sings of not caring about
have more to do with social transience than spiritual disquiet.
236. (20 Apr) The Element of Crime
(Lars von Trier, 1984) [B-]
s76. (20 Apr)
Inauguration of the Pleasure Dome (Kenneth Anger, 1954) [B-]
s77. (20 Apr) Invocation
of My Demon Brother (Kenneth Anger, 1969) [B]
237. (20 Apr) Safety Last! (Fred C.
Newmeyer & Sam Taylor, 1923) [B+]
s78. (20 Apr) Never Weaken (Fred C.
Newmeyer, 1921) [B]
s79. (20 Apr) Lucifer Rising (Kenneth
Anger, 1973) [B+]
238. (20 Apr) The Moderns (Alan Rudolph,
1988) [A-]
239. (22 Apr) The Small Back Room
(Michael Powell & Emeric Pressburger, 1949) [B]
240. (23 Apr) My
Sex Life, Or How I Got Into An Argument (Arnaud Desplechin, 1996) [B+]
241.
(23 Apr) Leolo (Jean-Claude Lauzon, 1992) [D+]
242. (23 Apr) /Buffalo '66/ (Vincent
Gallo, 1998) [A]
Detractors of this generally tend to complain that it is either an extended
bunch of self-hatred or self-pity; I love it because it wavers between both so
gently, and because it can't quite find its home in niceness or griminess. A
friend noted that the film is full of characters w/
impractical-but-still-fulfilling talents (Gazzara's singing, Gallo's bowling,
Ricci's tap-dancing) which may in turn question the "practicality" of
the sentimental heart Gallo finally finds to be useful.
s80. (24 Apr) Pool Sharks (Edwin
Middleton, 1915)* [B+]
Hilarious as all fuck, just because the f/x here are so brilliant at defying
expectations, ie do things that don't necessarily fit into category bad A or
good B. Surreal representational gamesmanship.
s81. (24 Apr) The Golf Specialist
(Monte Brice, 1930)* [B+]
Once again the funniest moments are the ones that barely make sense: the little
girl who plants a dog and water next to W.C. for the sole purpose of fuelling
an anger she isn't even aware of; the list of "crimes" wanted for;
the paranoid young caddie. And in the end it's moralistic, but for all the
right reasons, I gather.
243. (24 Apr) It's a Gift (Norman Z.
McLeod, 1934)* [B+]
Acquaintance compared this to The Simpsons, but the modern equivalent on my
mind was About Schmidt, only this is less condescending (because all the
external complaints are justified, because Harold is resolutely a drunken fool
who has given into being mistaken) and this is why the tour-de-force of the
film, in which he tries to fall asleep, is so honest and so touching. Even when
he succeeds, he gives into carelessness, but is finally part of a movie about
living life the way you sometimes need to and failing anyway.
244. (25 Apr) The Big Steal (Don Siegel,
1949) [C+]
Not bad, just quickly forgettable, maybe just too quick. Mitchum may be
convincing but there's no sense of conflict between him and Greer, as she might
as well have reached for his pants as he stormed into her home. Message, women
like guys with mixed motivations, response, I got it. Thankfully, some of the
fight scenes are still energized seeing as we haven't necessarily picked
who we're rooting for and Fiske's entrapment late in the game invites plenty of
empathy. Best scenes and best tricks involve the fact that these are
English-speakers in a Spanish-speaking land, literalizing the emotional
directness (and unfairness) of it all, but there's just not enough here.
245. (25 Apr) Holes (Andrew Davis, 2003)* [B-]
246. (25 Apr) /Buffalo '66/ (Vincent Gallo, 1998) [A]
247. (26 Apr) Scene of the Crime
(Roy Rowland, 1949) [C]
248. (26 Apr) Adam's Rib (George Cukor,
1949) [A-]
249. (27 Apr) Nowhere in Africa (Caroline Link, 2002)* [C-]
250. (27 Apr) Beware of a Holy
Whore (Rainer Werner Fassbinder, 1971) [B]
251. (28 Apr) La Ronde (Max Ophuls, 1950)
[B+]
What gives the merry-go-round of La Ronde trepidation is the fear (of breaking
up, of a relationship ending, or of a fantasy being left unmanifested) and
dishonesty (pretty much everyone here in their own way is leaving something out
to make themselves feel better; best visual display of this is the old, stuffy
husband, brought together with his wife only by the motions of a clock, only
with his young mistress by mortally driven impulsiveness) inherent in love and
of course the Ronde and stuff. Did anyone else notice the start of the theme
song also sort of sounds like the Star Wars theme...?
252. (28 Apr) A Matter of Life
and Death (Michael Powell & Emeric Pressburger, 1946) [A-]
253. (29 Apr) Close-Up (Abbas Kiarostami,
1990) [A-]
An intellectually overwhelming treatise on the power of cinema, on its captors
and spectators; the beauty is that there is no beauty, and that passion is just
something said out loud. That said, for a film for the most part succeeding as
faux-cinema-verite, that last bit of music near the end was not necessary at
all in my opinion unless Kiarostami just wanted to underline his artifice which
is what I thought he was trying specifically not to do, but oh well,
great movie.
254. (29 Apr) The Life of Oharu
(Kenji Mizoguchi, 1952) [B-]
Or Oharu 4-ever. To Mizoguchi's credit though, his worldview is
certainly less exploitative and dishonest than Moodysson's, and we get the
requisite of beautifully cyclical pans. Oh and by the way why is this Mizoguchi
dude so obsessed with the sale of human beings.
255. (01 May) The Sacrifice (Andrei Tarkovsky,
1986)* [A]
What the hell is this movie about was my reaction to specifics (the witch
fucking and levitating bit; the Japanese-Australian conflictedness; in other
words, did old Andrei seek to briefly justify insanity in the name of future
hope) but that's actually why it worked so well for me. I guess if I was to
pinpoint why this movie is transcendent and Bergman's
old-youth-nostalgia-whiny-festivals such as The Wild Thornberrys and Seven
Seals for Seven Brothers aren't is that I can't really articulate my own
reaction to it; basically, wind/trees/windows/grass/Japanese culture/witches
> strawberries, or complex indefinable pleasures > "simple"
(what the fuck) pleasures.
256. (01 May) X2: X-Men
United (Brian Singer, 2003)* [D]
Haven't seen Daredevil but I have a mildly tough time believing it could be
more ideologically corrupt (technological fetishized violence is cool! however
"intolerance" is not) or plastic (scenes kind of go for their cheap
pleasures and then find it necessarily to Stop Abruptly before we have time to
comprehend the level of justified sadism in them, i.e. the thing with the
offensively underdeveloped Stamos morphing thing seducing the fat security
guard, pretty much ironically opposite of the principles her Femme Fatale role
held so dear). More than that, the final grasp for substance was just
fundamentally idiotic... as opposed to the "take care of my tree"
thing in The Offret which I had seen just before we're supposed to accept
having grand-grand-children that have claws as being a "good" or
"cool" thing which just sorry does not appeal to me at all.
s82. (02 May) /Cops/ (Edward
F. Cline & Buster Keaton, 1922)* [C+]
Longass Keaton shorts do not do well on repeat viewings even if they happen to
have kickass moments.
257. (02 May) An Injury to
One (Travis Wilkerson, 2002)* [B]
This dude is like the Gordon Green of social activism documentaries so duh I
love it -- it's filled with stretches of meditative poetry on the collapse of
individual working communities and piecing 'em back together. Especially cool
are the miner's songs with the words superimposed against the purty fields and
sky, all expressionery-like, and Wilkerson also sustains the responsibility of
reminding us that these are people too, and that sacrifice, no matter how
necessary, isn't always successful. Only problem is the guy is too one-sided; I
never once felt he was considerate of capitalism as the least bit successful,
which is admittedly a fallacy but I mean come on anarchist guy. Still, he's
trying not to be forceful, and resilience is an okay good thing.
258. (03 May) Cool Hand Luke
(Stuart Rosenberg, 1967) [C]
259. (03 May) The Thing From
Another World (Christian Nyby & Howard Hawks, 1951) [B+]
260. (03 May) Absence of
Malice (Sydney Pollack, 1981) [D-]
261. (04 May) She Wore a
Yellow Ribbon (John Ford, 1949) [B]
262. (04 May) Twelve O'Clock High (Henry King, 1949) [B-]
263. (04 May) Come and See
(Elem Klimov, 1985) [B]
264. (04 May) All the King's
Men (Robert Rossen, 1949) [C+]
265. (04 May) /Femme Fatale/
(Brian De Palma, 2002) [A]
266. (05 May) The Marriage of
Maria Braun (Rainer Werner Fassbinder, 1979)* [B]
267. (05 May) Cowboy Bebop:
The Movie (Shinichirô Watanabe & Hiroyuki Okiura, 2001)* [C]
268. (06 May) A Mighty Wind
(Christopher Guest, 2003)* [C+]
269. (06 May) Window Shopping
(Chantal Akerman, 1986) [A]
The Eighties is a preparation for this, actually, and it's glorious, a catty
musical that gains an extraordinary kind of subtext concerning the
participation of its maker in manipulating the surroundings (in correlation
with the way the characters manipulate each other, emotionally and intellectually,
and the manipulations they impose on themselves according to their age,
occupation, class, gender, beauty, etc.). It's glorious because it's so torn
between real emotion and product, catering to feeling or intellect; because it
knows the inner workings of a community so well, and how an offhand remark can
mean everything; because it's justified, and connects its relational
hi-jinks with a larger socioeconomic agenda in the final scene. I love this
fucking movie.
270. (06 May) /Hamlet/ (Michael
Almereyda, 2000) [B+]
271. (06 May) Blue (Derek
Jarman, 1993) [D+]
I'm sorry but this is just boring as all fuck. I guess I could blame that
partly on the fact that I saw it on a VHS, couldn't I, but I also have to
complain that out of all movies to letterbox on video this was one of
'em. So I'm walking around and looking at this little screen with these two
black bars surrounding some blue. I wasn't exactly engulfed anyway; and I have
to say seeing as I'm not going blind or going to die particularly soon I
couldn't relate to the whole obsessive monotony thing. The blue just represents
too much: life, death, transcendence, the ocean, blue itself, etc., and it's up
there for so long it might as well not represent anything at all. I certainly respect
it though...
272. (07 May) It Is Easier for a Camel...
(Valeria Bruni Tedeschi, 2003)* [C+]
273. (07 May) Persona Non
Grata (Oliver Stone, 2003)* [C]
274. (07 May) Flying With
One Wing (Asoka Handagama, 2002)* [B]
275. (07 May) On the Run
(Lucas Belvaux, 2002)* [B-]
I was underwhelmed. Apparently this picture is great and thrilling because get
this there's this dude with anti-capitalist ideals who when he kills people
just doesn't fucking give a damn. And a somewhat cool ending that for
some reason was praised by the people who called the climax of Gerry cheap,
even though it's pretty much Gerry redux in my opinion.
276. (07 May) 28 Days
Later (Danny Boyle, 2002)* [B+]
277. (08 May) The Day My
God Died (Andrew Levine, 2003)* [D]
Even if you think you want to celebrate the strength and power of Women as a
Man exploits the underground of Nepal-Indian prostitution trafficking while
Winona Ryder reads sweet poetry about overcoming darkness and Tim Robbins even
drops by to go through the obligatory hoopla and [male] fundamentalists say
things like they "rape her until there's nothing left of that soul of
theirs" and convince yourself that sexual abuse is indeed an extremely
satanic thing, trust me, no. NO.
278. (08 May) The
Bookstore (Nawfel Sahed-Ettaba, 2002)* [C-]
Let the blandification of modern cinema commence. Let's stop making adultery
films and start making films that just vaguely ever so slowly and boringly
consider the probability or something of adultery. Sample dialogue: "It's
sad." "It's beautiful." "What's beautiful about
sadness?" Um people do not talk like that. And why is that hot chick
attracted to that ugly bald dude.
279. (08 May) Song for a
Raggy Boy (Aisling Walsh, 2003)* [D+]
Aidan Quinn = love, saintliness, care. Bad guy = condoning sexual abuse,
abusive, religiously Hypocritical. Teenagers = innocent.
Drama/honesty/soft-porn factor to be found in something like The Magdalene
Sisters = nonexistent.
280. (08 May) Chinese
Coffee (Al Pacino, 2000)* [C-]
Why does the grumpy old men talking like they're in a play movie not get
released for a few years. Oh yeah, because it's obnoxious and boring and
unnecessary.
281. (08 May) An Amazing
Couple (Lucas Belvaux, 2002)* [B]
s83. (09 May) [a]torsion
(Stefan Arsenijevic, 2002)* [C+]
282. (09 May) Our Times
(Rakhshan Bani Etemad, 2002)* [C]
Apparently there are these things in Iran called political prejudices that
don't allow women to be able to have access to the things that male presidential
candidates have access to in abundance. Who wouldda thunk, etc.
283. (09 May) The Cedar
Bar (Alfred Leslie, 2002)* [A-]
Messy, incoherent, rambling, amateurish, misguided, even a little puerile. I
was never less than gripped, challenged and shaken the whole way through
though.
284. (09 May) Jealousy Is
My Middle Name (Chan-wook Park, 2002)* [C]
285. (09 May) Together
(Chen Kaige, 2002)* [C+]
Watchable sentimental fluff that benefits from some kickass violinin'. Oh and
by the way they should have cut one of those romantic subplots and added
another that would've helped the movie substantially hint hint the girl
opponent person hint hint.
286. (09 May) Shaolin
Soccer (Stephen Chow, 2001)* [B]
287. (09 May) The Eye
(Danny & Oxide Pang, 2002)* [C]
288. (10 May) Down With
Love (Peyton Reed, 2003)* [B+]
289. (10 May) After Life
(Lucas Belvaux, 2002)* [B+]
290. (10 May) Cinemania
(Angela Christlieb & Stephen Kijak, 2002)* [B]
291. (10 May) Dirty
Pretty Things (Stephen Freaers, 2002)* [C+]
292. (10 May) This
So-Called Disaster (Michael Almereyda, 2003)* [B]
293. (11 May) Cowards
Bend the Knee (Guy Maddin, 2003)* [B]
Too brilliant for its own good. Like Heart of the World, seemingly insistent on
connecting two historically opposed cinematic concepts of pleasure, the
rapid-fire gratification of the past and the pornographic glee of the present
(or future). There's only so much orgasmic montage I can take though; HotW was
like a few minutes, this is an hour, do the math, etc.
294. (11 May) L'Auberge
Espagnole (Cedric Klapisch, 2002)* [B]
295. (13 May) On the Town
(Stanley Donen, 1949) [A]
Like SitR and SBfSB, mindbogglingly powerful and joyous cinema -- why did Donen
waste his time trying to hold suspense in Charade, it makes you wonder. Really
underlines everything that was wrong with the other Gene and Frank are sailors
who want pussy musical [Anchors Aweigh], which treated Gene's attractiveness
like a revelation and the central dynamic of their relationship. This film is
just so beyond that... the key scene may be when Ms. Turnstiles displays all of
her "talents" against the yellow background, and when she finally
speaks, even flattery seems inadequate. In fact even though the film is
superficially about having wonderful discursions (the narrative breaks, like
the play near the end, don't interrupt the story, they're dreams) it constantly
undermines itself by coming to terms with the real pressures and agonies of
life -- the sights that aren't there anymore, the genuinely ugly and annoying
roommate who somehow still comes across as a human being, the obligatory
awkwardness and irony Sinatra uses in courting the cab driver. Oh Donen you...
296. (15 May) The Matrix:
Reloaded (Andy & Larry Wachowski, 2003)* [C+]
297. (16 May) The Bitter
Tears of Petra Von Kant (Rainer Werner Fassbinder, 1972)* [A]
I will always remember this film for being the first Fassbinder I can recall in
which the protagonist doesn't die, seen apparently just after the death of a
friend. Thus I actually feel kind of guilty for being shaken by it so much.
I've had grandparents and pets die before but not folks I actually know and
talk to and laugh at and hang out with who are the same age I am. So how can I
disconnect the two. Jesus. I still have thoughts on this film though. The
Bitter Tears of Petra Von Kant is really about death; it's about the
absence of, just as the penis of the angel implies cock envy/control despite
the fact there's never a guy onscreen. So I suppose it's about everything it's
not. When Petra's slave Marlene cries, her tears are not bitter.
There's this weird mixture of love and servility and anguish in her, and when
she clears up it's quite grand, but I suppose active actions taken must be done
in a grand way for all of these people. And then there's Karin, who's just this
righteous queen, always getting slagged by Petra for not living up to her youthfulness. The
juxtapositions between the three are done visually and aurally (what I'm
talking about there is an exhilarating passage between nostalgia-talk, typing,
and music; past, present, and future, really, possibly implying that true love
can only be carried out in slavery). Amazing stuff, and the program notes
called it Fassbinder's Death in Venice; I'd say it's a lot better, because it
refuses to submit to the diseased ostentation of its characters, but still
allows us to relate to it by way of the class and romantic alienation of the
third party.
298. (16 May) /Down With
Love/ (Peyton Reed, 2003)* [B+]
Oh christ...
W/O. (18 May) La Commune
(Paris, 1871) (Peter Watkins, 2001)*
299. (20 May) Late
August, Early September (Oliver Assayas, 1998) [B+]
300. (22 May) Funny Face
(Stanley Donen, 1957) [C+]
301. (23 May) Love and Diane (Jennifer
Dworkin, 2002)* [C+]
Critic-proof, completely honorable, respectful, etc., but lacks the personal
drive of Stevie or the rigorous repetition of Domestic Violence; tries to
remain somewhere between the two, being as honest and in-depth as possible and
it is but it ain't that interesting. Morally interesting tid-bits
include the ramification of Diane's past convictions, Love's vaguely fatalistic
phrases (like "I know me best" and "I feel like I'm my
mother," but isn't the latter a little too on the expected side...?).
Makes you feel good, here and there, but drags, and is very, very typical of
these sorts of things.
302. (23 May) Burning in
the Wind (Silvio Soldini, 2002)* [B-]
Pretty watchable but ultimately perverted wish-fulfillment saga; has that
Bressonish feel of the effects of horrible shit piling up on top of each other
into a garbage dump of Freudianism. Ewww, but somewhat risky and even
auteur[!]istically revealing (an earlier Soldini film the bread and the tulips
found an enervated housewife returning to a beloved community; in this one,
let's just say all the wife-adulterating turns out to be a vehicle for more
ahem male obsessions). Whatever, held my attention.
303. (23 May) Wattstax
(Mel Stuart, 1973)* [B]
Woah, culture shock! Mostly stupid, but lovable.
304. (24 May) Autumn
Spring (Vladimír Michálek, 2001)* [C]
"Humor" mostly stems from protagonists' intentionally
"witty" comments about the fact that he is Going to Die Soon But
Still Having Lots of Fun Being an Old Rascal Late in Life. Anyway, didn't
uplift me, depressed me, dull-witted. If you consider intelligence and whimsy
hand-in-hand, be my guest however okay.
305. (24 May) The Gift
(Louise Hogarth, 2003)* [F]
Wow. If Jennifer Dworkin is blandly respectful than maybe I should be hailing Hogarth's
aggressive insensitivity, stupidity and flashiness, but 'tis impossible;
there's only so much bumpin'-thumpin' techno editing and "revealing"
quotes underlined with a sharpie I can take until I reach for my pistol. Won't
speak well for its time.
306. (24 May) Rana's
Wedding (Hany Abu-Assad, 2002)* [C]
307. (24 May) The
Education of Gore Vidal (Deborah Dickson, 2003)* [C+]
308. (24 May) /Capturing
the Friedmans/ (Andrew Jarecki, 2003)* [A]
309. (24 May) Bubba
Ho-Tep (Don Coscarelli, 2002)* [C]
310. (25 May) The
One-Armed Swordsman (Cheh Chang, 1967)* [A-]
311. (25 May) Golden
Swallow (Cheh Chang, 1968)* [B]
312. (25 May) The Archangel's Feather (Luis Manzo, 2002)* [C]
s84. (25 May) Machine
Shop (?????????, ????)* [C-]
313. (25 May) Spring
Subway (Zhang Yibai, 2002)* [B-]
314. (25 May)
/Punch-Drunk Love/ (Paul Thomas Anderson, 2002) [A]
315. (26 May) Come Drink
With Me (King Hu, 1966)* [B+]
316. (26 May) Edi (Piotr
Trzaskalski, 2002)* [C-]
317. (26 May) Tabu (F. W.
Murnau, 1931) [A-]
The first of an unintentional
three-day-double-feature-of-films-that-I-remember-being-on-Fred-Camper's-top-ten-list.
Basically like a 70 years older version of Blissfully Yours with blacks,
whites, and grays as functioning paradoxes of feeling and being rather than
time elapse. Speaking of blacks whites and grays what an incredibly beautiful
movie that practically made me redefine the way I look at b&w films (ex. in
the day time, the people are dark and the water is light; at night vice versa;
it's as if physical matter doesn't exist, only light).
318. (28 May) Red River
(Howard Hawks, 1948) [A]
The level of gregariousness here (this is a very beef[if not cow]-loving movie
ultimately indeed) once again makes Hawks' views of a few kinds of desperate
maleness (this actually seemed to me a kind of Petra Von Kant without the
homosexuality; because of course there's actually a woman here, with a
chameleonlike wilfullness, instead of some penis on the wall) all the more
effective. To me, Wayne has never been more iconic, a scary mixture of
manliness and loneliness (the I kind of want to have a son scene is
heartbreaking) going on here, bouncing off Brennan's distant observations and
Clift's wavering defensiveness nicely.
319. (28 May) The Shop
Around the Corner (Ernst Lubitsch, 1940) [A]
Apparently this is a classic "comedy"; I didn't think it was funny at
all -- I didn't laugh once -- but I do consider it one of the most achingly
sad, sometimes outright depressing (but ultimately hopeful) films about
emotional messiness I've ever seen. Everything is just pitch perfect; sometimes
it was too much to bear...
320. (29 May) The Irish
in Us (Lloyd Bacon, 1935) [C]
Well at least now I can say I've seen a Lloyd Bacon film. A pleasant watch I
guess for the actors, but it drags and lacks, ya know, imagination.
321. (30 May) Turning
Gate (Hong Sang-soo, 2002)* [B+]
322. (30 May) Yossi &
Jagger (Eytan Fox, 2002)* [D+]
323. (31 May) Too Young
to Die (Jin-pyo Park, 2001)* [C+]
324. (31 May) Cry Woman
(Bingjian Liu, 2002)* [B-]
325. (31 May) The Day a
Pig Fell Into the Well (Hong Sang-soo, 1996)* [B]
326. (31 May) Oasis
(Chang-dong Lee, 2002)* [C]
327. (31 May) Marion Bridge (Wiebke von Carolsfeld, 2002)* [B]
328. (31 May) Cabin Fever
(Eli Roth, 2002)* [C+]
329.
(01 Jun) Vengeance! (Cheh Chang, 1970)* [C+]
330. (01 Jun) Intimate
Confessions of a Chinese Courtesan (Yuen Chor, 1972)* [B]
331. (01 Jun) Two English
Girls (Francois Truffaut, 1971) [A-]
s85. (02 Jun) Knick Knack (John
Lasseter, 1989)* [B]
332. (02 Jun) Finding Nemo
(Andrew Stanton, 2003)* [B]
333. (03 Jun) Marnie (Alfred
Hitchcock, 1964) [B-]
Oh no! Freudianism! Hitchcock you fucking bastard. It isn't nearly as bad as
Spellbound this time though. It was very hard for me to buy the fact that red
is very scary and yellow is comforting and therefore Sean must take care of
Marnie because some stuff happened with mom -- I mean, is Alfred asserting
Freud's beliefs, or challenging us to accept that while they may not
necessarily solve problems they can at least begin to? I just don't like Freud.
And red is a cool color in my opinion. Also imagine if Barry Egan actually went
like I get all excited by red in passionate vigorous ways but blue represents
aspiration amidst white monotony. That would suck wouldn't it.
334. (04 Jun) Christine
(John Carpenter, 1983) [A]
I was expecting not to get why this is great; lo and behold it's not simple but
direct and embraceable in the same way masterpieces like Window Shopping, On
the Town, and Puce Moment are. Like those films it's essentially a musical.
Christine doesn't represent love for cars as much as the maddeningly endless
physical aggression caused by love (lovers, those who want to be loved, etc.).
Both Arnie and the car undergo transformations without any sense of
gradualness. This was so transcendent because it's about love existing as a
physical being, and ends up being about our relationship with music, our
expectation that every feeling will have a song or shape to go along with it
being abruptly halted by reality and then brought back to life again, feelings
conquering physicality. I mean jesus, every scene here is fricking awesome. Now
how does the f vs. p thing come into line with a scene like the one where he is
being picked on by the dude with the knife. Well in my opinion there is some
vaguely homoerotic stuff going on in the scenes like the one where the two main
guys are talking to each other and the jock goes "you're not ugly,
Arnie." Self-confidence/masculine affection=big fucking mistake there.
Also the fact that there isn't the stereotypical I'll totally kick your ass
relationship between them is an awesome thing in general.
335. (05 Jun) The Red Circle
(Jean-Pierre Melvile, 1970)* [C-]
Thin, lifeless, mechanical setpiece + same + same + same + same does not in any
way amount to anything remotely fulfilling in my opinion. Plus it's lifeless {did I mention it was lifeless?}, plus the adherance
to Buddhist philosophy is vague and lazy, plus there's no depth of feeling or
character, plus it fucking lasts for 15 years. At least there's some of that
Delon/Melville coolness but it's like going to a restaurant to stare at the
food.
336. (06 Jun) 2 Fast 2
Furious (John Singleton, 2003)* [C+]
337. (08 Jun) /The Fly/
(David Cronenberg, 1986) [B+]
338. (08 Jun) The Man From Laramie (Anthony Mann, 1955) [A-]
339. (09 Jun) The Thing
(John Carpenter, 1982) [A-]
340. (12 Jun) Maid in Manhattan (Wayne Wang, 2002) [D+]
Weak link here is the Ralph character, who is literally a more bland and
dreamy-eyed rich bastard than anyone could ever ask for, including a poor
Jennifer Lopez. Therefore everything the movie has to say about class is an
offensive lie, the ending which takes pleasure in the downfall of others (the French
women? who even cares about that) leaves a sour aftertaste, etc. Chris Eigeman
and Stanley Tucci rock of course, but they just have so few resources to mine
from here, I mean jesus.
341. (13 Jun) /Chicago/ (Rob
Marshall, 2002) [D+]
Oh boy, how about another slice of Rob "I don't understand Bob Fosse's
humanism" Marshall's Oscartm-winning opus. This time I was so
distracted by the MTV-catering Miramaxian Showiness of the enterprise that I
couldn't enjoy it at all; it was rather like being raped...
342. (13 Jun) Kangaroo Jack
(David McNally, 2003) [C-]
Okay for one thing I was on a plane and am currently in a pretty intense
competition with the Movie Martyr, and for another thing this wasn't even that
awful, its straining, tired obviousness sometimes negated by sheer energy in
scenes like the one where Jerry reaches for the girl in the mirage. I mean come
on guys. Plus there's purty footage of the dessert, etc. Nowhere near as good
as Holes but you gotta admit there are interesting undertones of racial
obligation here as well... oh well.
343. (13 Jun) /Taste of
Cherry/ (Abbas Kiarostami, 1997) [A-]
344. (14 Jun) Hollywood
Homicide (Ron Shelton, 2003)* [B]
345. (15 Jun) 4 Adventures
of Reinette & Mirabelle (Eric Rohmer, 1987) [C+]
346. (15 Jun) Blaze (Ron
Shelton, 1989) [C]
347. (15 Jun) A Letter to
Three Wives (Joseph L. Mankiewicz, 1949) [B+]
348. (15 Jun) Winged
Migration (Jacques Perrin, 2001)* [C]
I'm shocked that there are people out there who think that this movie is better
than Gerry; this is that movie if a) there were many, many different Gerrys and
they were all birds and could fly; b) we were basically just asked to gawk at
how strange, magnificent, and silly the Gerrys were; c) there's no existential
banter/formalism or d) any internal conflict whatsoever. Oh yeah and e) there
are more takes. It's just, like, transportation. You can elaborate that all you
want but it don't make much of a diff to me. Although some of them birds do
look awful purty.
349. (15 Jun) The Big Mouth
(Jerry Lewis, 1967) [B]
350. (15 Jun) Night and Day
(Chantal Akerman, 1991) [C+]
351. (16 Jun) F for Fake
(Orson Welles, 1975) [B+]
352. (16 Jun) /Trouble in Paradise/ (Ernst Lubitsch, 1932)* [A]
353. (16 Jun) So This Is Paris (Ernst Lubitsch, 1926)* [B]
354. (16 Jun) Lady
Windermere's Fan (Ernst Lubitsch, 1925)* [C]
355. (16 Jun) The Weather
Underground (Sam Green & Bill Siegel, 2002)* [C-]
356. (16 Jun) The Indian
Fighter (Andre De Toth, 1955) [B]
s86. (16 Jun) Desistfilm
(Stan Brakhage, 1954) [A-]
s87. (16 Jun) Wedlock House:
An Intercourse (Stan Brakhage, 1959) [B+]
357. (17 Jun) Husbands (John
Cassavetes, 1970) [A]
358. (17 Jun) Je, tu, il, elle (Chantal Akerman,
1974) [B+]
359. (17 Jun) Parade (Jacques Tati, 1974) [A-]
... continued
here.