« January 2005 | Main | March 2005 »
February 28, 2005
Smoke
Smoke (1995), Wayne Wang:
I'm still trying to figure out Wayne Wang. For some reason he still seems relevant even when taking such jobs like Maid in Manhattan and Anywhere but Here. Is he just coasting off his earlier, actually important stuff? (I'm still trying to track down a copy of Chan is Missing.)
I guess this is a good transition piece between the good and the bad. It's a collection of stories about a handful of people, all revolving around one cigar shop in Brooklyn. If I had read any Raymond Carver stories, I'd say it was Carveresque. When it's on, it's able to frame a certain quality of life and present it to the audience to admire. At times, though, it seems caught up with its preciousness and gets way too proud of its big ideas. If you can get past those moments, it's well worth watching for those few times when it just relaxes and lets things happen.
8/15
Posted by bing at 06:43 PM | Comments (1)
Rebel Without a Cause
Rebel Without a Cause (1955), Nicholas Ray:
I have no idea why, but I was dreading watching this in the same way I dread the day I decided to watch Marty. I expected something dry and bland and trite after fifty years, even though Ray's Johnny Guitar was one of the most inventive and subversive Western I've seen.
I was also mistaken in thinking it was in black and white. It's not, of course, and has nearly the vibrant palette of Johnny Guitar. Ray's treatment of the troubling life during teenagedom is equally colorful, with a textured and complex view on gender, family and what it means to grow up.
15/15
Posted by bing at 05:49 PM | Comments (0)
February 27, 2005
Oscars recap
Seriously, what's with the T2 score? Also, what's with the Star Trek: Next Generation theme?
Posted by bing at 11:43 PM | Comments (0)
Stupid Flash Games
Vanilla, in which you try to make a tree grow as high as you can. (Not "grow a tree as high as you can")
From the same guy who did Grow a while back. He seems to have a good eye for flash games.
My best so far is 34.5.
Posted by bing at 01:01 AM | Comments (0)
February 25, 2005
The Luzhin Defense
The Luzhin Defense (2000), Marleen Gorris:
First off, Marleen Gorris is one of the best names in directing I've ever heard.
John Turturro plays the title chess grandmaster well, even though it's the same socially incompetant genius. Emily Watson is really cute, as always, playing the socialite that loves him.
Movies about chess really are just sports movies, and this is no exception, clothed as it is in Nabokov's Victorian (Victorian?) trappings. It builds the conflict well enough, but the resolution is both ludicrous and anti-climactic.
The other half is just as bad. Can just say that I'm really sick of the overbearing mother? It must be so easy just to throw a character up on the screen and hope it sticks without any regard to making her interesting or human or the very least non-two-dimensional. That's the movie. It's well-crafted only because it doesn't try to do anything that hasn't been done before. I'm sure Nabokov wasn't this banal (who knows, he might have been) so the movie ruins its one genuine asset.
6/15
Posted by bing at 11:50 PM | Comments (0)
Clockers
Clockers (1995), Spike Lee:
The description on the Netflix envelope (I think it was there) mentioned Spike's urgency which I think describes him perfectly. Clockers seemed just a few steps more developed than School Daze. It's messy and a little slipshod, but it's able to indict society with an emotional sincerity where a lot of others seem blah (See Dead Presidents, supra).
Clockers fits well as a transition between the raw Do the Right Thing and the much more mature 25th Hour. You can see the Spike being able to controll the outbursts of his product without coming out with something as bland as Malcolm X.
11/15
Posted by bing at 04:07 PM | Comments (0)
February 24, 2005
Chungking Express
Chungking Express (1994), Wong Kar Wai:
Waiting for 2046, starting my crash course in Wong Kar Wai.
It took me a little bit to figure out what this was all about. Started very noir-y until the New Waviness took over. Faye Wong (the girl in the second half) was really cute. It's not the largest of movies, but what small space it occupies it does well. The two halves are just part of a near perfectly balanced movie. I'm excited about his larger movies.
14/15
Posted by bing at 11:35 PM | Comments (1)
February 22, 2005
Constantine
Constantine (2005), Francis Lawrence:
Ok, so the movie has a terrible pedigree. MTV director, the writer of the yet-to-be-released Summer '04 thriller Mindhunters, the writer of Suburban Commando. Regardless, it's still exciting seeing the Vertigo logo onscreen.
The movie was actually pretty good. I'm not up on my Hellblazer, but I know the basic story enough to know they probably butchered it. The movie also doesn't try to hard to subvert convention, or at least push the genre to its purest form (Spider-man 2 is still the gold standard). What's with the sidekick? Also, I can't stand a directory/writer/producer who can't come up with something better than
"Where are you going? Midnite's? You know that he's a witch doctor that runs a establishment visited by good and evil, but entirely neutral?"
or something completely copouty like that.
What's good? Lots. It's very entertaining. Keanu Reeves was good. Tilda Swinton was easily the best part of the movie (Emily's been smitten ever since The Beach). I really think they nailed the feel of the Vertigo universe, if not his particular character. If you take the stupidity for granted, it's a lot of fun. If it's not a Good Movie, it might as well be enjoyable.
11/15
Posted by bing at 11:18 PM | Comments (0)
Aliens of the Deep
Aliens of the Deep (2005), James Cameron, Steven Quale:
IMAX is always great. The huge screen even made the trailer for Robots look great. It took a little bit to get used to the 3-d glasses, but man does that look good.
Anyway, this is basically James Cameron with a gaggle of marine biologists, geologists, astro-biologists and nasa people going down into the subphotic zone to study life not dependant on the sun's sweet sweet loving. Most of the focus is on the chemosynthesis that occurs around these geothermal chimneys. Bacteria convert the latent energy through chemical reactions, amazingly hardy shrimp feed off the bacteria, these albino crabs eat the detritus.
The subject really deserves the IMAX resolution and 3-d treatment; the swarming herds of shrimp and weird jellyfish were astounding. It's a little disappointing that they didn't show more deepsea life, but I guess the focus was on the basic forms and formation of life, not the diversity of advanced life at those depths.
Cameron and crew do a surprisingly good job of analogizing these explorations with any future attempts at finding life inside and out of our solar system. Should life be able not only to survive off geothermal energy alone but to originate in such an environment, there are any number of places in our humble solar system that might not only harbor basic life, but have the potential for more advanced organisms.
13/15
Posted by bing at 10:46 AM | Comments (1)
February 20, 2005
Nobody Knows
Nobody Knows (2004), Hirokazu Koreeda:
Another movie that takes its perspective as a passive observer. It's a little harder for it to be neutral about its four abandoned kids left to fend for themselves, so there are a couple of good emotional punches thrown. Mostly, though, Mr. Koreeda has a great sense of restraint, creating a piece that's sublimely tragic, where it could so easily devolve into emotional porn.
The structureless narrative is key. I found it almost impossible to read and was helpless to predict how it would end. It does end, of course, and for such a long movie, you have to be a little patient. Yûya Yagira carries the movie along with the near perfect cast. Kids in movies are always difficult, but I'm not sure if it's because they're just kids playing kids, but they do everything they're supposed to do. The movie is so fragile that a couple off notes would be enough to break its hold.
13/15
Posted by bing at 10:47 AM | Comments (0)
In Cold Blood
In Cold Blood (1967), Richard Brooks:
Wanted to see what this Robert Blake was all about.
The seemingly flat reenactment of such terrible events lets you observe them in something like a vacuum. While there's a little bit of pop psychology ("They could do together what neither one would do alone") thrown in and a few artistic flourishes, it's a bare minimum--definitely not anything that interferes with the operation of the narration.
Because of this, it's at times utterly fascinating and at others pretty boring. Its blade has dulled in the face of the lurid events and media of the present, suffing the same fate as Strangers on a Train. No matter how well crafted or nuanced its portrait of depravity, it can't compete with stuff today.
10/15
Posted by bing at 09:53 AM | Comments (0)
February 19, 2005
Cry-Baby
Cry-Baby (1990), John Waters:
I'm not a huge John Waters fan but how can you not enjoy this? More indulgent than Hairspray but still coherent enough to hold together well. I'm not sure I'd enjoy the full-out mania of Pink Flamingos, but this is great.
13/15
Posted by bing at 12:37 AM | Comments (0)
February 18, 2005
Garden State
Garden State (2004), Zach Braff:
Congratulations, you're a bored upper-middle class kid and the Shins changed your life. I have no idea why people think this is so good besides the fact that they're also upper-middle class kids and the Shins changed their lives. Besides some honestly funny gags (which in hindsight seem pretty out of place), the movie seems pretty shallow and might as well have been Zach Braff's plan to make out with Natalie Portman.
5/15
Posted by bing at 04:48 PM | Comments (0)
February 17, 2005
Dead Presidents
Dead Presidents (1995), The Hughes Brothers:
So there's only one Boyz in the Hood and there's the rest of the "travails of living in a minority neighborhood" movies out there (Liberty Heights, I'm looking at you, too). This, of course, is the latter. I still haven't seen Scratch yet, but I've definitely been underhwhelmed by the brothers Hughes.
5/15
Posted by bing at 11:46 PM | Comments (0)
Blade II
Blade II (2002), Guillermo del Toro:
The first Blade was all right. I really saw it, and not X-men, as kicking off the new era of comic book adaptations, following the decline of the Superman-style Batman franchise. It was full of completely unnecessary blood and fight scenes that went on and on for seemingly no purpose and all those wonderful things, but its main success was translating the tone of the comic onto the screen, even if the source material is a glossy Marvel book.
I can't really put my finger on why Blade II was so bad and Blade I was pretty good. I mean, they're both obviously not Good Movies, but the original was at least thoroughly enjoyable. You feel a little like the movie's ashamed to be what it wants to be.
Also, Blade II suffers from the invincible enemy problem. Why spend ten minutes on a fight scene when you've already established that the enemy's practically invulnerable? Bah.
4/15
Posted by bing at 12:31 PM | Comments (1)
Session 9
Session 9 (2001), Brad Anderson:
I like Brad Anderson, if only for Next Stop Wonderland and that The Machinist looks genuinely creepy, even though apparently it's not very.
I remember hearing vaguly good things about Session 9, too. Unfortunately, I couldn't find anyone to confirm that in the hour before it came on the television, and I sat through its utter terribleness unwarned.
Granted, it's a little creepy. But rundown insane asylums can't possibly not be. There's a nice little twist near the end that I didn't see coming (and that doesn't really affect the plot, so I'm not spoiling anything), so that's a point or two there, but besides that, it was unimaginative and unscary. I mean, it's not even David Caruso's fault. Eh.
3/15
Posted by bing at 12:22 PM | Comments (0)
February 14, 2005
The King of Comedy
The King of Comedy (1983), Martin Scorsese:
Out of all the movies I was expecting this to be, Taxi Driver-lite was not it. Lite not necessarily in a bad way, but as the natural consequence of switching out the amazingly grotesque Sandra Bernhard for the disturbingly attractive 13-year old Jodie Foster and lots of Jerry Lewis. It's not as good as Taxi Driver, but it's still excellent.
I still can't get over how sublimely ugly Sandra Bernhard is in this. She's absolutely spot on. Jerry, too, but he doesn't have nearly as juicy a role. Robert DeNiro is good enough, but he doesn't nearly fit his role as well as if were Mr. Bickle.
I really liked this. Scorsese has a really good eye for comedy and it's a little surprising how funny this is, seeing how badly some 80's comedy ages. I've always been a little baffled at Martin Scorsese. Gangs of New York was of course underwhelming, but I really didn't 'get' Goodfellas, Raging Bull and especially Casino (which I'm told is a good movie even though it seemed like utter crap). Taxi Driver I found to be excellent, and this too. I guess my Scorsese education will have to continue; the early ones and Christ remain.
14/15
Posted by bing at 08:15 PM | Comments (0)
Jim Brown All American
Jim Brown All American (2002), Spike Lee:
Part of my new year's resolution to watch more Spike. I had just watched the NFL Films treatment of Jim Brown and was hoping for something like Ken Burns' treatment of Jack Johnson, captivating the sports hype, public hype and inner demons of one of the more spectacular and controversial figures of his time. What I got was a very milquetoast picture of a man. I suppose if Spike's intent was to show that Jim Brown is Just A Man Doing What Men Do, well, there he goes, but it really feels like it could be anyone doing anything; there's just no weight behind anything. If it weren't for the centered portrait shot of Jim Brown (for all of 30 seconds), you wouldn't even be able to tell it was a Spike Lee 'Joint'. Eh.
4/15
Posted by bing at 08:05 PM | Comments (0)
February 13, 2005
Wes Anderson's brain
Jacque Henri Lartigue
Zissou's bobsled with wheels, after the bend by the gate, Rouzat, August 1908.
(Via kottke.org)
Posted by bing at 12:07 PM | Comments (0)
February 12, 2005
In Good Company
In Good Company (2004), Paul Weitz:
Emily said to keep an eye out for Scarlett Johansson's knitting. I'm not really sure I saw any, but it's hard to look for knitting when she's on the screen.
So it's fluff, but admittedly good fluff at times. Topher Grace and Dennis Quaid play their roles perfectly. The movie has some nice turns, which might have made it excellent had it not retreated to the safety of formula. I know the Weitzes can subvert standards; American Pie was so much better than could have--and perhaps should have--been, and I definitely remember the About a Boy lovefest a few years back.
A lot of the reviews I read said they felt the Scarlett-Topher romance was a distraction from the fathers and sons theme, but I don't think so at all. It provided an important facet both in the development of Topher Grace's character independantly and in conjunction with Dennis Quaid's. Admittedly, her character probably gets a lot more focus than perhaps her character needed, but I'm no complaining.
9/15
Addendum: The actress who played Dennis Quaid's wife had amazingly awful plastic surgery. I was seriously amazed they let her on screen.
Posted by bing at 04:54 PM | Comments (0)
A Man Escaped
A Man Escaped (1956), Robert Bresson:
My first Bresson and I really liked it. Bresson strips down the prison escape to its barest frame without making it any less compelling or captivating. Gone is Steve McQueen's bomber jacket and William Holden's defensive flippancy, but not the irresistable drive for freedom or the makeshift prison society.
The actual mechanics of the jail break loom large on the screen for lack of another subject. The spare environment allows the human element to fill the empty space without necessarily dominating the progress of the movie. It doesn't have the wide declarations of La Grande Illusion, the other outstanding human prison drama, but it probes the depth of humanity much deeper.
15/15
Posted by bing at 01:07 PM | Comments (0)
Fast Cheap & Out of Control
Fast Cheap & Out of Control (1997), Errol Morris:
Man, the poster for this makes it look so zany. I guess the premise sounds pretty zany, too, interviewing a lion tamer, a robotics guy, the premier naked mole rat expert and a topiary gardner all in one movie, using stock footage of old television shows and circuses to transition from one to the next.
It's not zany, though. Mr. Morris excellently weaves together the seemingly disparate narratives into a meditation on order from chaos, the rigors of discipline and (what Emily dubs, or at least quotes) "communing with The Other". You hardly notice the switch between who's speaking on what, despite the fact that lions look nothing like naked mole rats. The gardener seems out of place at times and I feel like the documentary would be a smidge tighter without him, but that's a very minor quibble for such a masterful piece.
14/15
Posted by bing at 10:48 AM | Comments (0)
February 09, 2005
Super Size Me
Super Size Me (2004), Morgan Spurlock:
By now, you know the story. Man eats McDonalds, man gets fat, McDonalds is bad for you. It's funny and as compelling as it should be, but you see Michael Moore's influence on Mr. Spurlock. Unfortunately he picks up a few of his bad habits without as much as his flair. I'm not sure you need to document your failed attempts to interview a McDonalds representative. I'm sure I wouldn't get an interview either. He does a good job of rebutting the idea of personal responsibility, that the deck is heavily stacked against those who don't have the time or money to eat healthy. Without the arsenal of Mr. Moore or the muck of Fast Food Nation, it's entertaining but ultimately insignificant.
8/15
Posted by bing at 11:53 PM | Comments (1)
House of Games
House of Games (1987), David Mamet:
I'm definitely not a a Mamet guy. That being said, he still makes a good movie when he's not counting on his dialogue and masculinity to bail him out.
As the Mamet heist/con movies go, this is definitely better than Heist (and Ronin, but that doesn't really count), but doesn't quite reach the levels of The Spanish Prisoner. Like Prisoner, the use of genre is just used as a vehicle for the real substance of the movie. In this way, he really shares a kinship with Michael Mann.
The con actually isn't that flashy, but it and the Mamet style provide just enough cover to let the themes of guilt and obsession develop quietly in the background. It's a little raw, so the Mamet sheen isn't quite developed into its full blossom. Where it breaks, though, the realism is a little disturbing, which is definitely one of its perks.
13/15
Posted by bing at 11:37 PM | Comments (0)
February 03, 2005
The Daytrippers
The Daytrippers (1996), Greg Mottola:
This seems like the perfect companion piece to a favorite of mine, Big Night, not just because of the Campbell Scott-Stanley Tucci link. The two, fittingly released in the same month of 1996, feel somewhat incomplete by the standard standards of movie construction, but neither really wants for whatever finishing piece might be needed. Rather, they unassumingly and contentedly serve a slice of what feels like a larger work and leave it at that. There's no need to establish the moral message or provide for emotional growth. The characters are obviously figments of a movie universe and viewed through a comic lens, the style seems much closer to a transparent realism. I wasn't quite sure how to handle Big Night when I first saw it, but this (along with the quasi-related Next Stop Wonderland) helped me to understand what it was doing.
The Daytrippers doesn't quite have the same glow as Big Night and doesn't have quite as complelling characters or writing. It's more than worth watching, though, and the cast is still excellent.
12/15
Posted by bing at 02:02 PM | Comments (0)