September 29, 2005
Hotel Rwanda
Hotel Rwanda (2004), Terry George:
Like I said in my The Battle of Algiers post, I don't dislike movies that educate me about bad things happening in the world, but there's a line between making you think about something and making you feel bad about it. It's well intentioned, sure, and the theater is a pretty good way of bringing attention to things, but that just makes it good advocacy, not good cinema. Well-made guilt porn can only go so far, sure, but without much more (and there's not much) it's just that. Don Cheadle is becoming a fine actor though. I guess his equally amazing skills as an supporting actor kept him doing that until Traffic.
9/15
Posted by bing at 11:14 PM | Comments (0)
Barry Lyndon
Barry Lyndon (1975), Stanley Kubrick:
This is the last of the major Kubricks I had yet to see. I was never a Kubrick fanboy and am still convinced anyone who thinks 2001 was anything but an artistic exercise either knows they're lying or should know. The last two I saw, though, The Killing and this, were excellent.
Victorian dramas I don't love much either but it's impossible not to get drawn into Barry Lyndon. The photography looks stolen from an art museum, and the settings are look astounding, even out-timemachining Russian Ark for visual and historical splendor. Also, Ryan O'Neal in leggings, who knew?
13/15
Posted by bing at 10:39 PM | Comments (0)
September 28, 2005
Repo Man
Repo Man (1984),
Alex Cox:
Ah, the punk movie. It's not about punks per se (well, it is), but it's made by and made for them, embodying the punk lifestyle, kinda like Gregg Araki for the "metal movie".
Rough and highly enjoyable, it's a movie you would make with your friends if you were good and had a decent budget.
12/15
Posted by bing at 11:19 PM | Comments (0)
Jules et Jim
Jules et Jim (1962), Francois Trauffaut:
Still doing my French New Wave education, and I still just can't get into Trauffaut. There's something so deeply despairing in this and The 400 Blows that's presented so earnestly that it's disarming. It seems participatory, though, so if you don't get it, Trauffaut doesn't really invite you in; it's not really designed for the spectator. It was really well done though.
10/15
Posted by bing at 09:05 PM | Comments (2)
September 25, 2005
Jeremiah Johnson
Jeremiah Johnson (1972), Sydney Pollack:
Another Western as reaction to Vietnam. It's much, much more nuanced than that kneejerk Josey Wales and gives plenty to chew on. I wonder what happened to Sydney Pollack; this and They Shoot Horses, Don't They are great great movies, a far cry from Random Hearts and Sabrina. Maybe he got more into producing interesting movies than making them.
So Robert Redford stars at the title character, veteran of the Civil War seeking asylum in the Rockies, away from all men. The movie divides into chapters as he encounters the inhabitants of the wild: a Crow warrior, a grizzly man, a christian missionary, a trader. It's these interactions that form the substance of the movie, how even trying to run from people, finds himself discovering the nature of society and America.
13/15
Posted by bing at 12:05 PM | Comments (0)
Sweet Smell of Success
Sweet Smell of Success (1957), Alexander Mackendrick:
I have no idea why, but I had always thought this movie was a screen adaptation of a broadway musical/comedy. Yeah, so it's a pleasant surprise when it turns out to be a fairly dark film noir. It only took me fifteen minutes to catch on.
So I can watch Burt Lancaster. Of course, it's easy when he plays the Man with such relish. Tony Curtis is delightfully sleezy as the publicity agent trying to make it big. (I wonder if all his roles have homosexual undertones).
The setting seems odd at first, but the genre fits nicely over it. As Tony Curtis tries to hustle his way to the top, he also must stay one step ahead of his quickly collapsing plans.
I also love movies that wallow in New York. I loved Mirage for the fleeting glance of that ugly, ugly building at Columbus Circle. Unlike something like The Apartment which just seems to be set in New York, Sweet Smell Success explores the depths of the city the deeper the characters get in their dealings.
14/15
Posted by bing at 11:38 AM | Comments (0)
September 24, 2005
O
O (2001), Tim Blake Nelson:
In college, I was actually going to see it but took a wrong turn on the way to the theater and missed the showing, so we ended up getting ice cream instead. I did not know then that that was the best outcome possible for that situation (a proverbial Kobayashi Maru, if you will).
Like the Ethan Hawke Hamlet, O is a completely uninspired Shakespeare translation that hopes desperately that you're entertained enough by the change in setting that you'll ignore the dullness of it all. Also, I swear Julia Stiles wasn't always this bad an actress, but thinking back, I can't recall anything to refute that.
4/15
Posted by bing at 11:47 PM | Comments (0)
September 23, 2005
The Battle of Algiers
The Battle of Algiers (1965), Gillo Pontecorvo:
Concerning our present situation, this is a perfect companion piece to Gunner Palace, both are opposite and surprisingly unemotional and unbiased views of a foreign occupation. It's not perfect, since Iraq is much more legitimate a military action, but the parallels still made me pause.
In whose footsteps Z would later follow, The Battle of Algiers shows that a documentary-style approach can be all the more powerful, invoking less Hollywood storytelling or political propaganda* (well-meaning or no) and more reflection of real-world situations. Living in the Western wold, it's not often we see a view from the occupied or the subjected. When the protagonists detonate bombs in public, you realize it's meant for us, and it's these opposite reactions that are the most enlightening. I much rather prefer a movie that makes you think than something like Hotel Rwanda which, as good as its intentions were, strives to make you feel bad.
14/15
*Of course, the storytelling and political intentions are top-notch, or else it wouldn't be compelling at all.
Posted by bing at 11:23 AM | Comments (0)
September 17, 2005
Advise & Consent
Advise & Consent (1962), Otto Preminger:
I've been behind on both my movie watching and blog updating. I had actually started this movie about a month ago before finally watching it now. What's funny is the part where I had left off is right around where it does a complete change of tone.
The movie (apt for this time) starts off as a simple senate confirmation of Henry Fonda as a replacement Secretary of State, whose main detractor comes from a Dixiecrat Charles Laughton in a splendidly performance, his last.
So about 45 minutes in, the movie veers away from the Mr. Smith Goes to Washington set-up and heads straight into backroom politics, rife with secret deals and dirty tricks. I honestly didn't expect anything so candid and so delightfully gritty.
The movie's fantastic in other regards. The tracking shots and the cinematography are top-notch, with Saul Bass titles to boot.
14/15
Posted by bing at 09:54 PM | Comments (0)
September 03, 2005
Lovely & Amazing
Lovely & Amazing (2001), Nicole Holofcener:
So the moral is I should stop watching movies just because they're on tv.
Like Crash, L&A adds another to the pantheon of guilt-porn, making you feel terrible about being an upper-middle class white woman. Featuring women behaving like terrible people and trying to cope when they get their collective comeuppance, the simplistic reduction as insult is magnified by the unburdened little black girl serving as moral foil (the great Ashlynn Rose. I don't blame her).
2/15
Posted by bing at 10:50 AM | Comments (0)
Auto Focus
Auto Focus (2002), Paul Schrader:
I'd repeat my hesitation about biopics, but I'm dead sure this was a terrible movie. Bob Crane led an interesting life, sure, and I think a lot of people were distracted by the regularly spaced boobies, but there wasn't much there in the movie. Granted, both of these things hide pretty well the fact that the movie sucks, at least for an hour or so.
4/15
Posted by bing at 10:33 AM | Comments (0)
August 28, 2005
The Aviator
The Aviator (2004), Martin Scorsese:
I guess I should preface this by saying I don't usually take to biopics. Leo acted well, but a lot of his character seemed added to fit the real Howard Hughes and not because it fit his role in the movie, which I guess is the general rift between 'bio' and 'pic'. I still love Cate Blanchett though I'm not entirely sure what to make of her here. She does a great job of selling you on the completeness of her performance, but I have nothing against which to judge it, having only seen Kate Hepburn in movies. Unfortunately, I think she hasn't really reached anything of the caliber of Elizabeth lately*. (Her ten minutes in Ripley were great though).
7/15
*- Looking through her filmography, saw this. I'm not sure how I feel about that.
Posted by bing at 11:43 AM | Comments (0)
Chocolat
Chocolat (2000), Lasse Halstrom:
Miramax at its ugliest. Poor soulless Lasse manufacturing an Oscar-vehicle with both indie and foreign sensibilities. Ugh. The movie was terrible, too, adding injury to insult, adding absolutely nothing to the "cold community opens its heart to warm outsider" 'genre'.
2/15
Posted by bing at 11:37 AM | Comments (0)
Suddenly Last Summer
Suddenly Last Summer (1959), Joseph Mankiewicz:
Liz Taylor, Kate Hepburn and Mercedes McCambridge is sufficiently enough manicness for TN Williams. It starts off tamely enough, fairly stiff I should say, but with everything it has going for it, it explodes at the end fairly well.
8/15
Posted by bing at 11:32 AM | Comments (0)
August 22, 2005
The Fourth Man
The Fourth Man (1983), Paul Verhoeven:
Man, I love Paul Verhoeven. Starship Troopers was just on and I'm still amazed how good of a movie it is. I guess the mass of critics thinks praising Robocop (and in some cases Total Recall) is enough.
Anyway, I was in a movie rut and couldn't bring myself to get excited about anything to watch. I was in the mood for something fun and came across this. Any movie arrogant enough to name itself The Fourth Man seemed like it'd be the perfect stylistic overload. Apparently Verhoeven made this right before coming over to America, so at least someone noticed.
So it was the perfect movie for my doldrums; artsy fluff full of wit and imagination pushed to their limits. At least Mr. Verhoeven has the good sense not to take himself too seriously (which got in the way of my enjoying the similar early work of Lars von Trier. I'm not sure I really need to discuss what it was about; does it really matter?
12/15
Posted by bing at 12:44 AM | Comments (0)
Autumn Sonata
Autumn Sonata (1978), Ingmar Bergman:
I still get a kick entering IMDB URLs for old movies and movie people and getting something like http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0000005/ (http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0000001/ for some reason is Fred Astaire).
I'm slowly going through my Ingmar Bergman education, and the mix of Ingmar and Ingrid Bergman (0000006, by the way) was too much to pass by.
I've said before that I can't get into the movie-as-play. I don't know exactly if it's the format or just the type of drama that usually comprises the play, or a mix. Bergman, of course, is well versed in both media and this tends more towards the stage than the screen. Ingrid Bergman and Liv Ullman act out another Ing. Bergman family drama, and well, but I don't know. Maybe the screen isn't the best place for an understated acting exercise, better suited for bombastic productions or at the very least having the hook of phenominal cinematography and art design like Cries and Whispers.
7/15
Posted by bing at 12:34 AM | Comments (0)
Mean Girls
Mean Girls (2004), Mark Waters:
Poor Lindsay Lohan. She would've been a star if she stayed like this and didn't get get all trashy lookin'. Next stop: Natasha Lyonne.
I'm still a little confused why she's still doing tween movies when Rachel McAdams has since established herself in widerstream movies [edit: Rachel McAdams is 10 years older than Lindsay? Well done].
The movie itself is from the standard mold of teen movies (more 80's than 90's), highlighting the pitfalls of high school living. Lindsay's just so damned charismatic it's hard not to like it. The movie gets a muddled when it starts really pushing the moral and whenever it tries to do the Comedy-in-Truth thing. Thankfully, the teen movie can do without being elegant.
10/15
Posted by bing at 12:26 AM | Comments (0)
July 21, 2005
The Grapes of Wrath
The Grapes of Wrath (1940), John Ford:
I love Steinbeck; East of Eden is probably one of my favorite books, ever. The migrant worker books don't quite for me reach that level, but there's still something about the Steinbeck universe that resonates emotionally on all registers. Grapes of Wrath is his masterpiece because the humanity exudes from the page, mixing joy, hope, outrage and raw anger.
I didn't get any of that in the movie. I thought they gutted the book, leaving a much more blah experience. It looked spectacular, and Henry Fonda was great as always (his final speech was one of the few great things that stayed intact in the transition).
5/15
Posted by bing at 12:11 PM | Comments (0)
The Sea Inside
The Sea Inside (2004), Alejandro Amenábar:
The irony of the Million Dollar Baby protests in the face of this was definitely a highlight of the last Oscar season.
Surpringly (to me at least), while the movie is ostensibly about euthanasia, it doesn't really delve into that subject as much as the nature of love and family. What comprises your family, how it functions, the roles of blood and outsiders, and in the end, what is strong enough to break those ties.
13/15
Posted by bing at 12:02 PM | Comments (0)
July 16, 2005
Jackie Brown
Jackie Brown (1997), Quentin Tarantino:
Finally got around to watching this one. I don't think it lives up either to the hype that it's a huge letdown to Pulp Fiction (what pressure, though), or that it's his best movie (which, depending on what you mean, is either Pulp Fiction or Kill Bill vol. 1).
It's very very good. I didn't know it was as much an homage to The Killing as blaxploitation (which I have absolutely no experience with), so the cinematic references weren't completely lost on me. It seems a little indulgent at times, and it's not balanced (DeNiro is way too big for his part) but it's stylish and slick and intellegent, which is all you need.
13/15
Posted by bing at 12:49 PM | Comments (0)
Field of Dreams
Field of Dreams (1989), Phil Alden Robinson:
Man, I didn't remember this being this good. Definitely one of the best sports movies ever; like The Natural and Hoosiers, it captures the essence of not only the game, but sport itself and the magic that surrounds it.
15/15
Posted by bing at 12:45 PM | Comments (0)
Safe
Safe (1995), Todd Haynes:
I remember watching a PBS special as a kid about unseen things in our everyday world, and the part about dustmites was creepy enough to make me worry subconsciously for a week. (To recreate that feeling, read all about eyelash mites)
This movie is full of that feeling. Instead of little critters, it's our modern environment, full of chemicals and pollutants. It borrows heavily from political thrillers, keeping our hero just one step behind the unknown assailant in the quest to track him down.
I didn't expect it to be so subtle, so being slightly distracted took a lot away from the movie. I'm not sure it's something that really can be rewatched, too, which is a shame. I feel it's something that can be transcendently creepy if watched under the right conditions.
7/15
Posted by bing at 12:32 PM | Comments (0)
July 13, 2005
The Road Warrior
The Road Warrior (1981), George Miller:
Less "leather bar" than Mad Max, but still a great post-apocalyptic environment. A lot of fun but not that great, it's the model that everyone else is trying to make.
12/15
Posted by bing at 09:52 PM | Comments (0)
July 08, 2005
The Rules of the Game
The Rules of the Game (1939), Jean Renoir:
I loved Renoir's The Grand Illusion, and also the upstairs/downstairs social ballet of Gosford Park (though the murder mystery sucked).
I just wasn't able to get into this. The movie seemed to have aged badly both as a movie and in regards to the surrounding moral environment. I guess this is another movie left to the cineasts, especially those who would use that word to describe themselves.
5/15
Posted by bing at 09:14 PM | Comments (0)
Hearts and Minds
Hearts and Minds (1974), Peter Davis:
Rounding out my Vietnam film education. I guess I have to finish out Oliver Stone's "trilogy", but this is definitely a major figure.
I don't think I've ever seen a documentary that so comprehensively covered a subject as expansive as the war. It serves primarily as a document of the war from ground-level Vietnam, which surprisingly resembles the romanticized movie version. Also very interesting were the people poising themselves to control post-war Vietnam, the burgeoning industrialists.
On the American front, we share an equally wide focuse, seeing the effects of current soldiers, veterans, citizen groups and military officials. There's a bit of Michael Moore-style campaigning, but like Gunner Palace, the events at hand swallow the politics.
14/15
Posted by bing at 08:45 PM | Comments (0)
July 06, 2005
Land of the Dead
Land of the Dead (2005), George A. Romero:
I'm not a big zombie-head Romero cultist, but Dawn of the Dead is a great great movie (and the remake was easily one of my top movies from last year). Day of the Dead, Romero's self-proclaimed favorite, wallows a little too much in B-movie values for me, though the zombies were pretty awesome.
All the dead movies are B-movies, but only this and the last one really feel like it. It just doesn't feel like a complete movie. There are some good horror-y bits and the zombies look good, but I feel like zombie movies are all about shedding light on the nature of humanity and when the human characters (and the zombies ones, for that matter), seem half-baked, it doesn't cut it.
7/15
Posted by bing at 10:07 PM | Comments (0)
The Adventures of Robin Hood
The Adventures of Robin Hood (1938), Michael Curtiz:
So Olde England was really fey. They really had a way of putting their elbows akimbo and guffawing at any possible moment. I guess part of the fun is its overthetopness, but I don't know, the Disney Robin Hood is probably the definitive version for me.
6/15
Posted by bing at 07:56 PM | Comments (0)
July 01, 2005
War of the Worlds (2005)
War of the Worlds (2005), Steven Spielberg:
I thoroughly enjoyed watching this movie, but not five minutes removed from the theater, the only things that stuck with me were gripes. Spielberg is still a great entertainer, but none of the characters warranted emotional attachments, nor was the human element very compelling (though the movie tries very hard). There are also a ton of super-annoying plot holes and unnecessarily fortuitous events. Still, the best War of the Worlds adaptation may be Alan Moore's second League of Extraordinary Gentlemen series.
5/15
Posted by bing at 10:40 PM | Comments (0)
Gimme Shelter
Gimme Shelter (1970), The Mayles Brothers:
So Salesman did nothing for me, but still got me excited for Gimme Shelter. I see now what Salesman was supposed to be, because Gimme Shelter is the same thing, just a different slice of the sixties.
It's all at once a Rolling Stones tour video, a murder mystery and a Hearts and Minds state-of-the-Vietnam-era documentary, excelling at all three. Footage of Hell's Angels killing Meredith Hunter at a free Stones concert is amazing enough on its own, but the Mayles brothers use it to frame the movie, without ever getting in the way of the movie's other facets. It's also infinitely more interesting than Salesman, however deftly created.
14/15
Posted by bing at 10:32 PM | Comments (0)
June 30, 2005
About a Boy
About a Boy (2002), the Weitzes:
Hugh Grant still has great on-screen charisma. This is a better movie than In Good Company, but doesn't reach the same heights.
8/15
Posted by bing at 02:39 PM | Comments (0)
Broadcast News
Broadcast News (1987), James L. Brooks:
Such an odd movie. It's a comedy set firmly in the real world. The characters flutter between situations both rooted in reality and standard romantic comedy hilarity. In end it's bittersweet and compelling and very funny. It's funny, because the other newsroom drama/comedy Network is completely the opposite.
14/15
Posted by bing at 02:23 PM | Comments (0)
A Star is Born (1954)
A Star is Born (1954), George Cukor:
For some reason I was still on my Judy Garland kick, so I was looking forward to this. Unfortunately, it's just as boring as the 1937 version. Judy carries some scenes but too often you can see the years weighing on her.
6/15
Posted by bing at 02:20 PM | Comments (0)
June 28, 2005
March of the Penguins
March of the Penguins (2005), Luc Jacquet:
It's a little surreal seeing a theater full of grown New Yorkers cooing at baby penguins, but there it was. The penguins are very cute.
This is exactly what I needed to get the bitter taste of that fake-umentary Winged Migration out of my mouth. It's still a little too intent on telling the story, but at least it's not at the expense of the footage, and at least they're not staging anything. I still miss the National Geographic docs of yore, where they don't talk about penguins' "unbearable losses", but this is fine in the interim.
13/15
Posted by bing at 03:04 PM | Comments (0)
Finding Neverland
Finding Neverland (2004), Marc Forster:
Seemed like emotional porn when I saw the trailer, but heard enough good things to give it a chance.
It suffers a from the Ron Howard effect, pushing ever onward for the final half-hour, until it can unleash a fury of punches aimed directly to the audience's heart. It's not quite to the level of A Beautiful Mind, but comes close. I've long since realized that these movies are more enjoyable when you completely suspect anything that could be considered disbelief. I'm still not sure these movies are Good Movies, but they're certainly adept at tuggin' the old heartstrings.
12/15
Posted by bing at 02:32 PM | Comments (0)
June 26, 2005
Rize
Rize (2005), David LaChappelle:
So I read the Times article on 'krumping' and clown-dancing and then saw the trailer for this and couldn't imagine not watching it. The movie sustains the frenetic energy and vibrancy of the trailer, mostly due to the charisma of the principals.
Mr. LaChappelle plays the documentarian well, presenting an excellent taxonomy of a subculture at its height. His failings are as a director, always opting for the overly dramatic. It plays well during the battleground scene, which alone is well worth admission (even in Manhattan), but everywhere else, any hint of emotion becomes a syrupy mess.
13/15
Posted by bing at 01:08 PM | Comments (0)
The Lost Weekend
The Lost Weekend (1945), Billy Wilder:
I saw Days of Wine and Roses first and liked it fine, but Billy Wilder shows how it's really done. They're both good at showing the gritty side of alcoholism, but Weekend just comes across as more true, though they both have that 50's staged feeling.
13/15
Posted by bing at 01:01 PM | Comments (0)
June 24, 2005
Crash (2004)
Crash (2004), Paul Haggis:
Lots of buzz/hype leading up to this. I wasn't sure what to expect, but I heard enough good word of mouth to hope for the best.
The acting is top notch. Don Cheadle leads an outstanding ensemble. I mean, everyone's so good I completely missed both Marina Sirtis and Tony Danza saying "Who's the boss?".
Don Cheadle has a great line in the beginning of the movie how in LA people never actually come into contact with other people, and of course this movie is about that. I couldn't really get over the fact that this seemed at times like an After School Special on steroids; you could feel the liberal guilt spilling over into the seats. That's not to say it's a "liberal" type of movie, but the Moral of the movie just features so prominently that it interferes with seeing the characters interact with each other.
5/15
Posted by bing at 01:40 PM | Comments (0)
June 23, 2005
Targets
Targets (1968), Peter Bogdanovich:
Boris Karloff playing pretty much himself; he's able to make help fill out the Bogdanovich vision which is clearly bigger than the means of the actual film. It's a great crash of what fame, horror and death actually mean.
14/15
Posted by bing at 07:41 PM | Comments (0)
My Own Private Idaho
My Own Private Idaho (1991), Gus Van Sant:
Ok, like the later Van Sant, it's a little too precious, but it, unlike the later Van Sant, it has a vibrancy that carries the movie even when it gets mired in pretentions and Van Sant's boy-lovin'. There's not as much of the latter to outweigh completely the former, but it's very good.
9/15
Posted by bing at 07:34 PM | Comments (0)
June 18, 2005
Batman Begins
Batman Begins (2005), Christopher Nolan:
Like Howl's Moving Castle, I think I need a little time to figure out where I stand with this, not because I don't know but right now I'm still overwhelmed by just how awesome it was. It's been a full day now and every time I think I'm over it, I remember some completely awesome part and it starts all over again.
I don't think there was a single part which really dragged. Katie Holmes was a little skeletal, but she was ok. Christian Bale was a damn fine Batman, though it did hurt the suspension of disbelief that he has a really recognizable chin.
Word is that fox is currently fucking up X3. Hopefully this and the Spiderman franchise will show the studios how to do things right (as if X-men and X2 weren't enough).
15/15 (geek rating)
Posted by bing at 09:38 PM | Comments (0)
June 17, 2005
Howl's Moving Castle
Howl's Moving Castle (2004), Hayao Miyazaki:
Man, I love Miyazaki and this movie was pretty amazing, but I have no idea what he's talking about. It's a kids' movie, like all his movies, and what seems like a fable. I don't know if I'm just completely unable to unpack it or if even can be unpacked at all, but there's just so much meat there--the opposite side of the spectrum from My Neighbor Totoro's sheer childhood wonderment.
I saw a tv commercial for this yesterday and all I wanted to do was see it again. It's probably my second favorite to Spirited Away, but I'd definitely like to see it again
13/15
Posted by bing at 01:56 PM | Comments (0)
Sonatine
Sonatine (1993), Takeshi Kitano:
So this is Emily's favorite Takeshi Kitano movie. I liked it, but I think it's an inferior version of both Fireworks and Kikujiro. Speaking of Kikujiro, I'm not sure I really loved it when I first saw it, but there are scenes that stay in my mind. I think there are only a few from Sonatine that I can say the same.
8/15
Posted by bing at 01:39 PM | Comments (0)
L'Atlante
L'Atlante (1934), Jean Vigo:
I still have no idea how to pronounce the name of this film, so I just look like an idiot when I talk to people about it.
It reminded me a lot of Sunrise, but I suppose it's just the "domestic problems on a boat" thing. So yeah, the Sunrise-y parts I liked, the Battleship Potemkin thing is still a little lost on me.
8/15
Posted by bing at 01:34 PM | Comments (0)
June 15, 2005
The Ladykillers
The Ladykillers (2004), Ethan and Joel Coen:
Catching up with the Coens again. So it's by default better than their last film, because Intolerable Cruelty was lost on me. I guess I just don't like screwball enough.
What surprised me was how small this seemed. It's easily their least ambitious movie yet, which is by no means a bad thing seeing how far-reaching their earlier films are. It does feel akin to Cruelty, and while the performances aren't as good as in Cruelty, it's a smidge funnier. I guess I should get around to the original.
9/15
Posted by bing at 05:21 PM | Comments (0)
Chan is Missing
Chan is Missing (1982), Wayne Wang:
So after seeing Smoke and this, I just don't think Wayne Wang is my type of director. His progression from interesting director to "guy who fills in for studio crap" is a little baffling, but I know he's got the talent and promising debuts are always a treat.
Again, this really didn't resonate, but it's got this vibrancy to it. It's very much an ethnic movie, but not the type of primer directed to middle-class suburbia; it reminded me a lot of how Mean Streets in understanding the community and showing you around without leading you by the hand. It's very funny, too.
12/15
Posted by bing at 05:01 PM | Comments (0)
June 10, 2005
3:10 to Yuma
3:10 to Yuma (1957), Delmer Dales:
I just noticed that this was another Elmore Leonard deal; guy is everywhere in the pulp world.
I remember I had a pretty disappointing run of Westerns before this, and this was exactly what I was looking for to turn it all around. Hero vs. Villain on equal footing on opposites sides of the moral divide. Here, the Villain is captured and must be delivered to the 3:10 to Yuma, before his posse can spring him. There's a smidge of High Noon, but there's not really much emotional complexity here.
13/15
Posted by bing at 11:15 PM | Comments (0)
Anything Else
Sorry for not updating. Got out of the movie frame of mind and lost my rhythm. Anyway, I have a huge backlog and see if I can catch up.
Anything Else (2003), Woody Allen:
Melinda and Melinda was supposed to be the return of Woody Allen, but I didn't like it much. This, though, while still nothing compared to the work of his heyday, does actually seem like something genuine from Woody. I think if you combined this and M&M, you'd have something comparable.
I think it's the best I've seen from the late-era Allens (missing only Curse of the Jade Scorpion; I'm not expecting much). Jason Biggs is pretty bad as an Allen-substitute, but Christina Ricci continues the tradition of the alluring but completely unhealthy heroines. None of the rest of the cast are really "on", but the movie is still pretty endearing and somewhat entertaining. Melinda's exact opposite, emotional detachment but superb production, shows that Woody Allen still has all the tools in his toolbox. I'm looking forward to Match Point. At the very least Scarlett Johansson will be a good consolation if it sucks.
10/15
Posted by bing at 11:03 PM | Comments (0)
May 27, 2005
The Five Obstructions
The Five Obstructions (2003), Lars Von Trier:
Again, Lars Von Trier plays the asshole, but here like everywhere else, it's just another character in a movie geared toward making whatever point at whatever cost. I suppose it's a little mean to be a jerk to such a nice guy as Jørgen Leth seems, but he's there voluntarily.
The DVD contains the original The Perfect Human upon which Leth and Von Trier build their variations, and it's a really nice piece. Building off of them with a series of outlandish requirements seems like mad fun, but the "obstructions" never quite live up to the expectations of such an ambitious artistic experiment. What's worse is that by the end, Von Trier's intention is made so perfectly clear that you might be fooled into thinking he's succeeded in his goal, but that's just not so.
7/15
Posted by bing at 03:16 PM | Comments (0)
May 22, 2005
Star Wars III: Revenge of the Sith
I've tried not to include any spoilers in this, but I do talk about the movie's structure some, so there's your fair warning.
Star Wars III: Revenge of the Sith (2005), George Lucas:
Yeah, so despite my better instincts, I was really excited over this. All the geek rumblings indicated that this was by far the best of the new trilogy (plausible) and if AO Scott can be believed (which he generally can), perhaps as good as The Empire Strikes Back (implausible).
It doesn't hold a candle to any of the original series but at times comes tantalizingly close (unsurprisingly most powerful when it starts the segue into Star Wars). The first half or so shows almost no improvment over Episodes I and II; the second half is markedly better, but at times still seems undeniably stupid.
I know everyone keeps saying the acting in the original trilogy wasn't great either, but Natalie Portman and Hayden Christensen are absolutely terrible here. Even barely competent would've been ok. (Also, Keisha Castle-Hughes? What's she doing here?)
My other huge issue with this trilogy is still with Lucas's obsession with CG. It's ok if you make a lava planet, but a computer-generated coffee table is not (speaking of lava planets though, it kept reminding me of this). Instead of marveling at the grandiose sets, I was staring at the actors' feet; everyone seemed to be almost imperceptibly floating off the ground. Maybe it's more noticeable for our generation which grew up with CG, but Mr. Lucas over these last three movies has consistently been on the wrong side of technical prowess versus technical ingenuity.
8/15
Posted by bing at 10:28 AM | Comments (0)
May 20, 2005
Unleashed
Unleashed (2005), Louis Leterrier:
Let's hope this is the return of the American Kung Fu movie. Jet Li was the victim of a half-baked Hollywood movement in the late 90's along with Chow Yung Fat, saved only by melding with Black cinema; Romeo Must Die and the precursor Rush Hour.
Of all the people to save the kung fu movie in America, who'd've thunk it would be the French? Luc Besson has a great sense for action and Mr. Leterrier keeps it coming. There's not much else here, as always (except for the guessing game of exactly how much older Kerry Condon is than her character [the answer is not much]). Hopefully this, along with Yimou Zhang/Crouching Tiger/Stephen Chow, is enough to keep this movement coming.
13/15
Posted by bing at 11:15 AM | Comments (0)
The Sword of Doom
The Sword of Doom (1966), Kihachi Okamoto:
A darker take on the samurai genre, it's all vaguely familiar from the endless iterations in modern anime. I was a little distracted while watching, but it still was pretty decent.
8/15
Posted by bing at 11:13 AM | Comments (0)
Master and Commander
Master and Commander (2003), Peter Weir:
This, Badlands and Rushmore comprise my Movies to Watch During Finals. It's lost a little of its luster since the first viewing, but the surround sound makes it all worth while.
14/15
Posted by bing at 11:11 AM | Comments (0)
May 17, 2005
Band of Brothers
Band of Brothers (2001):
So one of the things I absolutely detest about Ron Howard is that he's an excellent director but it often seems he sacrifices too much to achieve his goals. Apollo 13 is by far his best film and uncoincidentally is his most grounded. Something like A Beautiful Mind looks great when you're watching, but all you feel is a nagging feeling wondering what the real story is. Everything's just a little too focused on being a means to an end.
Say what you will about post-Jurassic Park Spielberg, but he at least has a palpable respect for history. Especially with all I've heard about the production of Brothers, I fully trust him in his efforts to make both a compelling miniseries and a historical document of a sort.
Not being a historian, I can't really say much about the latter goal, but it is truly compelling. I do feel like WWII was one of the truly great moments in American history and this feels certainly worthy of that sentiment.
15/15
Posted by bing at 11:12 PM | Comments (0)
For Me and My Girl
For Me and My Gal (1942), Busby Berkeley:
A perfect product of its time: a mix of light-hearted Busby Berkeley song-and-dance and healthy wartime values and not much else. Of course, when it's Judy Garland and Gene Kelly and Berkeley, you don't really need much else.
12/15
Posted by bing at 10:56 PM | Comments (0)
Ride the High Country
Ride the High Country (1962), Sam Peckinpah:
I know it's Peckinpah, but the Westerns of the mid-50's to the early 60's always seemed to me an awkward mix of wacky camp and the emerging realism of the latter entries of the genre. Maybe I don't share the love of the Western's TV roots.
5/15
Posted by bing at 10:40 PM | Comments (0)
May 16, 2005
Bad Day at Black Rock
Bad Day at Black Rock (1955), John Sturges:
Spencer Tracy as a one-armed proxy for the Western hero, making a guilty town face up for its WWII crimes. A lot of people I know really liked this, but nothing really jumped out at me. It's a little preachy, a little flat, and Walter Brennan's transformation from his standard useless drunk to useful drunk pretty much encapsulates my feelings for the movie: a familiar experience that pushed in ways seem like they should fit, but just feels off.
5/15
Posted by bing at 11:10 AM | Comments (0)
Brief Encounter
Brief Encounter (1945), David Lean:
Having only seen his sprawing epics, it's a little jarring to see such a spare romance, dealing not with the profound depths and heights of human emotion but just the basicness of love between two people. Likewise, the setting is a normal English town, a train station and a living room, but the mundanity is really what makes it shine.
14/15
(There. I did it without using "lean")
Posted by bing at 10:43 AM | Comments (0)
May 12, 2005
Beauty and the Beast (1946)
Beauty and the Beast (1946), Jean Cocteau:
My first Cocteau (and just in time, as there was a Jeopardy! question about him tonight), and I fell completely in love with it. The epigraph says to let your inner child take over, and if ever there were magic onscreen, this is it. The effects aren't about fooling the eyes as much as creating a universe that you can revel in. Beautifully shot and surprisingly complex if you choose to look for it.
15/15
Posted by bing at 09:34 PM | Comments (0)
Shaun of the Dead
Shaun of the Dead (2004), Edgar Wright:
I was pretty sure I wouldn't love this, but I was hoping that just maybe I would. I don't know; it was a halfway good movie for a whole bunch of things, but didn't really excel in any area. I suppose if you really love all of those things and wanted to see a movie that incorporates them into a tidy two hours, then you'd love this, but not for me.
7/15
Posted by bing at 08:20 PM | Comments (0)
Before Sunset
Before Sunset (2004), Richard Linklater:
I didn't expect it to be this subtle. I didn't get that in to it, despite the always compelling chance to see characters age in real-time (which, I admit, even helped American Wedding). Maybe I need to let it sit for a while and rewatch it later, or maybe I just wasn't as much into the original.
9/15
Posted by bing at 05:24 PM | Comments (0)
May 11, 2005
Don't Say a Word
Don't Say a Word (2001), Gary Fleder:
It was on TV and I thought it might have at least a few redeeming qualities, seeing how it marked Brittany Murphy's return to the mainstream (at least that I noticed.)
Cringeworthily terrible, full of plot holes and the Hollywood code of law enforcement protocol. I think once the dust settled, the only thing worth watching was the Fairway shout-out.
1/15
Posted by bing at 11:35 AM | Comments (0)
Supervolcano
Supervolcano (2005), the Discovery Channel:
Emily was way too exicted about this, and would've never forgiven me for not taping it had we not arrived home just in time for the eruption. It's a tv disaster movie through and through, but there's just something about apocalyptic events and the human reaction that's fascinating, however bad the production.
6/15
Posted by bing at 11:31 AM | Comments (2)
Russian Ark
Russian Ark (2002), Aleksandr Sokurov:
A 96-minute movie travelling through the Russian Hermitage Museum and grandiosely scenes recreated from the high and low times of Russian history, containted entirely in one shot. It's a technical achievement and utterly gorgeous (though the digitial video is a little grainy, it somehow makes the experience more vivid). It's also a little dull and without an intimate knowledge of Russian history or an immediate sense of importance there's not much else to focus on but the filmmaking, which doesn't take 96 minutes really to comprehend.
7/15
Posted by bing at 11:27 AM | Comments (0)
Heaven
Heaven (2002), Tom Tykwer:
I was disappointed when I learned of this, which is probably why I didn't see it much earlier, despite having Cate Blanchett. People have always been saying how Tykwer was the successor to Kieslowski, manipulators of fate and coincidence, but though I enjoyed Run Lola Run, his films are filled pressures of modernity, feeling fast and cold and cheap.
I guess Tykwer must've felt that way, too, because Heaven is much, much more subdued than I had expected, perhaps more than even Kieslowski would've done. It radiates his warmth and at times beautifully so, but some of the cosmic humor is lacking, like Tykwer was too afraid of screwing it up; I don't know. I guess I'd rather it err on straightlaced than bad.
12/15
Posted by bing at 11:17 AM | Comments (0)
The 39 Steps
The 39 Steps (1935), Alfred Hitchcock:
I keep expecting Hitchcock to blow me away, and save Spellbound, Notorious and Rebecca, I always feel like I'm just missing something. I can see why the 39 Steps is great, but I don't really feel it.
9/15
Posted by bing at 11:14 AM | Comments (0)
The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy
Finals are over, so any late entries are due solely to laziness
The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy (2005), some guy named Garth:
I wasn't expecting much, of course. Its tortuous history through the Hollywood system as well as the very nature of Adams' work suggested this would be anything but good (not to mention the first-time director shunted from music videos, however well established they were). Also, the trailer didn't do much to calm the countenance.
Luckily, I didn't get to see it opening weekend, so I got word of mouth from people who loved the books saying that it was actually very good. It's always nice being able to walk into a movie like this and know that you won't be disappointed, or at least to the full potential of a movie like this (Star Wars III, however, I'm still expecting sublime awesomeness and bracing myself for the fall).
The movie's excellent. It's not perfect, but if you excise the added material, it comes pretty close. (Apparently the extra stuff came directly from Douglas Adams' now dead brain, but it still doesn't feel quite as balanced as everything else.) The director(s) did good by keeping it utterly British, and the tone feels transplanted directly from the page. The cast is perfect. Martin Freeman and Mos Def in particular are almost exactly as I pictured them.
14/15
Posted by bing at 10:57 AM | Comments (0)
May 05, 2005
Secret Honor
Secret Honor (1984), Robert Altman:
It's a great premise. Philip Baker Hall in a one-man performance of Nixon in full freak-out mode, with Altman behind the camera. I got exactly that, but felt unfulfilled. I feel Nixon just doesn't have the cultural presence he had, even in the late eighties. Philip Baker Hall is excellent, so if you love Nixon, you should check it out.
7/15
Posted by bing at 05:49 PM | Comments (0)
The Killing
The Killing (1956), Stanley Kubrick:
Trying to close out the major Kubrick canon (of which I'm actually not that fond), but I really enjoyed this. Kubrick knows exactly what to do with Sterling Hayden's statuesque performance, as well as crafting a smart, engaging heist movie.
15/15
Posted by bing at 05:45 PM | Comments (0)
The Interpreter
Sorry for the lack of updates. The monster known as finals reared its ugly head. So, both of you, I'll post more now.
The Interpreter (2005), Sydney Pollack:
It's a little strange to see Sydney Pollack get the Stephen King treatment and be billed as "The Director of Three Days of the Condor", but I suppose Pollack's directing resume hasn't been that strong lately and it's mostly on the strength of Condor.
I've long been bemoaning the disappearance of the political thriller. I guess it's really a creature of the seventies, fueled by the Cold War and Watergate. I even enjoyed Spy Game, for however mediocre it was. The same applies here. It's a finely crafted thriller full of turns without getting gimmicky, but it has its share of stupid moments. Pollack is best when blending convention with the changed values, injecting a wry sense of irony with faux-African politics and the looming cloud of terrorism.
Surprisingly, the trailer did not spoil the movie, so you don't have to worry about that.
12/15
Posted by bing at 05:31 PM | Comments (0)
April 25, 2005
Nine Queens
Nine Queens (2000), Fabián Bielinsky:
I guess I've seen too many con movies, but halfway through this I stopped caring about how things were progressing from one step to another, and just wanted to know how things were going to end. Much as I dislike him, Mamet's House of Games and The Spanish Prisoner are the flagships of the genre.
I hope my curiousity over how bad Criminal was doesn't get the better of me.
5/15
Posted by bing at 06:18 PM | Comments (0)
The Statement
The Statement (2003), Norman Jewison:
After Constantine and remembering perhaps the only bright spot of The Beach I decided to go Tilda Swinton hunting. I could've sworn I heard a few good things about this, but apparently not. What might've been a taut thriller about the church's dark secret because a mild "Chase an old Michael Caine" movie for which Ms. Swinton (and Mr. Caine) steps down her efforts.
3/15
Posted by bing at 06:14 PM | Comments (0)
The Last Wave
The Last Wave (1977), Peter Weir:
Peter Weir, while I can't think of any real unifying style between his movies, I seem to like them a fair bit. I was hoping for something here like the gracefully unnerving and meticulously balanced Picnic at Hanging Rock. It deals with a Sydney lawyer who starts having premonitions after reprenting a group of Aboriginies. I just didn't buy it at times, but the end was exactly what I was looking for.
7/15
Posted by bing at 06:07 PM | Comments (0)
Sullivan's Travels
Sullivan's Travels (1941), Preston Sturges:
Man, Veronica Lake looks good on screen.
So Christopher Guest said on the commentary (what he's doing on the commentary I'm not sure) that when he first saw this, it didn't blow him away. It didn't blow me away either. Maybe I should try watching it again in a few years.
8/15
Posted by bing at 06:04 PM | Comments (0)
April 22, 2005
Slums of Beverly Hills
Slums of Beverly Hills (1998), Tamara Jenkins:
I can't figure out Natasha Lyonne (dog molesting threats aside). She's undeniably "hott", but her individual features aren't really so. Ah well.
Anyways, another autobiographical movie. Basically: "Breasts are good, steaks are better". Also, could there be any more obvious breast doubles?
5/15
Posted by bing at 05:29 PM | Comments (0)
Sorcerer
Sorcerer (1977), William Friedkin:
This apparently is the movie that ruined Friedkin. A remake of the aforementioned Wages of Fear, Roy Scheider helms the truck across the jungles of South America. It's very much a straight-up remake, preserving the grey nihilism of the original. It's a little less earnest and a little more thrilling, but I think equally as good.
10/15
Posted by bing at 05:26 PM | Comments (0)
The Wages of Fear
The Wages of Fear (1953), Henri-Georges Clouzot:
One of the truly great truck thrillers (sorry Duel) about a raggedy bunch from a raggedy South American town hired to drive cases of nitroglycerin across miles of unhospitable environs. It's not as whiz-bam-pow, but the tension still survived pretty well.
10/15
Posted by bing at 05:22 PM | Comments (0)
April 20, 2005
The Village
The Village (2004), M. Night Shyamalan:
I remember thinking the trailer for this looked really good, then I heard the collective grumble building up again Mr. Shyamalan. I guess I wasn't really surprised, either; his work has been on a steady decline since The Sixth Sense, and while I still liked Signs, it didn't seem to have the same ease of narration the others had.
I also kept hearing about the twist, and how the people guessed the twist and how it ruined the movie. I guessed the twist halfway through and it was fine. It really seems like people put so much emphasis on the twist when it's just a piece of the whole. The Sixth Sense would still be a great movie without the last five minutes. There's a little stress on the twist here, which I don't like, but I enjoyed it.
10/15
Posted by bing at 04:03 PM | Comments (0)
April 18, 2005
The Manchurian Candidate (2004)
The Manchurian Candidate (2004), Jonathan Demme:
It's an interesting concept, at least, updating the Manchurian Candidate with Multi-National Corporations instead of Communists, but this doesn't feel like it got much further beyond the "Hey, wouldn't it be great if..." stage.
In particular, the end (which was so magnificently orchestrated in the original) is a messy reshuffling. It's as if the filmmakers knew they had to change the ending somehow, so they just gave different characters different roles and left it at that, with little regard to why anything at all like that should happen. Lazy, lazy, lazy.
4/15
Posted by bing at 04:42 PM | Comments (0)
1984
1984 (1984), Michael Radford:
I can't tell if it's exceedingly neat that they filmed some scenes on the exact date mentioned in the book. I suppose something like this had to happen and it is compelling on its own right, but the movie just doesn't carry its part of the bargain.
Nothing's particularly bad about it. It looks like what Orwell wrote. Things happen just about how they happen in the book. There's just nothing particularly good about it, despite Richard Burton's final role and the expectation of being the definitive 1984 adaptation. This might be a good alternative to a tenth grader who doesn't feel like reading much, but as a movie, I expect more life and adaptation.
4/15
Posted by bing at 04:34 PM | Comments (0)
House of Sand and Fog
House of Sand and Fog (2003), Vadim Perelman:
You know, I didn't expect to like this this much. I thought it'd be a typical just-above-the-middle-of-the-road tragedy, getting its fair share of praise, but disappearing in a matter of months.
So it's actually very good. The tragedy is somewhat lyrical; not just one bad event falling after another. It's superbly acted (then again, does Ben Kingsley ever mail it in?). I remember people talking about whether Ben Kingsley or Jennifer Connelly was right, but I don't see how that is particularly important.
13/15
Posted by bing at 12:12 AM | Comments (0)
April 17, 2005
Kung Fu Hustle
Kung Fu Hustle (2004), Stephen Chow:
I didn't get to check out Shaolin Soccer but was pretty hyped on this. Notwithstanding Ebert's incoherent babbling, it at least gives you a sense of the film, be as it may just an extension of the standard kung fu movie--albeit an increidbly imaginative and intellengent one.
It's really funny, the fight scenes rank pretty high on a scale from one to awesome, the shot in the hall of the prison I'm sure will rank among the best of the year. Seriously.
14/15
Posted by bing at 08:36 PM | Comments (0)
April 15, 2005
Pursued
Pursued (1947), Raoul Walsh:
A decent noir-Western that seems to have been lost through the cracks; even the blurb on the back of the case got the plot wrong. Robert Mitchum is great as the guy who gets the worst of it, with Teresa Wright as the step-sister/love interest/femme fatale. It takes a lot more from its noir pedigree; it doesn't follow the Western track much at all and I swear there were venetian blinds at times.
11/15
Posted by bing at 04:35 PM | Comments (0)
Fever Pitch
Fever Pitch (2005), The Farrelly Brothers:
So I didn't really plan on watching this, but Look at Me seemed so heavy and it did look pretty entertaining, which Mahnola Dargis pretty much said it was sublimely endearing, if not particularly good.
So I think without the 2004 season of the Red Sox, this movie probably wouldn't even be that endearing. Drew Barrymore still has a really great screen presence for some reason, though Jimmy Fallon should have, too, but besides a few moments, he's utterly dead on screen. It's a shame, too, because when they do click (I think for maybe two scenes), they're really great together.
The movie starts off terribly. The first twenty minutes, it sounded like they were acting in a warehouse, it seemed that dead, and the rest of the movie develops in stops and starts.
So what's notable? First and foremost, there's the Boston Red Sox. Not matter how gimmicky it might be, it's still pretty cool seeing them on the field after game four in St. Louis. There's an Ione Skye sighting, too.
6/15
Posted by bing at 03:05 PM | Comments (0)
April 12, 2005
Sylvia
Sylvia (2003), Christina Jeffs:
I remember AO Scott really liking this, but he also is a 40-year old woman at heart, so I didn't put much creedence into that, but I'd been on a Blythe Danner kick so I figured that was at least a second thing going for it. It's a pretty uninspiring biopic of Sylvia Plath. It's one of those things where you see nothing but hatred between Sylvia and Ted Hughes, but they still insist on saying things like "No one understands him like you, Sylvia".
I'm starting to realize that Gwyneth Paltrow isn't really that good an actress. I mean, she's gtreat at times, but it seems when push comes to shove, she can't really hack it. I think besides Ms. Danner and a few intellegent shots here and there, there's really not much else here. At least A Beautiful Mind felt important, even if Ron Howard is a terrible human being.
4/15
Posted by bing at 08:28 PM | Comments (0)
April 11, 2005
Diabolique
Diabolique (1956), Henri-Georges Clouzot:
The story is Clouzot beat Hitchcock by mere hours to the novel rights.
I was forewarned that after 50 years, the movie has lost its punch, which would fit, being my main complaint with much of Hitchcock's catalogue (but could hardly be his fault (Then again, the Orwellean thrillers haven't aged nearly as badly)). Back to the matter at hand, it took a while to get started, but the mystery fully captivated me; I really had no idea what was going to happen.
Has anyone seen the Sharon Stone remake?
12/15
Posted by bing at 12:02 PM | Comments (0)
A Woman is a Woman
A Woman is a Woman (1961), Jean-Luc Godard:
Godard still fills the screen with whimsy, making a play on the musical--one devoid of song and dance in the traditional form. Anna Karina glows, and the movie's radiant vitality makes this notable, though it's decidedly not as sound as the other two I've seen, Band of Outsiders and Masculine Feminine.
The Criterion DVD comes with a great short, Charlotte and Veronique, or All the Boys are Called Patrick, written by Eric Rohmer. It's very funny and fits Godard like a glove. I haven't seen any Rohmer, so I can't tell who really did what, but I think I read somewhere (the liner notes?) that Godard handwrote the credits, so he has very nice penmanship.
10/15
Posted by bing at 11:41 AM | Comments (0)
April 07, 2005
To Be or Not to Be
To Be or Not to Be (1942), Ernst Lubitsch:
So I see where Mel Brooks gets it from, but (no offense, Mr. Brooks) this is clearly in another class. Teetering on the edge of tastelessness, Mr. Lubitsch walks the line without incident. It's also really funny. Surprisingly enough, I had never seen Jack Benny before, but I was surprised how subdued he was. I expected something more manic, but eh.
15/15
Posted by bing at 07:27 PM | Comments (0)
April 06, 2005
The Incredibles
The Incredibles (2004), Brad Bird:
On rewatch, this lost a bit. It's not as consistant as Finding Nemo, the current Pixar gold standard. Some of the animation, while spectacular in places and overall, jumped out as just not as good as the rest. It's still a great movie, but I think I'll have to put it below Monsters, Inc.
12/15
Posted by bing at 06:29 PM | Comments (1)
Throne of Blood
Throne of Blood (1957), Akira Kurosawa:
Macbeth wasn't my favorite Shakespeare, and this isn't my favorite Kurosawa. It has a great Toshiro Mifune freak-out, as always. The Criterion DVD commentary helped me appreciate what a great technician Kurosawa is, though, something easily overlooked.
8/15
Posted by bing at 06:23 PM | Comments (0)
April 03, 2005
Before Sunrise
Before Sunrise (1995), Richard Linklater:
Wanted to check out what this Before Sunrise/Sunset thing was all about, so it obviously starts here. I'm not sure how long I should wait before watching Sunset, but seeing as I watched the entire Seven Up! series in two weeks, I don't have much faith in my waiting prowess.
On another note, I hate Richard Linklater solely for Waking Life. I don't doubt he's a fine filmmaker, but there are some people who loved The Cruise and some who didn't, and we fall on different sides of that line.
This, I liked. It's a nice play on the romance movie: though it's fully in the world of movies, it feels authentic. I didn't even like the characters as people very much, but even so it's a very easy watch.
10/15
Posted by bing at 11:04 PM | Comments (0)
Beautiful People
Beautiful People (1999), Jasmin Dizdar:
Definitely a labor of love, but done pretty well. In short it's a Magnolia-esque (the box said it, not me) collection of people interacting with people, showing the distance between them, whether close or far. I say labor of love because all the threads gravitate towards the clashes in what was Yugoslavia, and however well intentioned, it felt forced. The rest of the action, though, was sharp and full of life, which makes it well worth watching.
11/15
Posted by bing at 10:56 PM | Comments (0)
April 02, 2005
Capturing the Friedmans
Capturing the Friedmans (2003), Andrew Jarecki:
So the older brother is the premier party clown in New York City? Baffling. I wonder how his business is doing after this.
The mystery? Seems like everything got caught up in the hoopla and especially with such a public case, there aren't many objective voices. It's interesting what went on, but all the screaming people got real annoying real fast.
10/15
Posted by bing at 11:04 PM | Comments (0)
Mean Streets
Mean Streets (1973), Martin Scorsese:
So I mentioned before that I never really understood Martin Scorsese, but the more I watch, it turns out that I just don't understand Goodfellas (and the terrible Casino).
I mean, this was so good. I expected something a little more raw and rougher, but though it's weird seeing Robert DeNiro and Harvey Keitel before they settled into their perennial characters, there's nothing else about the movie that's really under-developed. It's a view of New York on par with Taxi Driver or that poetic (but irritating) American Express commercial.
13/15
Posted by bing at 10:50 PM | Comments (0)
April 01, 2005
Sin City
Sin City (2005), Frank Miller, Robert Rodriguez, Quentin Tarantino:
I never really got into Robert Rodriguez; everything people were going crazy over (Desperado, From Dusk Till Dawn, Spy Kids) fell pretty flat on me. When the Sin City stuff first started coming out, I wasn't really that into it, but the more I saw, the more it finally got to me. So, despite my track record with Mr. Rodriguez and not having read the comics, I was really hyped on this (I actually started tearing up during the opening credits).
Yeah, it's pretty awesome. Almost every single piece of it is individually awesome; all the characters are awesome (Elijah Wood perhaps the awesomest? Who knew?); if you've seen the trailer, you know it looks awesome.
Ok, now that I've finished geeking out, it's pretty good, too. I feel like with its inter-related but independent vignettes, it'd be easy to let things spiral out of control, but the directors keep the overall structure nice and tight. There's a miniscule Tarantino time loop at the end, but nothing distracting. Regarding the segments, there's a definite heirarchy. Personally, I think the first was by far best, though I guess it was also the first (Emily complained that things got a little repetitive each time around).
We were also trying to guess which segment was Tarantino's [update: I looked it up. He only directed a scene]. An additional discussion topic: What exactly is the difference between Jaimes King and Pressly?
14/15
Posted by bing at 11:50 PM | Comments (0)
Melinda and Melinda
Melinda and Melinda (2005), Woody Allen:
This is actually the first Woody Allen picture I've seen in the theaters. I'm sorry your latest movies have been so bad, Mr. Allen.
Dare I say I enjoyed the atrocious Hollywood Ending better? I know with that it felt like a cheap knock-off, but it at least had a few moments of that Woody Allen brilliance. This admittedly feels a lot more like a Woody Allen flim--you can feel he's at least trying--but it's almost completely flat. There're no terrible parts, there're no great parts. For a movie that plumbs the depths of comedy/tragedy, it also is very much neither. I actually laughed more at the trailer than the movie, which is odd because you'd figure the subset wouldn't perform as well. I guess that's the point, but it makes for a boring movie.
The cast is actually pretty good. Beyond the much heralded Radha Mitchell, Chloe Sevigny, Chiwetel Ejifor and Will Ferrell are all good to excellent. There's a dud here or there (Amanda Peet?) but over all, nothing really gets in the way.
6/15
Posted by bing at 12:25 AM | Comments (0)
March 31, 2005
Salesman
Salesman (1969), Albert and David Maysles:
I don't think it's possible to write something about this movie without mentioning Death of a Salesman or Glengarry Glen Ross, so I'll get it over quick. A documentary about four door-to-door bible salesmen peddling their wares to the unwilling. It sounds terribly interesting, but I didn't find it so. For me, it didn't speak as much of that time, like you needed to be of that time for it to take its full effect.
6/15
Posted by bing at 08:39 PM | Comments (0)
March 30, 2005
Westworld
Westworld (1973), Michael Crichton:
70's sci-fi = extremely homosexual, as if Logan's Run didn't prove it.
Two buddies with great moustaches take a trip to Westworld, a resort populated by robots for the ultimate getaway, full of danger and meaningful glances. They meet robot Yul Brynner, exchange meaningful glances, and repeat.
3/15
Posted by bing at 10:54 AM | Comments (0)
March 29, 2005
The Last Picture Show
The Last Picture Show (1971), Peter Bogdanovich:
Jeff Bridges and Cybil Shepherd are so young, and that's not even mentioning Ellen Burstyn.
A while back I wanted to see what this whole Cinema Paradiso thing was all about. I had heard such great things about it and it turns out to be cloyingly sweet, pandering to the audience about how much it loves movies. There aren't as many movies in the Last Picture Show, but it has a reverence for cinema that Paridiso just didn't get. The first shots of Cybil Shepherd or Cloris Leachman are all little monuments to the Golden Age of Hollywood.
And it's not even really about movies.
13/15
Posted by bing at 05:11 PM | Comments (0)
Night Moves
Night Moves (1975), Arthur Penn:
I've heard a lot of good things about this, a Gene Hackman dectective "thriller". I didn't find it particularly remarkable and it seems to have been forgotten if it weren't for the very young James Woods and Melanie Griffith.
Things are very bright, and the mystery is not that compelling. As more and more people get roped into the conspiracy, I felt as one might when eggs are added to the shopping list. I'd saw the hightlight of the film is when someone gets hit by the pontoon of a seaplane.
4/15
Posted by bing at 02:40 PM | Comments (0)
March 26, 2005
Mr. and Mrs. Bridge
Mr. and Mrs. Bridge (1990), James Ivory:
My first Merchant-Ivory deal and it's pretty much what I expected it to be: a meticulous but otherwise unstylized movie with its dollhouse figures and politics. Paul Newman is the stodgy, Republican patriarch in pre-WWII America, resisting the outward urges of his wife and three children. I enjoyed it when I was watching it--it's very well crafted--but when I turned away, I felt utterly no emotional attachment. It seems like a very cold movie, to no fault of the characters or actors. The characters are refreshing turns on a familiar theme and Newman, Joanne Woodward and Blythe Danner play them warmly. Unforunately, I had to miss the last half-hour, but the movie's so even-keeled I doubt much changes in the end.
8/15
**Update**, I caught the rest of the movie over the weekend, and you know what, it ended really well. It has this air of flippancy that I just realized is in the whole movie hidden by its straightfaced delivery. Maybe I just really liked the end and forgot how unenthused I was about the rest of the movie. I don't know.
Posted by bing at 09:20 PM | Comments (0)
Days of Wine and Roses
Days of Wine and Roses (1962), Blade Edwards:
The lovechild between Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf and an AA brochure. Jack Lemmon plays a free-wheeling PR guy who convinces his wife they'd have much more fun if they were both drunks. Hilarity, of course, ensues. It's kinda weird, because the movie begins in amost the exact universe as The Apartment, where the pressures of Jack Lemmon's workplace are driving him ragged, but in a funny way. The Apartment was pretty dark to begin with, but when this makes its turn, it's even more disorienting.
Besides Lemmon's excellent performance, I'm not sure there's much else here. It's very much has a Movie-of-the-week mentality, showing the terrors of affliction and educating kindly about the available remedies with a dead serious "No, I'm really serious" tone.
9/15
Posted by bing at 12:32 AM | Comments (0)
March 25, 2005
Written on the Wind
Written on the Wind (1956), Douglas Sirk:
Sirk as the father of the soap opera? I can see it here. It's not the completely indulgent pulpy goodness of Imitation of Life; instead it's a well-balanced love triangle/quadrangle that unfolds perfectly. Lauren Bacall is a little awkward, caught halfway between sultry and stately, but she plays excellently between Rock Hudson and Robert Stack.
14/15
Posted by bing at 02:10 PM | Comments (0)
March 24, 2005
They Shoot Horses, Don't They?
They Shoot Horses, Don't They? (1969), Sydney Pollack:
A movie about a Depression-era dance marathon where the contestants dance for days on end for three meals a day and a modest prize. It's Midnight Cowboy-lite, a faux-nostalgic view of how the American Dream can slip away so easily, complete with flashbacks/flashforwards.
Sydney Pollack builds a much smaller movie, trapped in the claustrophobic dance hall with its inhabitants a microcosm of society. (Also, Red Buttons still alive? Who knew?) It's not as incisive as Cowboy is, but it's certainly well made and worth watching.
12/15
Posted by bing at 10:40 PM | Comments (0)
March 22, 2005
The Station Agent
The Station Agent (2004), Thomas McCarthy:
So I guess this is penance for seeing Peter Dinklage and not remembering his name or having seen his movie. Also, it's about New Jersey, so I couldn't not see it.
It's funny and touching and Patricia Clarkson still plays grating characters (and well). Thomas McCarthy said he wrote the script specifically for these three actors and I'm not sure it would work otherwise, the chemistry is so good. Raven Goodwin is one of the best child actors I've seen in a while and how has Michelle Williams stayed hidden for so long? I got a little annoyed when the film got serious, not because it did--I understand the need to push the characters--but it seemed like it did because it felt it had to, not to say anything important about any of them.
12/15
Posted by bing at 01:35 PM | Comments (0)
The African Queen
The African Queen (1951), John Huston:
A family favorite of Emily and her mom and I had never seen it, so it seemed like a perfect opportunity to do so (yes, this was two weeks ago. I'm falling behind).
I had no idea Humphrey Bogart could be filmed in color, but there he was, and after my unpleasant experience with Katharine Hepburn, she proved enjoyable.
As the grandfather of the Indiana Jones movies, there's no way I couldn't love this. Bogart and Hepburn play their roles with relish in the tropical surroundings and hiding from the Germans. Thumbs up for the hippos.
15/15
Posted by bing at 12:03 PM | Comments (0)
March 21, 2005
Rocky IV
Rocky IV (1985), Sylvester Stallone:
The Rockies really do seem to follow a standard progression. This builds on the goofiness of Rocky III and expands the training montage/fight to epic proportions (half the movie, by my calculations). One thing I noticed is that they always seem to start the movie with clips from the last. I caught the beginning of V (which I haven't seen before) and sure enough, there's Drago. Maybe this is Stallone's masterpiece, all part of a grand ten hour affair. Maybe then he'd've kept the robot around.
9/15
Posted by bing at 08:57 AM | Comments (0)
March 20, 2005
Millions
Millions (2004), Danny Boyle:
So a tv spot for this attached the word "visionary" to Danny Boyle, which I would say is a tad bit strong. I do admire him; though his movies haven't all been good, they've been interesting and, for the most part, in different ways. I mean, I really liked A Life Less Ordinary. I guess that means Boyle is the anti-Mamet, whom I don't really like, but who makes a consistently good film.
I was really excited about this after seeing the wonderful trailer. It looked like a perfect stylish and subversive children's movie, something like the vastly underrated Babe 2: Pig in the City.
It's stylish, and a little subversive (Danny Boyle hates Mormons. Who knew?), but it's just not all there. I had hoped that 28 Days Later... meant that Boyle finally learned how to finish out a movie. Millions has a great start, building themes of childhood wonder, tragedy and morality. The wonderful rhythm breaks down at the end to a sticky mess as Boyle retreats to safe territory.
10/15
Posted by bing at 12:21 PM | Comments (1)
March 18, 2005
Oldboy
Oldboy (2003), Chan-wook Park:
Dear Gothamist,
Thank you for screening; watching movies in a private showing always seems more exciting. I was a little put off when you gave me an address at which to watch the movie, but did not even say 'Hi' when I got there. It was a little weird how no one checked to see if any of us belonged there, but I suppose if you're OK with that, you're OK with that. (Also, I'm sorry I didn't say 'Hi' to the guitarist from the Magnetic Fields. Cat and Girl says everyone's famous now to 1500 people and I'm not on his list)
The movie came with a lot of hype (or is it buzz?), so I was expecting something pretty awesome but not as good as everyone keeps saying (then again, does anyone take what AICN says at face value?). This is my first Chan-wook Park film, so I wasn't sure exactly what I was getting into, but I figured it would be ultra-violent, witty and elaborately structured . That's pretty much what I got. A little less violence, wit and much, much more elaborate than I could have imagined. There were a few times I felt it got over-clever verging on stupid, but I suppose that'll happen.
Anyway, thanks for having us over. You should visit sometime.
11/15
Posted by bing at 11:06 PM | Comments (0)
Fletch
Fletch (1985), Michael Ritchie:
This is a fan-favorite of a bunch of my friends, but it was lost on me. Chevy Chase I feel can be funny at times, but he was far more unfunny in this standard plucky detective story.
3/15
Posted by bing at 11:53 AM | Comments (0)
Zelig
Zelig (1983), Woody Allen:
I'm gearing up for disappointment for Melinda and Melinda, so it was a pleasant surprise when Zelig was on IFC. I remember reading a lot of the contemporary critics saying that this would be Allen's masterpiece, and it's definitely not. It's terribly funny at times, of the whimsical variety, and the technical achievement must've been astounding at the time.
I see how this fits in his artist-angst trilogy with Stardust Memories and The Purple Rose of Cairo but whatever the earnestness of emotion, it didn't really have that urgency. Myabe it's deliberate considering the documentary format, but I don't know.
13/15
Posted by bing at 11:41 AM | Comments (0)
Dolores Claiborne
Dolores Claiborne (1995), Taylor Hackford:
Half-baked Stephen King adaptation. Most of its failings seem to come from the source material. I haven't read the book, but parts of it are eerily similar to Gerald's Game.
Like King's other non-supernatural works, this is mainly character-driven and for the most part, they fail here. Kathy Bates is good, as always. Christopher Plummer does the best he can with his two-dimensional role. Jennifer Jason Leigh butchers what she has. I honestly kept seeing Stacy Hamilton every time she tried to emote.
4/15
Posted by bing at 11:34 AM | Comments (0)
March 17, 2005
Croupier
Croupier (1998), Mike Hodges:
Poor Mike Hodges. Makes one masterpiece in Get Carter and thirty years later people don't even remember that because of some jagoff named Sylvester Stallone.
Let's hope Hodges can get back in the fray. I haven't seen his latest (which seems suspciously similar to Get Carter), but Croupier was a lot of fun. Hodges pulls his best David Lynch impression to make a fuzzy, dream-like journey through the the hidden side of society, but a surprisingly emotionless one.
11/15
Posted by bing at 03:49 PM | Comments (0)
Bringing Up Baby
Bringing Up Baby (1938), Howard Hawks:
I just don't know about Katharine Hepburn. I know it's mostly her character here, but she's just so grating. Cary Grant was a little too frenetic for me, odd because I really liked him in Arsenic and Old Lace. He doesn't play the bookish type well, unlike Gary Cooper in Ball of Fire. Maybe it's just the screwball form I don't like. I loved His Girl Friday, but not any of the others I've seen yet.
6/15
Posted by bing at 12:51 PM | Comments (0)
March 15, 2005
Day of the Dead
Day of the Dead (1985), George Romero:
What a disppointing finish to the zombie trilogy, dispite Mr. Romero's assertion that he considers it his best. None of the three really get A-movie treatment, but where Night used sharp human interactions and Dawn whimsical commentary on commercialism, this seems content to wallow in B-movie values. The characters are stock horror types, the dialogue is just an extention of that. The movie is just a vehicle for the (admittedly great) zombie freakout at the end.
5/15
Posted by bing at 08:38 PM | Comments (0)
March 14, 2005
Trust
Trust (1990), Hal Hartley:
I'd never heard of this Hal Hartley guy, but it seems he (and this film) was pretty big in the "indie" scene of the early nineties, back when it was truly independent. The only names that seemed to have survived are yet-to-be-discovered Edie Falco and Martin "Pastor Skip from Saved!" Donovan.
It really has the feel of a film school short--dialogue-driven, human-centered, measuredly-quirky. It's good though, and manages to keep steady for its two hours. It's not fully sustainable, so it drops at times, but it's very good.
13/15
Posted by bing at 09:30 PM | Comments (0)
Breaking the Waves
Breaking the Waves (1996), Lars von Trier:
I received a tip about our school's undergraduate library and their bountiful video collection and sure enough, there it was. Thank you, University trustees for deciding we students need Terminator 3 to facilitate our education. This solves my problem with Netflix in that out-of-print discs soon disappear from circulation because of extraordinary wear and tear.
Anyway, who knew that Lars could be so tender? In the two sacrificial lamb ones I've seen, Dogville and Dancer in the Dark, he showed love towards his heroines, but seemingly only to break our hearts so thoroughly later. Maybe he hadn't cultivated that mean streak early. I don't know.
Emily Watson is by far the most sympathetic character of his I've seen (she's by far the best actor I've seen in von Trier's works, too, and he's had a bunch of good ones). He never completely forsakes her, follows the same basic arc as La Strada. For all the world's abuse, we know her spirit will emerge unscathed. By the same token, the rest of the world isn't really mean, just uncapable of understanding. It's hard to hate any of the potential bad guys. Everyone's just playing his part, and there's a happy ending afer everything is finished.
My first analogy was going to be to the passion play, but I'm not it's a good one. Breaking the Waves is, despite whatever forced metaphors, highly spiritual. It reminded me a lot of Fanny and Alexander with its pervasive and everyday presence of God, even if they don't outwardly invoke Him. I guess where Dogville was the Old Testament God of smiting and retribution, Breaking the Waves was the New Testament humanity and salvation. I'm not sure how forced that is, either.
15/15
Posted by bing at 03:25 PM |