Mineshaft Gap

It's Stork.

2007-01-06T15:48:00.000-08:00

Children of Men (Cuaron, 2006)

Equal parts mesmerizing and baffling, Cuaron's new feature is a great film made from a banal topic. His story is slight, and his characters (though well played) are not particularly deep. But the film is a masterpiece of mise-en-scene, and masterful at underplaying big scenes of emotion.

The visceral cinematography and choreography by what seems like hundreds if not thousands of extras grounds you in the reality of this world. Cuaron is making a very specific statement about injustice and hope, but never lets his polemic become to bald-faced. Even in one long tracking shot that plays like a catalogue of Abu Ghraib imagery, I felt something was being reveled to me, not forced upon me.

All of this combines with perhaps the year's best ensemble performance. Owen, Moore, Eijiofor, Ashitey, Huston and especially Caine are stellar. Caine specifically turns in his best performance in years, playing a character something like an aged Alfie with a soul. He is funny and tenderly heartbreaking.

In the long run Cuaron may not to have much to say about the whys of the world today, but he cares deeply about the how. Within his quite classical narrative he wants to display how a government will go about cheapening individuals towards an amorphous "security". The torture, the marginalization and violations of what we like to hold as basic human rights are what he displays here, in powerful long takes. Even if his plot is in any number of SF novels, his images are uniquely his own with, a power to resonate through the world.

Current 2006 Top Ten:
1. Three Times
2. Children of Men
3. Tristram Shandy: A Cock and Bull Story
4. Miami Vice
5. A Prairie Home Companion
6. The Departed
7. The Queen
8. United 93
9. Inside Man
10. Dave Chapelle's Block Party

Strong Women.

2007-01-05T11:14:00.000-08:00

His Girl Friday (Hawks, 1939)

Just a brilliant, brilliant film. Russell and Grant have such great chemistry, and the characters are so strong. Hawks was such the ideal studio director, capable of handling any genre, and any beat in any film.

More Movies.

2007-01-04T11:16:00.000-08:00

Wet Hot American Summer (Wain, 2001)

Goddamn this movie is funny.

Three Times (Hou, 2006)

Three eras, three "times". A time for love that is about separation, a time for freedom that is about slavery, and a time for youth that is about death. Beautifully shot and deeply felt. Hou Hsiao-Hsien is a powerful genius.

Current 2006 Top Ten:
1. Three Times
2. The Departed
3. Miami Vice
4. Tristram Shandy: A Cock and Bull Story
5. A Prairie Home Companion
6. The Queen
7. United 93
8. Inside Man
9. Casino Royale
10. Dave Chapelle's Block Party

Conservative America.

2006-12-30T14:06:00.000-08:00

Cars (Lasseter, 2006)

Charming and sweet, if not quite the equal of other PIXAR films, Lasseter's peon to '50s and '60s America veers between gently charming and promoting a reductionary ideology about conservative America and the "fly over states". The message is light enough though not to interfere with enjoying this cute but slight children's film.

Manderlay (von Trier, 2005)

A sequel(of sorts) to von Trier's 2003 masterpiece Dogville, Manderlay is a vicious attack on the supposedly liberal face of America. Manderlay is a world of prolonged slavery, and von Trier says explicitly that white Americans still enslave people to this day. The different facets of Grace shown in this film almost make her a different character than Kidman's Grace, she has taken on the role of pseudo-liberal society that was Paul Bettany's Tom in Dogville. As with that film, Manderlay's Bowie-scored close is blistering.

More films.

2006-12-28T14:57:00.000-08:00

The Killing of a Chinese Bookie (Cassavetes, 1976)

Why is it that I have become so interested in films elliptically about artists? Pierrot le Fou and The Killing of a Chinese Bookie are both about their makers more than about any plot or genre. Cosmo Vitteli is John Cassavetes. He is the center of an eccentric family of performers, all working to express themselves and stay alive. The film has the same air of tragedy as Godard's: that of the lost artist. And yet, in the same way as Godard this film has hints of a simple misogyny. But it is undercut in the films by Godrd's love of Karina, even in his sadness, and by Mr. Sophistication, Cassavetes grotesque self portrait. He uses the genre's conventions towards a probing examination of art of self.

Dreamgirls (Condon, 2006)

Way too long, but with good songs and great performances by Murphy and Hudson. Condon has no personal style, which limits this from being anything special.

Flowers from Shanghai (Hou, 1998)

My first Hou Hsiao-Hsien. It took me a good 20 minutes to adjust to his style, because he is speaking in a language all his own. The film he makes here is ravishing and epically sad. Off putting at first, the series of fades give the film a sense of memory that never borders on nostalgia. Leung and the ensemble feel authentically of the period. This is an incredibly intriguing film which may be a masterpiece; only more Hou films will help me to know.

10 adjusting.

2006-12-28T13:05:00.001-08:00

I just realized that Tristram Shandy is an '06 film. There for it is in the list. As always it will probably be February before I see all the films I need to to make this list. I have high hopes for Children of Men, Three Times, Pan's Labyrinth and Inland Empire.

Current 2006 Top Ten:
1. The Departed
2. Miami Vice
3. Tristram Shandy: A Cock and Bull Story
4. The Queen
5. A Prairie Home Companion
6. United 93
7. Casino Royale
8. Inside Man
9. Dave Chapelle's Block Party
10. Borat

Stories.

2006-12-24T12:54:00.000-08:00

Celine and Julie Go Boating (Rivette, 1974)

What is this film? It is about stories and memory, and friendship. Is it too long? Yes, but I would not give up one of the digressions, from Celine and the suitor to Julie and the audition. This film is filled with such a joy about stories and telling them. It can be intoxicating to watch. It is in and of the cinema. It is a masterpiece.

Seed of Chucky (Mancini, 2004)

Funny and even a little brave, this is the way almost any horror comedy should be. Jennifer Tilly should be a star.

Movies of late.

2006-12-21T10:46:00.000-08:00

In addition to starting to watch but failing to get through Pulse, the American remake, here's what I have seen of late.

Unaccompanied Minors (Feig, 2006)

Cute, and the Kids in the Hall guys were great.

Je Vous Salue, Marie (Godard, 1985)

More proof of the greatness of large images, watching this on my new bigger TV made all the difference from my first viewing a year ago. Godard's clarity of thought screams through in this film. He gets at the heart of the difficulties of faith. His eye lingers perhaps a little too long on young naked bodies, but the fervor of his ideas is breathtaking.

Petit Notes a propos du film Je Vous Salue, Marie (Godard, 1985)

Another of Godard's video preparations for a feature, this one ruminating on the nature of facial poses and the influence of music. A fantastic piece of video criticism.

The Dreamers (Bertolucci, 2003)

There is something so compelling about the lives of beautiful people on film. The politics are only given glossy treatment, but the films do feel truly loved and the performances are fantastic. Bernardo's own personal experience is what drives this film. His own worship of Godard, and coming of age during the Nouvelle Vague(he would have been a significant, but still minor 7-8 years older than his subjects here during May of '68). A film that can be loved for its cinephilia, despite it's shallowness or flaws.

Pity.

2006-12-13T16:02:00.000-08:00

Woyzeck (Herzog, 1979)

Woyzeck is perhaps the only of his collaborations with Herzog in which you pity Kinski. The classic character is such a beaten dog that you feel immensely sad for him, even in the heights of his madness by the end of the film.

1973.

2006-12-09T14:03:00.000-08:00

The Exorcist (Friedkin, 1973)

Utterly disappointing to me.

The Crazies (Romero, 1973)

With each film I see from him, it is more and more clear that Romero is not just the greatest horror director of all time, but one of the greatest political filmmakers and just plain filmmakers we have ever had. This film bristles with relevance to this day, and transforms the disaster genre into one of its few expressions of art. Romero's films feel so personal, and are so clearly a voice calling out in the darkness that it saddens me to watch what the genre has become with the Saw franchise, amongst others. At least George A. is still around to remind us of what horror can be.

Badlands (Malick, 1973)

An utterly perfect existentialist film, Badlands inspired such a pure burst of cinephilia in me that it is like seeing the opening of a new path. Bittersweet it may be that in thirty years Malick has made only three other masterpieces, and like Welles his greatest film may have been his first, but that takes nothing away from Badlands or from the looks exchanged in that airplane between Kit and Holly.

Jean Luc and Werner.

2006-12-04T11:58:00.000-08:00

Une Femme Est Une Femme (Godard, 1961)

The 52" widescreen TV I just bought is a godsend. It's not seeing movies in the cinema, but so much closer. That would probably be the best way to explain what happened to me during my second viewing of Une Femme est Une Femme. What had been fun, but like all Godard slightly boring, turned into a magical and wonderful experience. The image really is the thing, so now I must rewatch every major film I had only seen on my 19" TV.

Lessons of Darkness (Herzog, 1992)

Perhaps SciFi really is the best way to see our world. Herzog's beautiful yet sad symphony in fire began as science fiction before taking us into the brutality of human beings. The simple shot of mother and sun is as powerful as the godlike tilt downs from the skies. Fire has never looked so horrible and so haunting.

Relationships.

2006-11-30T13:36:00.000-08:00

Pusher (Refn, 1996)

Nicholas Winding Refn's 1996 feature Pusher plays like A Bout De Souffle post-Scorsese. That may be high praise, but the film is worth it. A brilliant examination of the relationships that one small time dealer has in the Copenhagen underground, the film pulses with the vitality of the recent Mann films while adding a perverse sense of humor.

Teen Gore.

2006-11-29T12:43:00.000-08:00

Cabin Fever (Roth, 2002)

Better than Hostel because it is more inventive, Roth's first feature is a fun turn in the teens in the woods genre. Rider Strong is a solid central character, but Giuseppe Andrews steals the show.

Ladies, Vampires and Men.

2006-11-13T12:39:00.000-08:00

Flags of Our Fathers (Eastwood, 2006)

An interesting conception and take on war, completely ruined by Ryan Phillipe and Adam Beach.

Nosferatu the Vampire (Herzog, 1978)

More a supernatural drama than a horror film, this is a breathtakingly beautiful visual poem. Herzog's images haunt my dreams.

The Queen (Frears, 2006)

This film is the epitome of the concept of the "well made play". Well acted, written, and directed it is a reserved yet powerful experience. Mirren and Sheen are brilliant.

Current 2006 Top Ten:
1. The Departed
2. Miami Vice
3. The Queen
4. United 93
5. A Prairie Home Companion
6. Borat
7. The Descent
8. Dave Chapelle's Block Party
9. Inside Man
10. The Science of Sleep

Rhapsody in Blue.

2006-11-10T13:19:00.000-08:00

Meetin' WA (Godard, 1986)

Godard interview/investigation into New York and Woody Allen is a fun and beautiful short video. The use of jazz, Hopper paintings and the cinematic image of Allen himself are all juxtaposed to say something deeply sad about a lost cinema.

Obsession?

2006-11-10T11:25:00.000-08:00

The Prestige (Nolan, 2006)

The Prestige might have worked for me if I felt for one second that Hugh Jackman was obsessed with anything. His calm rationality prevents the film from it's attempt to crescendo in the last act with Jackman finally "getting his hands dirty".

If Nolan had an eye for performances he might have caught on and saved his movie. But his actors always vary wildly in their performances so that is really no surprise. Still it is great to see Andy Serkis in anything.

Modern Romance.

2006-11-09T14:06:00.000-08:00

Borat (Charles and Cohen, 2006) This isn't the funniest movie ever made, just the funniest of the year. Cohen may literally be a genius of a performer, but this should be the end of the Ali G films. Borat was the best character, and has turned into a hilarious film, but that should be all. Please no Bruno.

Marie Antoinette (Coppola, 2006)

I try not to blame Coppola for my problems with this beautiful yet over indulgent film (two shopping montages?), but I still must fault her for the performance of the dead space that exists whenever Kirsten Dunst is on the screen. Schwartzman, Torn and Argento? Brilliant. But Coppola is unable to get Dunst to understand the things she does. It is a playing that is far to straight to work. There are now levels, no remove that it is necessary to have for the character. Another problem is with the film is the score. The New Wave works so well that it is a shame that Coppola uses scoring. It works against the film. Still it is rapsidous and engrossing, if misguided.

Population 436 (MacLaren, 2006)

Shirley Jackson's The Lottery + The Wicker Man= Population 436.

Aguirre, The Wrath of God (Herzog, 1971)

I saw this film as a freshman in college and hated it. I see it now as genius. Herzog's combination of documentary style with epic story and stylized acting with natural setting is evocative and haunting. The last images are startling and dreamy. Breathtaking.

Current 2006 Top Ten:
1. The Departed
2. Miami Vice
3. United 93
4. A Prairie Home Companion
5. Borat
6. The Descent
7. Dave Chapelle's Block Party
8. Inside Man
9. The Science of Sleep
10. Marie Antoinette

Post Festival.

2006-11-01T14:42:00.000-08:00

Austin Film Festival comes around and I don't get to watch a movie for three weeks. Then it ends and what do I watch? Three movies about summer camp.

Sleepaway Camp II: Unhappy Campers (Simpson, 1988)

Totally plot and character-less, but some good kills and never boring.

Wet Hot American Summer (Wain, 2002)

David Wain and Michael Showalter's near brilliant camp comedy has a great ensemble and script. This is a performer's piece, and it is a testament to Wain that there are so many hilarious moments and turns in the film.
Sleepaway Camp III: Teenage Wasteland (Simpson, 1989)

Still plotless, still silly. Some damn creepy kills though, especially the lawnmower.

Precocious.

2006-10-09T15:28:00.000-07:00

The Science of Sleep (Gondry, 2006)

I wanted to love this movie. It stars my favorite young actor in Bernal, and Eternal Sunshine was a near masterpiece. So why didn't this click for me? I think it lies in the dreams. In dreams the film become to precocious, not merely about a precocious man. They so bored me after the first couple that I just couldn't take them. When in the "real world" the film is beautiful and sad, but the contrivences of the dream world just lost me.

Current 2006 Top Ten:
1. The Departed
2. Miami Vice
3. United 93
4. A Prairie Home Companion
5. The Descent
6. The Science of Sleep
7. An Inconvenient Truth
8. Dave Chapelle's Block Party
9. Inside Man
10. The Black Dahlia

Mirrors.

2006-10-08T09:33:00.000-07:00

The Departed (Scorcese, 2006)

The film is all about mirrors. Damon-DiCaprio, Nicholson-Sheen, bags of food at beginning and end. It asks why in this society we put the just through the stations of the cross and the wicked live in townhouses. The the glowing white father can die without a note, and the searing red father can die grandly. It wants to know if it is all a game.

From the first moments, Scorcese announces his world. The opening sequence, working similarly to the beginning of Goodfellas pulls you in and sets the story going at a furious pace. Scorcese uses the tight script to ruminate on his pet themes, while getting killer performances from his large ensemble. He also creates some of his most indelible images, like the final shot or Nicholson's coke fueled date. Yes, DiCaprio is no Tony Leung, but judged independently everything in this film works. This is the sort of movie America has always owned, the kind that made Godard love Ray. It truly is one of Scorcese's best.

Current 2006 Top Ten:
1. The Departed
2. Miami Vice
3. United 93
4. A Prairie Home Companion
5. The Descent
6. An Inconvenient Truth
7. Dave Chapelle's Block Party
8. Inside Man
9. The Black Dahlia
10. Nacho Libre

Aimlessness.

2006-10-07T15:28:00.000-07:00

Five Easy Pieces (Rafelson, 1971)

With this tragic and immensely downbeat road picture, Nicholson established himself as the existential non-hero of the 1970s. I knew of this film for ever as one of my father's favorite movies, and I can see why. Nicholson is at the top of his form here, effortlessly showing us a man caught between two putrid worlds. Rafelson's script and direction are also sure handed, walking a line of classic structure and New Hollywood revisionism. Jack before he was "Jack", when he put his character into quotes, not himself. The monologues in the dinner and with his non-responsive father are famous for a reason, they are heights of the 1970s golden age.

Forget it Jake.

2006-09-30T11:45:00.000-07:00

Chinatown (Polanski, 1974)

Since I am reading Bingham's Acting Male right now, I've decided to watch and re-watch some of the 70s Nicholson classics. I first watched Chinatown when I was about 16 and it confused me(though what didn't at that age). Rewatching it again last night, it is amazing how subversive and genuinely disturbing a film it is. Far more horrific in its end than Rosemary's Baby, the film pulls back the curtain on paternalism so brilliantly because it suckers you in so completely. Polanski, from Towne's brilliant script, effortlessly builds the tension and lays out the mystery, playing you all along until the true plot hits you when you least expect.

Crime in Society.

2006-09-28T21:26:00.001-07:00

Bicycle Thieves (De Sica, 1948)

Another film I am embarrassed to say I hadn't seen, this absolutely lived up to its vaunted reputation. It should be shown to anyone that doubts the link between society and crime.

2 More.

2006-09-26T10:59:00.000-07:00

Scary Movie 4 (Zucker, 2006)

While Zucker and Abrahams still know how to be funny, the act has worn thin. This is no better than any of the other Scary Movies.

Inside Man (Lee, 2006)

A tight script and solid direction, plus that killer cast really add up to something. Lee still knows how to play with the camera, and really could have gone mainstream with his talents because he certainly has the eye. But even here he has something to say about race in class in modern New York. The script keeps the expository groaners to a minimum, and Lee keeps everything rolling along.

Current 2006 Top Ten:
1. Miami Vice
2. United 93
3. A Prairie Home Companion
4. The Descent
5. An Inconvenient Truth
6. Dave Chapelle's Block Party
7. Inside Man
8. The Black Dahlia
9. Nacho Libre
10. Hard Candy

Spitting.

2006-09-20T15:14:00.000-07:00

The Outlaw Josey Wales (Eastwood, 1976)

This was perhaps the first film that showed Eastwood as auteur, and it is still a classic in a lot of ways. The Eastwood western was always a different breed than that of Hawks and Ford, or even Leone. Eastwood is more interested in family than action, and in paternalism in both its positive and negative aspects. Josey Wales is a famed killer, and yet one that was driven by forces outside his own traditional Missouri farm. His story is a tragedy and a fairy tale. It is a story for adults, and Eastwood handles it with both tact and horror, longing and joy.

Tragic.

2006-09-17T15:06:00.000-07:00

Pierrot le Fou (Godard, 1965)

I watched Pierrot le Fou again because I had been thinking about it a great deal lately. I felt that I needed to see it again, now that my understanding of film is greater, and that it might become one of my favorite films if I saw it again now. So what is my new verdict? The film, like all of Godard, is hard to judge. Godard is mistrusting of emotion in film (no matter what Fuller says in this film) and what he is doing at the heart of his work is intellectual. That said Pierrot is a film of connected joys, of a gangster film, a musical, and a melodrama and tragedy. It offers compelling texts on all Godard's favorite themes, from art to relationships. It seems to state a basic disconnect between men and women, and indeed seems to hold that the same disconnect is within cinema and is what killed the world of Hawks and Ray.

Emotion versus intellect, but which side is Godard really on? It is hard to ignore the implicit and explicit misogyny of much of Godard's work, yet do we really relate or empathize any more with Ferdinand than Marianne? She is living her life, while his intellectualism cripples him. If he is an artist in search of a subject, why ignore the life being lived by the woman beside him? Or is that exactly what Godard is saying, and about himself no less. David Thomson suggested that Godard loved the image of Karina more than the woman herself, and Pierrot le Fou seems to be about that painful realization.

And in that light and in that way it become the most revealing of tragedies. Moments ago I was unsure of what to think of this film or how to place it within my own cannon. But now I see this as a tragedy of an artist, and Godard's own most self-critical and self damning works. It is perhaps his most modernist text and the height of his modernist cinema. It is a film that is powerfully moving after it is intellectualized, which means it is exactly what Godard intended. The artist himself has abdicated the film, but it may simply be to painful for him to acknowledge as anything more than bourgeois. Instead it is a tragedy of modernity, of art, of cinema and of Godard.

Films.

2006-09-16T13:12:00.000-07:00

The Wind Will Carry Us (Kiarostami, 1999)

Possibly my least favorite of the Kiarosatmis I have seen so far, it is none the less a lyrical and haunting portrayal of village life in Iran and moral bankruptcy in benign ways. Kiarostami's use of darkness in the cellar scene is mesmerizing.

Jason X (Isaac, 2001)

By far the best of the Jason films, this is a clever and actually scary chapter in the saga.

Through the Olive Trees (Kiarostami, 1994)

A comedy, a tragedy, a documentary. Kiarostami's 1994 masterpiece is an engrossing and intensely moving piece that made me happy to be alive. In its story of a film director, a boy and a girl the film reveals a universality to human existence as seen through the specificity of a tiny Iranian village. Funny, sad and, as far as I read the last shot, joyous Through the Olive Trees is one of the greatest works of cinematic art.

The Black Dahlia (De Palma, 2006)

Why, why Brian do you feel the need to tell a story here? That may sound ridiculous when discussing a murder-mystery but for the first two acts this film rides easily along on mood and setting. De Palma plays with his twin themes of voyeurism and obsession beautifully, and is back by brilliant performances by Swank and the ethereal Mia Kirshner. But once the story hits in act three and the exposition starts flying all the goodwill is brought to a screeching halt and we are just left cold. Hartnet isn't awfully, though Scarlett Johanson is, but it is hard to get past those atrocious last 20 minutes. Before that, however, there are a great number of things to cherish about the film.

Current 2006 Top Ten:
1. Miami Vice
2. United 93
3. A Prairie Home Companion
4. The Descent
5. An Inconvenient Truth
6. Dave Chapelle's Block Party
7. The Black Dahlia
8. Nacho Libre
9. Hard Candy
10. Thank You For Smoking

Life, Death, Life, Film, Death.

2006-09-11T14:02:00.000-07:00

A Taste of Cherry... (Kiarostami, 1997)

Why do we live and why do we die? What purpose is there in such a world as this. Mr. Obadi is searching for just such a purpose in Kiarostami's masterful 1997 Palm d'Or winner. In his search he finds frightened youth, dogmatic young adults, and resigned elders. His quest is to find someone to save his life, which in the end he finds through the one old man that would help him end it. As for the epilogue, it expresses in one concise moment the joys and pain of life. Or rather, everything that makes life worth living.

New Nightmare (Craven, 1994)

How do you make postmodern boring? Ask Wes Craven to do it. Additionally, this is perhaps the most narcissistic film ever made. It boils down to the fact the Craven is such a gifted storyteller that evil itself wants to be a part of his creations.

Ten (Kiarostami, 2002)

In ten succinct and brilliant episodes, Kiarostami tells you everything you need to know about modern Iran and its male-female relationships. From there you also get the feeling that he is using the mirror of Iran to say much about all human society. Ten is a film that is sneakily powerful and painfully human.

10 on Ten (Kiarostami, 2003)

Kiarostami's simple film class is less instructive than explanatory of his own filmmaking manifesto. Kiarostami is almost oddly humble in the work, constantly pointing out that this is just how filmmaking works for him.

Demons (Bava, 1985)

An incredibly enjoyable and actually scary Italian horror flick produced by Argento, Demons hits all the obvious notes but just does them incredibly well.

Swamped.

2006-09-06T14:42:00.000-07:00

With the festival coming up I am swamped at work, but I have had a chance to watch these movies:

A Nightmare on Elm Street 2-4 (Various, 1980s)

Sad schlok after a decent first flick.

The Passenger (Antonioni, 1975)

Antonioni's 1975 masterpiece is a brilliant and challenging film that is engaging without ever fully embracing it's thriller trappings. Nicholson proves again why in the 1970s he truly mattered as Antonioni's camera wanders through the wreckag of his life. The celebrated final shot is perhaps the best single shot in the history of the cinema, both bringing the film full circle and giving it its only satisfying ending without ever seeming trite.

Obligation.

2006-08-28T13:41:00.000-07:00

Friday the 13th (Cunningham, 1980)
Friday the 13th Part 2 (Miner, 1981)
Friday the 13th Part 3 (Miner, 1982)

My god these are awful.

A Nightmare on Elm Street (Craven, 1984)

Perhaps the only original and interesting film in Craven ever made, this still pales next to something like Carpenter's Halloween.

Kiss Kiss, Bang Bang (Black, 2005)

Even better the second time around, and amazing when compared to most of the drek in Hollywood comedy these days (I'm looking your way Owen Wilson and Vince Vaughn, even if you both used to be funny). Black will forever be the master of the one liner.

Coogan and MacAdams.

2006-08-21T13:55:00.000-07:00

Tristram Shandy (Winterbottom, 2005)

Combining an incredibly interesting take on the art of adaptation with hilarious slapstick is harder than it looks. That's why Winterbottom's overlooked 2005 comedy is both one of the most artistically satisfying and very funny films released in the last few years. Coogan's rehearsal with the hot almond is a scene for the ages. If I had seen this last year, it definitley would have made my top ten list. Rob Brydon's Coogan impersonation is a thing of beauty.

The Notebook (Cassavetes(Nick), 2004)

Even though I hate Rachel MacAdams, The Notebook is an enjoyable weepy with some solid actors. The iconography is a little over the top (have you ever seen so damn many geese?), but this film really finds a groove after a rough first half hour. On a side note, how much would it suck to be James Marsden, Hollywood's top actor to play the great guy that prevents our rougish hero and charming heroine from being together, even though we still like him.

Masters of Horror?

2006-08-18T12:50:00.000-07:00

Homecoming (Dante, 2005)

Brilliant social satire is so hard to come by these days. With Homecoming, an episode of Showtime's "Masters of Horror" series, Dante and Sam Hamm have crafted a wonderful and biting look at current American politics. Scary, funny and thoughtful, the film eviscerates and hits the nail on the head without ever seeming over the top. I pray Ann Coulter has seen this.

Pick Me Up (Cohen, 2006)

This, however, was crap.

Bleh.

2006-08-14T13:49:00.000-07:00

Saw II(Bousman,2006)

Why did I watch this?

A Tremendous Slouch.

2006-08-10T12:18:00.000-07:00

Caddyshack (Ramis, 1980)

Still funny today, it is amazing just how boring the plot of the film is when compared to the greatness of the four comic leads. Murray is god.

Zany.

2006-08-08T13:58:00.000-07:00

Bringing Up Baby (Hawks, 1938)

So this is the great American comedy? Actually, the answer might be yes. I am almost ashamed to say that I had never seen Hawks' classic Bringing Up Baby before last night. Brilliantly funny with strong performances, the film lives up to its vaunted position in history, mostly on the backs of a perfectly matched Grant and Hepburn. Hawks talent has always lay in pace, and he keeps he film clipping along at breakneck speed.

Baby is a silly romance, the type of film that people don't really even try to make any more.

My Weekend.

2006-08-07T13:12:00.000-07:00

Talladega Nights (McKay, 2006)

Though definitely no Anchorman, Talladega Nights is a funny and cheesy movie that returns Will Ferrell to prime form. Plus, Sascha Baron Cohen is a genius, and Gary Cole just might be my favorite character actor (since John C. Reilly has really graduated to a new level). Oh, and I have a crush on Amy Adams, but that is really beside the point.

The Descent (Marshall, 2006)

Wow, I didn't know they made genuinely scary movies in English any more. Marshall has crafted a film that is both terrifying thriller and a two handed character piece, with both working well. The original, more downbeat ending seems a little more appropriate to me, but other than that this is a pretty flawless exercise in fright.

The Last House on the Left (Craven, 1972)

Why, why do I keep watching Wes Craven films? One of the most overrated hacks in Hollywood history, his 1972 debut is a sad, painful little film that has no tension or drama. You simply don't care about anyone or anything in the film. Boring and disgusting.

Current 2006 Top Ten:
1. Miami Vice
2. United 93
3. A Prairie Home Companion
4. The Descent
5. An Inconvenient Truth
6. Dave Chapelle's Block Party
7. Nacho Libre
8. Hard Candy
9. Talladega Nights
10. Thank You For Smoking

Barroom Buddies.

2006-08-04T10:34:00.000-07:00

Bronco Billy (Eastwood, 1980)

A completely enjoyable, good hearted comedy about family, Eastwood's light 1980 homage to cowboys and screwball comedies is subtly self reflexive. Playing off his well worn persona, Eastwood the director has a sure hand with another in his long line of misfit families. The supporting cast are all great, especially Scatman Crothers as Billy's Master of Ceremonies.

Eastwood has such a good hand at comedy, you wish he would try it more often(and with better writing than the horrible comic relief in Million Dollar Baby).

Video essays.

2006-08-03T14:24:00.000-07:00

Scenario du film "Sauve qui peut(la vie)" (Godard, 1979)

In it's own bizarre and hallucinatory way, this set of notes Godard made before his 1979 comeback film is just as major a work as Sauve qui peut(la vie). With Godard's own melancholy VO playing over film, video and mixed media, he reveals much about his thoughts on cinema and narrative. Amazingly, he actually manages to explicate much of the film, as well as using passages of video for critical works on superimposition and digetic/non-diagetic music.

This is a great example of Godard's claim that he never stopped being a film critic.

Look out.

2006-08-03T14:18:00.000-07:00

Re-Animator (Gordon, 1985)

Funny weird cool. Jeffrey Combs is a god amongst actors, and the film is still as good as the first time I saw it.

Video.

2006-07-31T10:56:00.000-07:00

Miami Vice (Mann, 2006)

Who would have thought that instead of a tired TV series remake, Michael Mann would turn Miami Vice into a breathtaking work of video art? Character and plot are really secondary to the image in Mann's new film, and thankfully so. No one needs a remake of another 80s TV series, and Mann takes us into other territory completley. The film is not about Crockett and Tubbs, and is barely about Farrell and Foxx, it is about the look of the sky or the ocean, the way men move in violence, and the nature of work.

Like all Mann's films, work is at the heart of Miami Vice. We get next to nothing of backstory for our leads, and from the first frame we are plunged into a visceral tale. You don't take a breath till an hour into the film. Movement defines these men, not pasts. Mann keeps wipping the images by you, effortlessly establishing tone and mood, and holding you in his control.

Though obstensibly about a standard cop show plot, at its heart this is non-narrative cinema, this is video art.

Current 2006 Top Ten:
1. Miami Vice
2. United 93
3. A Prairie Home Companion
4. An Inconvenient Truth
5. Dave Chapelle's Block Party
6. Nacho Libre
7. Hard Candy
8. Superman Returns
9. Thank You For Smoking
10. V for Vendetta

Four horror films.

2006-07-30T08:54:00.000-07:00

The Piano Teacher (Haneke, 2001)

More a psychological horror film than anything else, Haneke's 2001 prizewinner is a sad and haunting look at repression. Huppert is brilliant, and Haneke manages to keep it moving no matter how slow the story.

Friday the 13th (Cunningham, 1980)

If Haneke can show the heughts of horror, then this has to be the nadir. Completely uninvolving and boring.

Sleepaway Camp (Hiltzik, 1983)

Cheesy, but in a knowing way, this is leagues better than the "Jason" films.

Zombie (Fulci, 1979)

No Romero, but this is an occasionally scary, wonderfully over the top flick with a pretty great ending.

Truth?

2006-07-23T08:41:00.000-07:00

Pravda (Godard and the Dziga Vertov Group, 1970)

definitely one of the best of Godard's later political polemics, his attack on the socialist revisionism of Czechoslovakia is a heady mix of Marxist readings and intricate montage. You don't have to agree with Godard and company to see the amazing essayist talent in the film. An always compelling, frequently funny piece.

Quick Hits Because I am Lazy.

2006-07-20T10:52:00.000-07:00

Veronica Mars: Season 1 (Thomas, 2004)

Not a film, but one of the best examples of how good current television can be. Witty without ever venturing into over-the-top nature of Whedon or Sorkin in their most indulgent moments, VM draws full characters and plays with genre as well as any film. The final episode is the best example of the slasher genre I have seen in recent years. Good stuff.

Funny Games (Haneke, 1997)

Another breathtaking yet mannered film from the Austrian provocateur, his examination of violence in the cinema is infuriating and intellectually thrilling. I can't agree with his overarching argument, that violent cinema is created through the brutality of the audience, but at the

Shivers (Cronenberg, 1975)

David C's first feature is still scary today, and better than much of his early output (I'm looking your way, Scanners). A very disturbing ending and some good scares.

Life of Brian (Jones, 1979)

Their most coherent film, and the best example of their intelligence, Brian's best bits (the Sermon on the Mount, the zealots chasing Brian) all skewer organized religion as mercilessly as there has ever been in pop culture.

Birth (Glazer, 2004)

I don't know if I am fully behind the current critical reappraisal of Glazer's underappreciated 2004 gem, but it is defiantly a formally challenging and thematically disturbing tale about loss and hope. I feel the style is a little too cribbed from Kubrick to be a full fledged masterpiece, but it shows much promise from a director that just turned 40. I really need to see Sexy Beast.

Typhoid Mary.

2006-07-16T08:31:00.000-07:00

Rabid (Cronenberg, 1977)

The best thing about this early Cronenberg thriller is it's incredible sadness. Chambers is quite impressive as the pseudo-vampire, and the idea of this world is terrifying. A great early horror flick from the master

Godard's mind.

2006-07-14T19:35:00.000-07:00

Sauve qui peut(la vie) (Godard, 1979)

Watching Godard's 1979 return to the cinema is a telling look into the mind of an artist at a breaking point. Full of a type of overwhelming cynicism that would steadily grow in his work, and lacking even in his revolutionary fire, it is about malaise and masochism. But Godard seems to come to it naturally, without asking you for pity. He is at times accusatory, at times regretful and frequently just melancholy. Godard sees the death of the cinema, which he had predicted since Weekend as well as his own coming irrelevance.

What irony then that this work would restore his place in world cinema, and would rank with and above all but the best of his sixties work. Just as his attitude to cinema radically altered film in the sixties, his look at modern life in 1979 would challenge the coming 80s materialism. Gone is the fun of the New Wave films, but also gone are the dry polemics of the 70s videos. His characters are brutal archetypes of the modern world, prostitutes all. But even here he manages to keep a slim glimmer of hope, for the whore and the writer have a chance for redemption. He has little sympathy for his surrogate, Paul Godard, and it is that self loathing that closes the film. But as we watch Godard change through the 80s, finally coming to the glory of New Wave, we see him regaining the spirit that his rejection in the 1970s stripped away. Sauve qui peut(la vie) should never be translated as a title. In English, la vie invariably gets lost and that is tragic. Even as an after thought life is always on Godard's mind.

Another Roundup.

2006-07-09T11:09:00.000-07:00

Monty Python and the Holy Grail (Gillam and Jones, 1977)

Still a classic to this day. "Oh, now we see the violence inherent in the system!"

Seven (Fincher, 1997)

Dark and disturbing, with solid performances around. I hope Fincher comes back this year with another solid thriller like this.

Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest (Verbinsky, 2006)

As disappointing as any movie that has come out this year, this film takes all the slack of the original and adds a complete uninteresting performance by Depp. The liveliness of Captain Jack is gone, and the whole thing seems weighed down by expectations.

Fashion.

2006-07-05T12:19:00.000-07:00

The Devil Wears Prada (Frankel, 2006)

If this comedy were funny, then it might be worthwhile. As is it is mildly amusing (especially Emily Blunt), and painful to watch Meryl Streep try to wring comedy out of this unfunny scrip. Anne Hathaway, looking a lot like a young Liza Minnelli, and Adrian Greiner are easy on the eyes, though, so the film isn't a complete waste of time. Just close.

Supes.

2006-06-27T08:09:00.000-07:00

Superman Returns (Singer, 2006)

I'll get the easy part out of the way first: Bryan Singer is the best creator of blockbusters that Hollywood has right now (I still consider Jackson to be a New Zealander). He manages to fit emotion and interesting ideas into his hellaciously fun popcorn films.

Superman Returns fulfills most of those provisions. Brandon Routh is a suprisingly good Superman, and Spacey and Posey both get a lot out of their roles. Kate Bosworth is near-disaterously miscast, but manages to not be too distracting. In fact, the only problem with the film is the lack of focus. Overlong at two and a half hours, Singer should have condenced his film down to its essence: loss, survival and change. Instead we get a little too much Christ imagery and an overplayed father-son angle that seems to go nowhere.

But Singer still directs popcorn better than anyone, and the plane rescue is a great cheer moment: it manages to be cheesy and perfect at the same time. However, the best moments in the movie are almost silent, like Clark watching Lois ascend in an elevator: a wrenching, beautiful moment. It is easy, and perhaps frequently appropriate, to read gay themes into Singer's films, and the beating of Superman definitly plays and is shot in a way similar to a gay bashing or hate crime. In fact the sequence walks the fine line of throwing off the tone of the film, as the sudden ugliness of the scene is initally offputting. But like all good directors, Singer manages to work it out by the end.

Even if Superman Returns manages to go for too much, it is much better to see that than a film devoid of ideas like The Omen. Singer is not at their level, but he has a sesability in line with Howard Hawks or William Wyler: character studies in action films. Maybe if we are lucky Singer can develop into something one day. With his X-Men films and now Superman Returns he certainly seems to be on the cusp of something big. Here's hoping.

Current 2006 Top Ten:
1. United 93
2. A Prairie Home Companion
3. An Inconvenient Truth
4. Dave Chapelle's Block Party
5. Superman Returns
6. Nacho Libre
7. Hard Candy
8. V for Vendetta
9. Thank You For Smoking
10. Mission:Impossible:III

Twice the gore.

2006-06-26T10:19:00.000-07:00

High Tension (Aja, 2003)

What a great first 75 minutes and an awful last 15. Aja the writer seems to fail Aja the director, as the third act twist effectively invalidates all of the, yes, high tension that had come before. This guy will make a good movie one day, though. I'll be seeing The Hills Have Eyes soon.

Hostel (Roth, 2006)

On a certain perverse level I really like and even admire Roth's sophomore effort. After a rough first few minutes, I really grew to be with these characters. His problem was choosing torture as his hook. Torture is almost totally uncompelling on screen, unless you choose the Miike-Audition route and show it in grisly detail. Roth may have more tact than Miike(who appears in Hostel in a funny cameo, if you know who Miike is) but his film's lack the Japanese master's punch. Still, just like Aja Roth may make an interesting film one day if he develops a more interesting take on humanity than the meat puppet.

Fickle.

2006-06-22T14:12:00.000-07:00

The Bakery Girl of Monceau (Rohmer, 1963)

My first Rohmer film the first Moral Tale is an interesting and quite sad exploration of male vanity and fickleness. In telling the story of the perfect woman versus the woman on the side, Rohmer eviscerates a certain bourgeois morality and sexual class system.

It also becomes quite hard to watch, as the young man is revealed to be steadily more cold and callous. In some ways it reminded me of Cheever's "Goodbye, My Brother" in it's use of the unreliable narrator and slow reveal.

Within the New Wave, this early Rohmer is more Truffaut than Godard, the literary expressed as the literary rather than transformed into the cinematic. That is not a criticism, however, so much as a different style and one that works beautifully here. It is up there with Antoine et Colette for the best New Wave shorts I have seen.

Scene by Scene

2006-06-19T11:53:00.000-07:00

The Omen (Moore, 2006)

What a boring, flat film John Moore has made. Managing to get bad performances from a fairly talented set of actors, The Omen simply recreates the 1976 original an uninspired and C+ film school sort of way. Ridiculous art design matched with robotic acting (except for David Thewlis, who should have been the main character of this tale) meets pointless camerawork to make a terrible film.

Bleh.

Antoniennui.

2006-06-19T11:40:00.000-07:00

L'Avventura (Antonioni, 1960)

The profoundly sad closing moments of L'Avventura center around one important decision: to make a connection or to stay separate and apart. In the moment that Monica Vitti's hand lingers behind Gabrielle Ferzetti's head lasts a lifetime and aches with melancholy. Finally she touches him, she bares herself to try to reconnect but it is no use. Antonioni cuts to a wide shot, emphasizing their distance from each other and the world around them.

And with that culmination, he ends perhaps the cinema's most moving statement about alienation. It is heartbreaking.

Let me borrow some sweats.

2006-06-18T21:36:00.000-07:00

Nacho Libre (Hess, 2006)

What an improvment over the massivly overrated Napoleon Dynamite. Thanks to Hess's intriguing sense of location and the brilliant clowning of Jack Black, Nacho Libre becomes silly, funny and endearing. Though it seems to be taking a critical beating, I think this is one of the best of the year.

Current 2006 Top Ten:
1. United 93
2. A Prairie Home Companion
3. An Inconvenient Truth
4. Dave Chapelle's Block Party
5. Nacho Libre
6. Hard Candy
7. V for Vendetta
8. Thank You For Smoking
9. Mission:Impossible:III
10. Looking for Comedy in the Muslim World

All thumbs.

2006-06-15T10:00:00.000-07:00

Even Cowgirls get the Blues (Van Sant, 1993)

Okay. Van Sant is a talented filmmaker with a wonderful gift for directing actors and a genuine eye for Western beauty. Does this film work? I'm not sure. Uma Thurman and company give it their all, and it has a wonderful pictoral beauty, but there is something lacking here that was in My Own Private Idaho.

The film is a lot of fun to watch, however, and Van Sant displays great wit with his prettiness(Mr. Miyagi watching Sissy and Bonanza from the ridge is a sublime moment). A nice companion piece to the greater My Own Private Idaho.

An action movie.

2006-06-05T12:19:00.000-07:00

The Hills Have Eyes (Craven, 1977)

Wes Craven is just a plain bad filmmaker. His supposed "horror classic", The Hills Have Eyes, is really more of an action film, and one that fails to maintain any level of suspense at that. Paling in comparison to nearly every other 70s horror flick I have seen, it is pedestrian in its characterization and effect. In fact only the overvalued Craven name has kept this from being a forgotten curio.

Supporting Actors.

2006-06-03T18:41:00.000-07:00

The Break-Up (Reed, 2006)

Vincent D'Onofrio and Jon Favreau make The Break-Up watchable, but only during their limited scenes. In any other moments (besides the few decent scenes of Vaughn mugging) are strained at best. Anniston will never be more than a TV star, and this will just further her decline.

Reed and the writers have good intentions, but nothing in their finished project comes close to an interesting human story.

A Horror Movie.

2006-06-02T21:25:00.000-07:00

An Inconvenient Truth (Guggenheim, 2006)

The new documentary of Al Gore's campaign against global warming is as frightening a film ever made. Though it perhaps is overplayed in the hagiography of Gore, when it focuses on the lectures it is compelling and terrifying. The crowd a saw it with gasped at several key moments throughout the film, and I believe it has the power to sway people toward understanding of global warming.

The force of the film comes in refuting the claims against global warming and the feeling that Gore genuinely wishes to change the world for the better. He is in fact quite charming by doing a great job of accepting his own nature, that of a college professor, and simply stating things he feels with a passion. It is a wonderful performance, and one that makes you hope he runs for President in '08. After this film, I wouldn't hesitate to vote for him.

Current 2006 Top Ten:
1. United 93
2. A Prairie Home Companion
3. An Inconvenient Truth
4. Dave Chapelle's Block Party
5. Hard Candy
6. V for Vendetta
7. Thank You For Smoking
8. Mission:Impossible:III
9. Looking for Comedy in the Muslim World
10. Slither

Lost threads.

2006-05-30T19:06:00.000-07:00

X Men: The Last Stand (Ratner, 2006)

I want to try both Brett Ratner and Bryan Singer for crimes against the cinema. Singer for leaving his opus to be finished by a hack and Ratner for the truly terribly finale he gave the once great X Men trilogy.

Without Singer's vision and gift for spinning the metaphor in his films, X3 has no focus. Singer saw Magneto as a villain, but a sympathetic one coming from a genuine place. In Ratner's film Magneto is just evil, with only glances towards sympathy(mostly in the final plot twist, where he elicits too much sympathy). Also Ratner has no idea how to handle the emotional death scenes. One at the center of the film has no resonance, when it should be devastating.

Plus Halle Berry may be the worst living actress.

A sad way to end a once great series.

More Cronenberg.

2006-05-29T19:06:00.000-07:00

Naked Lunch (Cronenberg, 1991)

Cronenberg's beautiful, demented epic is a brilliant way to approach an "unfilmable" novel. Combining Burroughs's life, art and hallucinations into his own brand of fever dream, Cronenberg makes Naked Lunch work through some breathtaking cinematography and performances by a large ensemble.

It is perhaps the furthest statement of Cronenberg as an artist, and nearly comes to the level of his masterpiece, Dead Ringers.

Spider (Cronenberg, 2002)

While definitely a lesser effort than Naked Lunch, Spider is an interesting study of what can be done without dialogue. Good performances from all involved, but most important is Cronenberg showing another example of his mastery of suspense.

Oddball Greatness.

2006-05-26T10:38:00.000-07:00

Fast Company (Cronenberg, 1979)

A strange little entry in the Cronenberg corpus, this film celebrates his love of cars and reidculous B films. A great, bizarre movie with a fantastic sound track.

Oh, and did I mention that this movie is strange?

The worst screenplay - ever.

2006-05-21T20:47:00.000-07:00

The DaVinci Code (Howard, 2006)

Akiva Goldsman's screenplay from Dan Brown's novel is a travesty of writing. The fact that this man won an Academy Award is just further proof of the invalidity of that body.

But in addition to that issue, almost everything else in the film doesn't work. Howard is the biggest hack in Hollywood, but Hanks and Tatou are usually at least charming. In this everyone is dead except McKellan, who has a good time but can't save the entire film. The casting really seems a bad Cliff's Notes on European actors with even Prochnow showing up.

On the whole the controversy is pointless, since all the anti-Catholic rhetoric comes from the villains, and the film is just a bore.

A Cronenberg Masterpiece.

2006-05-21T20:29:00.000-07:00

Dead Ringers (Cronenberg, 2006)

I wasn't prepared for how good Cronenberg's Dead Ringers would be. The film plays with most of Cronenberg's favorite themes: sexual perversion, dehumanization of the body and corruption of technology. But here they are all taken to there furthest extent in any of his films. The way Cronenberg crafts the tale, slowly revealing everything you need to know and constantly playing with your sympathies shows a mastery of narrative and storytelling.

In addition to this Cronenberg is given his best conduit in the utterly brilliant performance of Jeremy Irons. His ability to craft such defined characters with body language is remarkable, you always know if it is Beverly or Elliot. The arc of Beverly through out the film is one of purely-Cronenbergian tragedy, and Irons plays it beautifully.

Robin Wood argued that Cronenberg films show a sexual fear. But I feel that this is misguided. Cronenberg seems to show that sexuality has been corrupted in a corrupt world. The damaged men of his films only see their own hollowness after experiencing the female. This drives them mad, but it is not the sex that puts them over the edge it is the self realization. His films are a brilliant essay on self loathing.

An odd sort of hope.

2006-05-19T23:30:00.000-07:00

Time of the Wolf (Haneke, 2003)

Michael Haneke might be my favorite living director(excepting Godard of course). Based on the two films I have seen, he is a man that has such a distinct style in both writing and visuals that he might rank with the great auteurs. Plus, his avoidance of pat answers gives all his films an edge than almost no American films could match.

Time of the Wolf is brilliant social comment, addressing everything from racism and immigration to bourgeois capitalism and masculinity. His critiques move from blatant to impressively subtle, and his characterizations all have depth. But most important are the last two shots, which manage to find a true redemption amongst the death.

I can't wait to see more of this man's films.

Sex and Car Crashes.

2006-05-14T16:50:00.000-07:00

Crash (Cronenberg, 1996)

Janet Maslin was right when she described Cronenberg's 1996 masterpiece as sex and car crashes. But it truly is that and so much more. Crash is film with absolutely no exciting elements but one that is also one of the best thrillers of the 90s. It examines the fetishization of technology and how that leads to the fetishization of death. The film is truly made by the brilliance of Cronenberg's script and his mercurial preciseness with his camera. At all times Cronenberg lets the film unfold in his rhythms.

It is rare that a film can leave you feeling violated and thrilled without almost anything occurring. Crash is a massively underappreciated film.

Ship rolls over, yawn.

2006-05-12T19:54:00.000-07:00

Poseidon (Petersen, 2006)

There are maybe 30 good minutes in the new Poseidon Adventure remake, and they are pretty great. The capsizing, the elevator shaft, these scenes are fun and taught. But any time the film requires characters, or any time the film stops for more than 30 second, it is just dismal. Really no one in the film manages to turn in a character performance, for the most part it is just an excuse to have Josh Lucas run around being gallant.

Plus it may have the worst script this year.

Breakthrough.

2006-05-12T19:48:00.000-07:00

Scanners (Cronenberg, 1980)

I wasn't really as enthralled by Cronenberg's first breakthrough feature as I thought I might be. I think in many ways his earlier The Brood is a more rewarding and interesting film. But Scanners certainly features some great scenes and wonderful characters, especially an amazingly evil Michael Ironsides.

But on the whole, the film doesn't work as well as his seemingly more personal work, or his best mainstream efforts(The Fly).

World of Warcraft.

2006-05-10T19:16:00.000-07:00

eXistenZ (Cronenberg, 1999)

Yes, I am in the middle of a huge Cronenberg kick. eXistenZ is a film that I loved when it was first released and seems oddly even more prophetic now in this world of The Sims and World of Warcraft. A very interesting and disturbing entry into the world of Cronenberg's body horror. Watching it, or any of his films, makes me feel scared in a way that few movies can.

PSH.

2006-05-08T19:52:00.000-07:00

Mission:Impossible:III (Abrams, 2006)

Walking out of M:i:III I couldn't help but thinking that it was just about as good as that kind of film could be. And yet I was still held at a level of remove from the entire affair. While I loved Phillip Seymore Hoffman, why he had so few scenes was beyond me, but the rest of the film was simply mildly entertaining, though it features some of the best action scenes in the last few years. Still, something like The New World can hold me and even entertain me more than a dozen action films.

I just hope this doesn't make me a card carrying snob.

Current 2006 Top Ten:
1. United 93
2. A Prairie Home Companion
3. Dave Chapelle's Block Party
4. Hard Candy
5. V for Vendetta
6. Thank You For Smoking
7. Mission:Impossible:III
8Looking for Comedy in the Muslim World
9. Slither
10. American Dreamz

No Laughing Matter.

2006-05-05T22:32:00.000-07:00

Stick It (Bendinger, 2006)

With a rote, text-book script that contains all of three laughs, bending has really fallen from the pretty decent Bring it On. While the third act is decent, what it takes to get there is just painful.

A terrible script, coupled with very stilted performances, shows that safe is almost never any good.

Dustin Hoffman Double Feature.

2006-04-30T19:32:00.000-07:00

All the President's Men (Pakula, 1976)

I revisited this over the to show it to my girlfriend. What an amazing, well made film this is. Combines great performances, intelligent direction, taught writing and social consciousness in the way the only the 70s could. Perhaps the best part of the film is the humor, the look on Redford's face when he gets Hunt on the line, or the way Hoffman gets the bookkeeper to talk.

It actually manages to be inspiring, and coming from Hollywood, even in the 70s, that is some feat.

The Graduate (Nichols, 1967)

For some strange reason I had never seen this before, and now I have no idea why I waited so long. Absolutely worth all the praise, Nichols second feature takes a great script co-written by Buck Henry and adds the clear influence of the French New Wave to make something truly new and special. The editing when Ben sees Mrs. Robinson naked for the first time is brilliant, as is the lost summer montage. Hoffman is so funny here, and so great at playing much younger than he was. Amazing to think this was only his second feature.

For someone about to graduate, it is still an oddly relevant film. And Simon and Garfunkel were the best folk act ever, and yes I include Dylan in that.

Verite.

2006-04-27T18:09:00.000-07:00

United 93 (Greengrass, 2006)

United 93 is an amazing film, one that totally surprised me as well as shaking and saddening me. Greengrass rises to the top of the filmmaking game here, creating a story that feels so true and powerful that one cannot look away no matter how awful the images feel.

It is a film that manages to stir feelings of patriotism in me, without succombing to Bushisms.

Most importantly, and in a scene that I feel will be misunderstood, I feel that the film condems religion. There is a scene in which both the terrorists and passengers are praying. It underlines the ways in which something like religion, theoretically designed for the good of mankind, does nothing more than seperate us.

With the performances Greengrass gets from both his actors and those playing themselves, combined with such visercal visuals, Greengrass has fashioned a remarkable and moving film.

Current 2006 Top Ten:
1. United 93
2. A Prairie Home Companion
3. Dave Chapelle's Block Party
4. Hard Candy
5. V for Vendetta
6. Thank You For Smoking
7. Looking for Comedy in the Muslim World
8. Slither
9. American Dreamz
10. Silent Hill

Victims and victimizers.

2006-04-25T20:24:00.000-07:00

Hard Candy (Slade, 2006)

No matter what the preview audience I saw the film with might think, David Slade's Hard Candy is no girl power fantasy. Instead this is a amazingly tragic thriller that shows the true depths of what sexual violence can do to a young woman. Slade opens up the theatricality of the very good and literate script, while at the same time eliciting amazing performances from both his leads. Page and Wilson both deserve the highest praise for their work here, and Page might just be a major new find if she gets the right parts in her development.

The most amazing thing about the film is the way it asks questions and inverts conventions of the rape-revenge genre. Though many audiences might be conditioned to accept and even want the type of violence she visits on the Wilson character, the film brilliantly show the sadness of the character and the depths of depravity that some unknown violence can place in the mind of a young girl.

Great work from everyone involved. Special mention must also be made of the stellar art direction in this film, truly superb.

Current 2006 Top Ten:
1. A Prairie Home Companion
2. Dave Chapelle's Block Party
3. Hard Candy
4. V for Vendetta
5. Thank You For Smoking
6. Looking for Comedy in the Muslim World
7. Slither
8. American Dreamz
9. Silent Hill
10.

Video Games.

2006-04-23T18:30:00.000-07:00

Silent Hill (Gans, 2006)

There is a good Silent Hill film to be made, but this is certainly not it. For about 20 minutes Gans' atmosphere and camerawork are effective at getting up a few scares, and the first appearance of the Pyramid-head is frightening. But after that it quickly descends into horrible plotting and a ridiculous explanation scene that reveals nothing if have actually been watching the film. The third act in particular is atrocious, and gets more laughs than creeps. Roger Avery's script is an utter failure, and that hamstrings the film almost as much as the progressively over-kinetic camerawork.

This should have been fantastic, instead of terrible.

Current 2006 Top Ten:
1. A Prairie Home Companion
2. Dave Chapelle's Block Party
3. V for Vendetta
4. Thank You For Smoking
5. Looking for Comedy in the Muslim World
6. Slither
7. American Dreamz
8. Silent Hill
9.
10.

First act problems.

2006-04-16T17:15:00.000-07:00

Slither (Gunn, 2006)

James Gunn's Slither is a fun and funny movie with a few major and painful flaws. Chief amongst those is the awful and boring first act, which seems to have over estimated the audiences' tolerance for the anoying heavy. It is not until the Nathan Fillion character becomes the lead about 30 minutes into the film that the humor really takes off and Slither stops being a total bore.

Fillion is an incredibly deft actor, able to play action hero and comedy equally well(thank Joss Whedon for that). Overall, the film doesn't work but I would still tell friends to see it.

One last note: Why is there no nudity in this film? There are scenes written into the script that only play as a sendup of B horror nudity, and without the women being naked the jokes don't play.

Current 2006 Top Ten:
1. A Prairie Home Companion
2. Dave Chapelle's Block Party
3. V for Vendetta
4. Thank You For Smoking
5. Looking for Comedy in the Muslim World
6. Slither
7. American Dreamz
8.
9.
10.

Canted Angles.

2006-04-13T12:24:00.000-07:00

Scream (Craven, 1996)

Surprisingly, I had never seen Craven and Williamson's pomo horror flick. And for the most part I'll say it's a decent script if not a great film. Williamson has always been too clever by half, but he manages to reign it in here somewhat. Craven however always was and will be a hack. It seems that his entire directorial vision for the film was to cant the camera. It adds nothing to the tension and in fact just becomes annoying quickly.

While the film is a comedy first and foremost, the lack of anything resembling actual scares is what kills the film. Maybe if a more talented director was handling the picture it could have lived up to its solid script.

Then again, who knows what problems arose simply from having such a braindead cast. They are all at the top of their games here, and that is just sad. Only Arquette and Jamie Kennedy manage to register, and then mostly just as comic relief.

Put in the hands of someone a little more clever (David Fincher, perhaps?) this could have been a great film, instead of just a pop culture moment.

Scary Children.

2006-04-06T08:12:00.000-07:00

The Brood (Cronenberg, 1979)

Cronenberg's third feature, The Brood is an effective, bizarre little thriller that furthers my theory that little blond children are the scariest things alive. Though the film loses its way between the first and second kills, it gets back on track soon and overall it is very tight and scary.

The best aspect of the film is the almost total lack of exposition. We are thrown into this world with a great opening scene, and little is established of what is going on. For a plotline that is so outlandish, the less information we receive the better. I don't really want to know how the brood were created, or what psychoplasmics is or how it works, the answers could only be unsatisfactory. Cronenberg films are about mood and visceral alienation from your own body, and over explanation would kill them.

With this film Cronenberg had yet to achieve the mastery he would attain with The Fly, but it showed immense talent and potential.

Cigs.

2006-04-04T19:37:00.000-07:00

Thank You For Smoking (Reitman, 2006)

Jason Reitman's debut feature is a funny, oddball film that will hopefully be a star turn for Aaron Eckhart. Though much better in its first 20 minutes than in the rest of the film, it is quite enjoyable overall. Cameron Bright scares me.

Current 2006 Top Ten:
1. A Prairie Home Companion
2. Dave Chapelle's Block Party
3. V for Vendetta
4. Thank You For Smoking
5. Looking for Comedy in the Muslim World
6. American Dreamz
7.
8.
9.
10.
1.

The terrorist hero.

2006-03-27T07:45:00.000-08:00

V for Vendetta (McTeigue, 2OO6)

The villains of James McTeigue and the Wachowski Brothers version of V for Vendetta are uninteresting. There is nothing new or different in this version of another dystopian future. The hero, however, is new and problematic. What are we to make of this freedom fighter that would imprison his only friend to destroy her fear.

And what do we make of the fact that in this world terrorism works, terrorism can be good. At what stage must we become freedom fighters, no matter what the cost.

The film also has a very interesting take on homoexuality, and turning as it does on a lesbian love story, in an action film no less, it may actually make a stronger movie forward for gay rights than Brokeback Mountain ever could. V may indeed be the first gay superhero, and if he is embraced I think perhaps that is worth more than gay cowboys.

As a film, it is a wonderful entertainment, with good turns by Weaving and Portman. But mostly it wants to be a film of ideas, one that raises interesting issues. And while the high minded might find it banal, and the low miss the point all together, I was and am thinking about the film. And that is the best I can ask of the cinema.

Current 2006 Top Ten:
1. A Prairie Home Companion
2. Dave Chapelle's Block Party
3. V for Vendetta
4. Looking for Comedy in the Muslim World
5. American Dreamz
6.
7.
8.
9.
10.

Top Ten.

2006-03-22T17:48:00.000-08:00

Top Ten of All Time
1. Citizen Kane
2. Weekend
3. Dekalog
4. Rashomon
5. A Woman Under the Influence
6. Playtime
7. Dr. Strangelove
8. Au Hasard Balthazar
9. Hannah and Her Sisters
10. Stroszek

AI.

2006-03-22T17:34:00.000-08:00

American Dreamz (Weitz, 2006)

Hello Paul Weitz, new master of the completely average comedy. Your In Good Company was too bland to register on anyone's radar, and your new film wants to be controversial, but will only be so in the heart of the Red States(Austin excepted, of course).

American Dreamz is a non-committal comedy that is equally mildly funny or blandly boring. Quaid and Grant are funny, if off their respective games, and the rest of the cast is perfectly adequate.

About a Boy may go down as the one wholly successful Weitz film, and this one is no pretender to that throne.

Current 2006 Top Ten:
1. A Prairie Home Companion
2. Dave Chapelle's Block Party
3. Looking for Comedy in the Muslim World
4. American Dreamz
5.
6.
7.
8.
9.
10.

SXSW Part 2.

2006-03-20T13:27:00.000-08:00

Bickford Schmekler's Cool Ideas: Absolutley terrible. By the time Matthew Lillard showed up as cooky character number 47, I was out.

Gabrielle: Terribly dissapointing. Too stagy.

A Prairie Home Companion: A really great movie. If this gets bumped off my 2006 Top Ten list, then some great movies have come out this year.

American Dreamz: Perfectly bland. Funny in part, boring in others. Grant, Quaid, Moore and Dafoe are funny but I still can't stand Chris Klein.

SXSW Part 1.

2006-03-14T12:59:00.000-08:00

I've been going to that other festival in town the last couple of days, saw some interesting stuff.

Maxed Out: Not a great film, but very compelling material and info. The credit industry is frightening. Another in the great "corporate evils info" doc vein.

Darkon: Very interesting, fun little doc. I never knew that live action roleplaying had such a bizarre and huge subculture.

Gretchen: This film stars a good friend and co-worker, so I am biased, but this is a fun and moving story. Gretchen Finkel is destined to be a cult character for some young girls, and hopefully it will be allowed to find that audience.

Lake Woebegone.

2006-03-12T17:56:00.000-08:00

A Prairie Home Companion (Altman, 2006)

Robert Altman's latest, and potentially last, film is a brilliant meditation on death and memory. He takes Keillor's interesting story about the death of his show, and the culture it represents, and begins to craft a story more about his own impendening demise. The acting and camerawork all resonate amazingly well, and its function as a musical harkens back to Nashville a film I am beginning to realize I need to give another chance.

I hope and pray that Altman has more films left, because this one shows such an amazing talent still burns in him. But if this ends up being his last one, what a way to go out.

Current 2006 Top Ten:
1. A Prairie Home Companion
2. Dave Chapelle's Block Party
3. Looking for Comedy in the Muslim World
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
9.
10.

French New Wave + Germany.

2006-03-07T18:31:00.000-08:00

Love is Colder Than Death (Fassbinder, 1969)

Fassbinder's first film is an odd mix of Godard and German alienation. Strangely enough, of course, Godard is not one of the two New Wavers thanked in the dedication. Playing the lead himself, the film combines amazingly striking visuals, like the stunning tracking shot on the road, or the long static shots that play out through out the film.

The film works well, but manages to connect in small doses only. Fassbinder was obviously still developing his skills as a filmmaker, and the style here goes almost to baroque in many places. It is still, however, an immensely interesting first feature.

Turn off the radio.

2006-03-06T12:13:00.000-08:00

Dave Chapelle's Block Party (Gondry, 2006)

What an amazing, funny, great movie this is. Breathtaking performances mixed with Chapelle' incredibly personable humor make for an immensly watchable film, and a light touch in mixing in social criticism also works very well. Mos Def, Kanye West and The Roots all tear the house down, but the highlights must be Dead Prez and the Fugees reunion.

Current 2006 Top Ten:
1. Dave Chapelle's Block Party
2. Looking for Comedy in the Muslim World
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
9.
10.

Two by Werner.

2006-03-03T12:53:00.000-08:00

Heart of Glass (Herzog, 1976)

Glass is beautiful, haunting film that uses actors in a way I had never seen before. They were all hypnotized, except for the lead, and yet each give strong vibrant, strange performances. Especially the typically Herzogian town aristocrat who is both haunting and disturbing.

Herzog claimed that in German the opening of the film would put you into something of a trance, and I believe him. A truly mesmerizing film.

Even Dwarves Started Small (Herzog, 1970)

A film that in many way couldn't be any more similar or different than Heart of Glass, Herzog's second feature is alternatively hypnotic and utterly boring. It is a (mostly) failed attempt at allegory that is incredibly effective in brief streches. The sequence with Hombre and the bed or anything with the car is amazing, but for the most part it falls fairly flat. However, the ending may be something I can never get out of my head.

Friendship and Revenge.

2006-02-25T15:12:00.000-08:00

The Three Burials of Melquiades Estrada (Jones, 2005)

Jones's masterful, sad elegy to friendship and the land is one of the most underappreciated films of 2005. It is film that wears its innate nihilism on its sleeves, yet is sad for those feelings. The brilliant strategy of the film is to do away with concepts for heroes and villains and instead showing a group of tragic people that exist in this world. In the end it is not important that there was no Jimenez, the reveal of the photo shows that even Pete could not have truly believed it, but that friendship could exist. In the world that Mel and Pete longed for together, it is the longing that proves the salvation of humanity.

And so, my final top ten of 2005.

2005 Top 10:
1. Cache
2. A History of Violence
3. The New World
4. The Squid and the Whale
5. Grizzly Man
6. The Three Burials of Melquiades Estrada
7. Kiss Kiss, Bang Bang
8. Match Point
9. Brokeback Mountain
10. The Devil's Rejects

The Dancing Chicken.

2006-02-24T14:10:00.000-08:00

Stroszek (Herzog, 1976)

Bruno S. may be one of the all time most underappreciated actors. In Herzog's masterful Stroszek he gives a performance of such bizarre intensity and wit that it almost feels that he is less acting than just inhabiting the screen. Herzog's own talent with visual beauty, lyrically on display here is also utterly moving. The images are bold and last with you for some time. I doubt that the dancing chicken will leave my head for days. Sad, funny and moving without schmaltz or sentimentality, Herzog has hit upon something very true in this film.

Why does Herr S. Run Amok?

2006-02-23T14:49:00.000-08:00

Signs of Life (Herzog, 1968)

Herzog's first feature is an interesting look at his themes in their infancy. Stroszek is a Herzogian hero, driven mad by life, but seems incomplete compared to an Aguirre or a Treadwell. The film is visual sumptuous, though. The scenery is a character in the film, representative of the world crashing in on man. The acting is all solid, and if puts you off kilter in a very subtle way. The film is definitely experiential, and it depends on your identification with Stroszek.

Overall, an interesting first feature and one that completely shows Herzog's future promise.

Random acts.

2006-02-23T08:13:00.000-08:00

For Ever Mozart (Godard, 1996)

Placed next to the genius of In Praise of Love, Mozart is a seemingly random and needlessly vague film. Perhaps if I had seen it before the his 2001 masterwork, I would feel differently. But as is it lacks the punch and cohesion of the Love, while trying to mine similar territory, it is a weak Godard effort.

Eulogies and Odes.

2006-02-21T18:42:00.000-08:00

Eloge de l'amour (Godard, 2001)

Godard's In Praise of Love is a tragic masterpiece. In a career of sad films, this is perhaps his most heartwrenching and yet it sneaks up on you unexpectedly and powerfully in the closing moments. It is a film about memory, and the fear that we can't ever remember for long. It is a eulogy to love, through the inability for "adults" to put aside their lives and love another.

Edgar's search is one for a story worth telling, and his inability to find it in face of pressures from the outside(America) and the inside(his own misunderstanding and fear of love). It is combined with politics, art and life. In the tradition of all the great works of the Western world, it is dense and rewards the viewer for the work you put into it.

The photography of Paris is nostalgic of his New Wave work, and that of the countryside brims over with the most beautiful colors. In Praise of Love is his most beautiful film.

Godard defines clearly that which he is against (Spielberg, Titanic, Julia Roberts) and has much to say about what he is for (a meaningful art, love). The tragedy of the film stems from his own sadness that the former is causing the later to disappear.

My 10 favorite films of all time:
1. Citizen Kane
2. Eloge de l'amour
3. Dekalog
4. Rashomon
5. A Woman Under the Influence
6. Playtime
7. Dr. Strangelove
8. The Royal Tennenbaums
9. Au Hasard Balthazar
10. Hannah and Her Sisters

My Last Welles.

2006-02-21T14:01:00.000-08:00

I saw my final unseen Welles, The Immortal Story. It's a bizarre film, probably made more so by seeing off a many generations down tape. It's a strange little tale about the importance of art and faith, well shot and with a striking use of color. Definitely minor Welles, especially compared with his next completed and released feature, F for Fake, but still with a lot of interesting aspects.

High School.

2006-02-20T11:27:00.000-08:00

What an odd, bizzare, wonderful movie Heathers is.

Guilt.

2006-02-19T12:52:00.000-08:00

**Major spoilers follow**

Cache is an utterly brilliant, haunting and affecting piece of moviemaking. Haneke builds and maintains such a palpable tension that it left me more scared than any horror film I have seen.

It's visual trickery and audacity make me want to singe Haneke's praises to anyone I can find. What he does here with point of view and implicating the viewer in the proceedings constantly keeps you off track. As it steadily reveals the frightening past of Georges and in turn all of France(and perhaps all of the western world), we learn all we need to know and are still left with questions.

The last shot is much discussed, but most average viewers are coming at it completly wrong. Trying to decide logically if the sons were behind it all along, or if there is an explanation of who sent the tapes is a fallicy. Michael Haneke sent those tapes, to make both the audience and the viewer aware of their forgotten misdeeds. After the final shots of Georges trying to sleep away his guilt followed by the young Madjid's fate, we kno all we need to about the fates of the fathers. So in the last shot Haneke asks one last question: What of the sons? Is the final shot redemptive, showing how the next generation can learn from the last's mistakes? Is it threatening, is it by chance?

The answer is not what Haneke is after, he simply wants you to ask the question.

Current 2005 Top 10:
1. Cache
2. A History of Violence
3. The New World
4. The Squid and the Whale
5. Grizzly Man
6. Kiss Kiss, Bang Bang
7. Match Point
8. The Devil's Rejects
9. Broken Flowers
10. Brokeback Mountain

Minor Boyle.

2006-02-19T12:40:00.000-08:00

A Life Less Ordinary is a cute, fun little movie. I can't imagine anyone other than Ewan McGregor in this part and Boyle's camerawork is fun.

Tracking Shots.

2006-02-17T12:05:00.000-08:00

Nouvelle Vague, Godard's rumination on classism, male/female dynamics and metaphysics, is one of his most successful later works, and one that ranks amongst his best films. Making great use of French film icon Alain Delon, the film connects present and past, rich and poor all through the device of the tracking shot, a movement that Godard had all but abandoned by 1990. His return to this classic tool of the cinema combines with beautiful language (apparently mostly quotations of one sort or the other) to effectively update Renoir's Rules of the Game.

What is Godard saying in his New Wave? He condemns the consumer culture of used people and used emotions, but in the end there is hope for reconciliation between the proletariat and the bourgeois. And as always in Godard, that hope is love.

Love and Memory.

2006-02-17T11:49:00.000-08:00

Alain Resnais's Hiroshima, Mon Amour feels stuck between two worlds. Thoroughly modern in style and structure it still feels so connected to the films of the 40s. Where as Godard and Truffaut were both clearly enfants terrible, Resnais's handful of years on them put him still with one foot in the tradition of classicism that the younger filmmakers have progressed from.

None of this is in any way a criticism, however. The film's presentation of a simple man and woman in love, is full of more human emotion than any of the classical melodramas that came before it. It seems to proceed from a simple logical argument. He says that she can never experience the pain of loss that those affected by Hiroshima feel, and she sets out to show him that he is wrong. Along the way we see feminine pain on the order of Dreyer and masculine repression of Hawks. A tragic, wonderful film.

Silence.

2006-02-14T12:57:00.000-08:00

I'll admit, there is something in me that resists silent films. Perhaps it's my conditioning by the media of the 1980s and 1990s, or just some genetic predisposition, but they can't get to me and I am usually somewhat bored. This is sad, because otherwise I might think F.W. Murnau's Sunrise was the greatest film of all time.

Certainly one of the most beautiful and moving, it is a great entry point for me to just what those critics that decryed sound were talking about. This film simply would not work with dialogue, it's expressionism is plain and untouched by that use of sound. Instead it combines amazing imagery with a moving melodrama to produce a height of drama. Maybe now I'll finally get it.

Rube.

2006-02-12T16:42:00.000-08:00

Final Destination 3 does away with almost everything that made the second film an interesting, in hollow, genre entry. The major rollercoaster set piece is lacking, and on the whole the fillm lacks anything of interest.

JLG finds his faith.

2006-02-12T16:29:00.000-08:00

I have no idea why Catholic church would attempt to ban Godard's Hail Mary. A haunting and beautiful film, its only crime might be to suggest that Mary and Joseph were human beings that would have been bewildered by what befell them. It is also incredibly interesting to watch the old hard line Maoist refinding the faith of his youth. He fashions here a simple, beautiful film that is anchored by a wonderful performance by Myriem Roussel as Mary. In fact, the only fault I can find is that it almost seems to indorse creationism in classes, but then again, not really.

I could imagine no other response from a Christian than deepening of faith through this film, but the only response I could imagine from The Passion of the Christ is disgust so what do I know.