Yes, folks, a new Terrence Malick masterpiece. I was as nervous as the next man: even a quarter of the way through the film, I was worried that Malick was taking his faux-naïveté and ethnographic essentialism too far. But fortunately, I was proved wrong, and Malick delivers the masterful extrapolation on cross-cultural encounter that I’ve been hoping for ever since those Pacific Islanders ingenuously sang Christian hymns in the first scenes of The Thin Red Line.
Here again, Malick proves himself to be the least ironic filmmaker in the world, approaching the themes of love, colonialism, and foreignness with the attention and generosity that others would scrap for cynicism and misanthropy. Melancholy without bitterness, hopeful without ignorance, The New World holds out the possibility that John Smith may find his Indies after all, if not on any map.
by Leo Goldsmith | Source: New Line Cinema 35mm Print
30 Dec 2005 3:22 PM | Submit Comment
An important early film for Hitchcock, marking the beginning of his career as a director of thrillers. The film was shot simultaneously as a silent and sound picture, and each version has its attributes.
For the sound version, Hitchcock employed Joan Barry to speak the lines in place of the heavily accented Anny Ondra who (bodily, and then some) plays Alice White. But lacking the technology for overdubbing, Ondra had to lipsynch the lines as Barry spoke them (in a ridiculous and inappropriately posh accent) off-camera. The results are, as you might guess, mixed, which is perhaps why I slightly prefer the silent version.
Incidentally, the Kinowelt DVD includes a nice extra: a sound test with Ondra and Hitchcock that becomes, thanks to the wily director, quite obscene.
For more on Hitchcock and sound, see Elisabeth Weis’ book The Silent Scream, which is available online in its entirety.
by Leo Goldsmith | Source: Kinowelt DVD
30 Dec 2005 3:12 PM | Submit Comment
Sure, it’s totally jaw-dropping, intensively realized, and (Jack Black notwithstanding) very well-acted, but, Christ, it’s long. Cut an hour out, and let me get on with my life.
by Leo Goldsmith | Source: Universal Pictures 35mm Print
30 Dec 2005 2:57 PM | Submit Comment
“Divorce is always hard. Especially on the kids. ‘Course I am the result of my parents having stayed together so ya never know.” – George Costanza
A second viewing within the past few weeks should provide an indication of my enjoyment of this film. It really is the fillet of American filmmaking this year. I thought it was a nice touch to include a Bryan Adams song so that Canadians could also remember the awkward nature of the early 80s.
by Chiranjit Goswami | Source: Samuel Goldwyn/Sony Pictures 35mm Print
30 Dec 2005 11:43 AM | Submit Comment
I almost gave up on this Dogme effort, as the early part is a little dull and predictable. It’s worth persevering with, though, and develops a certain upbeat charm. But I don’t like the surface shine of DV – shooting on film would have given so much more depth.
by Ian Johnston | Source: LuHua DVD
29 Dec 2005 10:56 PM | Submit Comment
The political concerns may be dated, but this is still dazzling filmmaking. Godard’s simultaneously fascinated by, engaged in and critically distanced from this younger generation of would-be Maoists; which I find preferable to the outright misanthropy and general willed ugliness of the subsequent Weekend.
by Ian Johnston | Source: Optimum DVD
29 Dec 2005 10:49 PM | Submit Comment
A splendid grassroots horror film that delivers every beat in its familiar formula. Being as the film is a bit too evocative of early ’80s horror (namely, The Evil Dead), I relent to label Eli Roth as one of the genre’s newfound auteurs, but here’s hoping his forthcoming Hostel delivers on its trailer’s gruesome promise.
by Rumsey Taylor | Source: Lion’s Gate DVD
28 Dec 2005 2:38 PM | Submit Comment
The fact that Woody Allen directed this film is its sole dynamic. Otherwise, it’s a somewhat pedestrian thriller in which the aspect of luck (analogized in the image of a tennis ball clipping the net and suspended equally over either half of the court) is more emphasized than the characters’ motivations. It is engaging to find Allen in such an uncharacteristic venture, but the absence of a neurotic protagonist with inordinate sexual frustrations makes it feel incomplete.
by Rumsey Taylor | Source: Dreamworks DVD screener
28 Dec 2005 2:27 PM | Comments (2)
Spielberg’s best in years.
by Beth Gilligan | Source: Universal 35mm print
27 Dec 2005 5:26 PM | Comments (2)
I wouldn’t quite say “terrible,” because with a different cast, it could have been a whole lot worse, but let’s just say it’s not exactly a comic gem.
by Beth Gilligan | Source: Fox 2000 35mm print
27 Dec 2005 5:17 PM | Submit Comment
There is an explicit agenda to Jonathan Demme’s remake of The Manchurian Candidate, comprised of many of the original’s best scenes, and also of parallels to the election its release was delayed to correspond with. And, to this end, it has a subversive utility – it’s the more sinister aside Fahrenheit 9/11 – but nothing compared to the original.
by Rumsey Taylor | Source: Cable TV
27 Dec 2005 11:04 AM | Submit Comment
“Red!”
I always love Hitchcock’s angles.
by Chiranjit Goswami | Source: Universal “The Masterpiece Collection” DVD
26 Dec 2005 11:18 PM | Submit Comment
I don’t own a cellular phone and I don’t speak Mandarin. Jia Zhang Ke’s most recent film makes me realize that these two personal traits will probably change into a different reality within a few years, and apparently not for the better in the former case. Though the picture quality and sub-titles were both rather suspect, it’s certainly amongst the most interesting films I’ve watched this year and I always appreciate Jia Zhang Ke’s technique, though I’ve never been completely engaged by his films. Of course, I haven’t watched Unknown Pleasures yet.
by Chiranjit Goswami | Source: GZ Beauty Bootleg VCD
26 Dec 2005 11:15 PM | Submit Comment
This has become an “end-of-year” tradition for me. I’ve been doing it for awhile, but I think my stronger compulsion to repeat the tradition in recent years may have something to do with Matt’s New Year’s tale.
by Chiranjit Goswami | Source: Warner Brothers DVD
26 Dec 2005 11:06 PM | Submit Comment
“I think there must be something wrong with me, Linus. Christmas is coming, but I’m not happy. I don’t feel the way I’m supposed to feel. I just don’t understand Christmas, I guess. I like getting presents, and sending Christmas cards, and decorating trees, and all that, but I’m still not happy. I always end up feeling depressed.”
“Charlie Brown, you’re the only person I know who can take a wonderful season like Christmas and turn it into a problem. Maybe Lucy’s right? Of all the Charlie Browns in the world, you’re the Charlie Browniest!”
It’s hard not to be a Charlie Brown around Christmas nowadays. Someday I’m going to get that last line put on a T-shirt.
by Chiranjit Goswami | Source: Paramount Pictures DVD
26 Dec 2005 11:00 PM | Submit Comment
I’ve watched Rope a number of times, but this was the first time I had viewed it since Jason informed me that Hitchcock had used a few regular edits within the film, rather than merely hiding his cuts whenever the camera closes in upon someone’s back. I was surprised to find that I noticed a few cuts to reaction shots almost immediately. It’s a rather jarring experience after having not watched the film in a few years and having to realize Hitchcock wasn’t as seemless as I had remembered him to be.
by Chiranjit Goswami | Source: Universal “The Masterpiece Collection” DVD
26 Dec 2005 10:47 PM | Comments (1)
Is it because I’m not an American that I find John Ford so often problematical? In any case, Drums Along The Mohawk has too many of the things I don’t enjoy in Ford’s work – his mawkish sentimentality; the unappealing broad humour from his secondary characters (rely on Ward Bond to provide this); and a little too much patriotic flag-waving.
by Ian Johnston | Source: Fox DVD
22 Dec 2005 12:05 PM | Submit Comment
I expected to like this a lot more. It shares with Beau Travail and Friday Night a haunting impressionistic style, but I’m resistant to the overt symbolism at work throughout the film.
by Ian Johnston | Source: Tartan DVD
22 Dec 2005 11:57 AM | Submit Comment
This is driven by Roland Duris’s intense performance, it’s certainly superior to the original (James Toback’s Fingers), but in the end it doesn’t seem to amount to much.
by Ian Johnston | Source: 35mm print
22 Dec 2005 11:52 AM | Submit Comment
This is a wonderfully atmospheric film, but several factors inhibit my praise. Specifically, it’s the less-intoxicating experience alongside Lost Highway (the film it most closely resembles in Lynch’s oeuvre), and it is somewhat spoiled by knowledge of its production history. It feels like a rejected television pilot with obvious postmortem additions. Nonetheless, I wish this sort of scrutiny was applied to Lynch’s earlier films.
by Rumsey Taylor | Source: Universal DVD
21 Dec 2005 10:18 AM | Comments (2)
Terrible.
by Rumsey Taylor | Source: Fox DVD screener
21 Dec 2005 10:02 AM | Submit Comment
You tend to forget how cheesy and formulaic this film is when Reese Witherspoon and Joaquin Phoenix are onscreen together.
by Beth Gilligan | Source: 20th Century Fox 35mm print
19 Dec 2005 3:20 PM | Submit Comment
There’s lots to like about Birth – above all the slow, lugubrious, glacial tone, and (for a mainstream film) the unusual and very effective use of long takes. But it’s also too derivative (we can take Nicole Kidman’s Rosemary’s Baby haircut, but we do we really need a copycat scene of Barry Lyndon attacking Lord Bullingdon?), and the film in the end just winds down, quite dissatisfyingly.
by Ian Johnston | Source: New Line DVD
19 Dec 2005 3:18 PM | Submit Comment
Tim Roth’s total immersion in his role as the mad, paint-eating Van Gogh is impressive here, as is Paul Rhys’s twitchy, all-nerves Theo Van Gogh, but Altman’s film still can’t completely escape the cliches of the artist biopic where paintings illustrate biographical scenes and vice versa. In the end it all starts to drag as we approach the inevitable and too-well-known end.
by Ian Johnston | Source: MGM DVD
19 Dec 2005 3:01 PM | Submit Comment
I’m seeing many of these Val Lewton horror films for the first time and frankly those not directed by Jacques Tourneur simply don’t measure up. The Ghost Ship for the most part is slow-paced, talky, and lacking in the requisite atmosphere. Director Mark Robson can’t seem to make a virtue out of his low-budget sets – the camera set-ups often seem wrong, revealing rather than the hiding the empty and underpopulated sets. We need more shadows! Still, the climatic knife fight between the crazed captain and the mute sailor over the hero’s trussed-up body must have seemed pretty lurid in its day.
by Ian Johnston | Source: WB DVD
19 Dec 2005 2:53 PM | Submit Comment
Gus Van Sant’s renaissance should be, with this film, confirmed as one of the most esteemed trends in ’00s cinema. It’s the lesser of his triumvirate of Béla Tarr emulations (Gerry I still consider to be one the best films I’ve seen in about half a decade), but Van Sant’s influences could be no stronger as far as I’m concerned, and his emulations are exemplary.
by Rumsey Taylor | Source: HBO Films DVD
18 Dec 2005 2:07 PM | Submit Comment
To the many unlikely adjectives that have been used to describe this film’s handling of child abuse (namely, “touching”) I’ll add “clever.” This topic is depicted with some explicitness, but also sensitivity and ingenuity. An initial encounter between a young boy and his little-league coach is encapsulated by a rain of Fruit Loops—this is what I mean by clever; my brief description may make the scenario seem campy, but it’s actually beautiful, even if the action it precedes elicits some volatile emotions in the young participants.
by Rumsey Taylor | Source: Tartan DVD
18 Dec 2005 2:00 PM | Submit Comment
This is the epitome of Wong’s cinema of nostalgia and longing, manifested in an extramarital affair that is characterized by its innocence. This, along with Days of Being Wild and 2046, comprises Wong’s central aesthetic, although the latter title requires more digestion.
by Rumsey Taylor | Source: Projected DVD
18 Dec 2005 1:42 PM | Submit Comment
A sumptuously visual film, even if I’ve nothing else, really, to say about it.
by Rumsey Taylor | Source: Sony Pictures Classics 35mm print
18 Dec 2005 1:34 PM | Submit Comment
Hitchcock’s most charming film – Redgrave and Lockwood play off one another as well as Spencer and Tracy, Grant and Russell, etc. and the dialogue crackles. The leaps from romantic comedy to suspense to political drama are deftly handled and feel fresh…and I thought I had grown tired of Hitchcock after all these years. For anyone else in the New York area they are running all of his films at Film Forum through the month of January.
by Jenny Jediny | Source: 35mm Theatrical Print
17 Dec 2005 9:19 AM | Submit Comment
It’s at the very instant Walter chews off and spits a nihilist’s ear lobe into the sky that The Big Lebowski is affirmed as one of the most succinct prophecies in ’90s cinema. And to this end, lethargy is the defining trait of a true American.
Leo Goldsmith’s Favorite Films
by Rumsey Taylor | Source: VHS
15 Dec 2005 4:00 PM | Submit Comment
There’s been some criticism that the Dardenne Brothers are now simply repeating themselves. Yes, style and setting are the same, but subtle variations are at play here (the camerawork is less intense, less in unrelenting pursuit of its protagonist as it was in Le Fils), to produce a magnificent piece of filmmaking. A simplicity of means and a profound humanism are the source of what is among the very best filmmaking being practised today.
by Ian Johnston | Source: 35mm print
15 Dec 2005 12:11 PM | Submit Comment
Did Hitchcock realise how much Bob Rusk becomes a self-portrait? The serial killer’s simultaneous fascination with and distaste for his women victims is mirrored in the way Hitchcock chooses to shoot those scenes. There’s a leering quality to the shots of the distorted faces of the strangled women, an unsettling pleasure. Despite the technical flourishes this is minor Hitchcock, a reminder that the constraints of Hollywood censorship may have been a blessing for his art. And we can be thankful that this was not his last film, but that the light-spirited jeu d’esprit of Family Plot was his final gift to cinema.
by Ian Johnston | Source: Universal DVD
15 Dec 2005 12:01 PM | Submit Comment
Is this the best ever artist biopic ever made? Very close to that, probably because this portrait of Van Gogh, with his passion, his orneriness, his pursuit of his art in spite of financial failure, and his fits of rage against those near and dear to him, amounts to a self-portrait of Pialat himself. The film hardly puts a foot wrong. It completely ignores the “mad Vincent” part of the popular Van Gogh mythology (cf Tim Roth’s Van Gogh in Altman’s Vincent and Theo). It’s fascinating in the way on the one hand it deals in sudden narrative ellipses and on the other constructs tremendous sequences of “dead time” (consider the lengthy sequences around Theo’s visit – the lunch, the walk along the riverbank etc). And its magnificent in its evocation of the painting of the day not through direct imitation but more indirect allusion. Look at the scenes by the riverbank where Renoir, father and son, are both invoked.
by Ian Johnston | Source: Artificial Eye DVD
15 Dec 2005 11:51 AM | Submit Comment
A surprising undercurrent of emotion runs through this retelling of 1970s easy-listening star Karen Carpenter’s rise to fame and subsequent death from anorexia. Using Barbie-like dolls in place of real actors, director Todd Haynes revisits (and simultaneously pokes fun at) biopic conventions to evoke Carpenter’s suffocating home life and relentlessly demanding touring schedule. Thematically similar to Safe and Far From Heaven, the action plays out like a slow-burning horror film in which the female protagonist fades into a shadow of her former self. Although the movie’s approach to anorexia is a clinical one, it displays a firm grasp of the psychology underlying the disease and treats Carpenter’s plight with utmost sympathy (though her family and business colleagues come off in a decidedly less flattering light).
by Beth Gilligan | Source: VHS
13 Dec 2005 12:37 PM | Submit Comment
Herzog continues to explore man’s delusional perception of his position and authority within a world be believes he has dominion over. As usual, Herzog is intrigued by the line between fixation and psychosis. What makes this instance more interesting is his subject, Timothy Treadwell, who has carefully attempted to craft a persona for himself through the medium of film that Herzog is willing to gently expose. Hence, Herzog’s efforts are equally directed towards both an examination of the nature of filmmaking, as well as towards man’s relationship with nature. Thus, I don’t think it’s a coincidence that he begins his film by including discussion with a “friend/actor” and a “pilot/rodeo rider” – two individuals who make it their business to engage in performance. Naturally, the next step is to wonder how many of the people Herzog interviews are engaged in performance and whether or not Herzog is embellishing the situation for effect.
Herzog also takes a moment to discuss the inadvertent beauty that filmmakers can occasionally capture through coincidence. Though his comments are directed towards Treadwell’s footage, I could already see these types of unintentional occurrence happening in Herzog’s film, where nature continually overwhelms his film. As Herzog discusses Timothy’s antics with Treadwell’s friends and displays pieces of Treadwell’s footage, we watch gnats swarm around his subjects, flies crawl upon his camera lens, and birds clamoring in the background. These all serve to exemplify Herzog’s point that nature is ultimately uncontrollable no matter the magnitude of man’s efforts at suppression and exploitation, even if these efforts are cloaked as peaceful co-existence.
by Chiranjit Goswami | Source: Lions Gate 35mm Print
12 Dec 2005 3:57 PM | Submit Comment
In a recent issue of Esquire magazine, for a concluding feature entitled “ReallyExtremeMakeovers”, Brian Frazer paired a photograph of James Dean posing with his famous Porsche Spyder captioned “Underrated Actor”, with a photo of the wreckage of the “Little Bastard” with the caption “Overrated Actor”. The juxtaposition of the photographs and captions are probably a little crass, but they fittingly describes Dean’s legacy. In truth I enjoy Dean’s performance in Giant far better than his work here, simply because everything about Stevens’s production is huge, including Dean’s performance, while the immediacy and urgency of youth in Rebel feels worn after awhile. Dean could never be accused of being particularly subtle, but he held attention like few others. Unfortunately, very few actors can replicate what he’s capable of, though far too many have tried.
As always, Ray’s picture feels subversive, whether it’s Jim’s emasculated father, Judy’s sexually-aware dad, or the fact that the minorities must suffer the greatest loss. Strangely, its ending appears to even reduce the adolescence viewpoint to its rightful place as an idealized youthful fantasy. As Plato self-destructs, Jim must realize just how difficult it is to succeed as a father, especially when your achievement is based upon your ability to protect your child within a world that cares very little about the details – in this case, whether or not the gun is loaded. Jim’s failure thus forces him to recognize the worth of his own father’s efforts, even if they do appear idiotic at times.
by Chiranjit Goswami | Source: Warner Brothers Special Edition DVD
12 Dec 2005 3:01 PM | Submit Comment
Like no other film, Rocky Horror is a testament that film is nothing without an audience to respond to it. This morning, I am still picking rice out of my hair.
by Rumsey Taylor | Source: Fox 35mm print
11 Dec 2005 12:40 PM | Submit Comment
Having read Annie Proulx’s original short story, my criticisms for Brokeback Mountain are the same token complaints that can be made for most films adapted from literary sources. The result satisfactorily depicts the essence of an impossible love. Here, however, the adaptation bears meticulous polishing, I presume, to make it more digestable.
Additionally, my thoughts are colored by David Ehrenstein’s comments at the Criterion Forum and his weblog.
by Rumsey Taylor | Source: Focus Features DVD screener
11 Dec 2005 12:34 PM | Submit Comment
This comes as the second film on the same disc as I Walked With A Zombie and suffers immeasurably in comparison. Drawn-out and talky, a very conventional Hollywood fantasy of nineteenth-century Edinburgh with a sickeningly sentimental pre-teen cripple. The standard Lewton/RKO play with shadows, but none of Zombie’s poetry. The difference between Tourneur and Wise?
by Ian Johnston | Source: WB DVD
11 Dec 2005 4:18 AM | Submit Comment
I don’t know what’s more jaw dropping in this film, the exquisitely shot mountain ranges or Heath Ledger actually acting. A. Lee manages to nail the consistent air of loneliness and melancholy that made the Proulx short story so memorable.
by Jenny Jediny | Source: 35mm Theatrical Print
11 Dec 2005 2:15 AM | Comments (3)
by Beth Gilligan | Source: Warner Brothers DVD
07 Dec 2005 9:28 AM | Submit Comment
As far as I can tell, the only reason this film is getting so much advance praise is that its setting is so unusual for a Woody Allen film. Otherwise, it’s not all that different from much of his darker work.
And it’s a really sour film, too; fairly misogynist, and way too long. Jonathan Rhys-Meyers turns in a rather fake performance as a rather fake guy; and Scarlett Johansson is appropriately cast as a not-very-good actress who is nonetheless aware of her sexual power over men. It works: she’s completely unconvincing, but with a mere turn of the lip she could melt the paint off her lover’s shiny new Mercedes.
by Leo Goldsmith | Source: Dreamworks 35mm Print
06 Dec 2005 10:48 PM | Submit Comment
The Brothers Grimm is a return to familiar territory for Terry Gilliam, populated with unique faces, elaborately dressed landscapes, and concerning the distinction between what is real and what is imagined. But it is a befitting effort, more so, for its tried production, the specifics of which I am not familiar with, but both Weinstein brothers reportedly inhibited Gilliam’s intentions. Similar circumstances distinguish Baron Munchausen, which epitomizes his recalcitrant vision.
by Rumsey Taylor | Source: Miramax DVD screener
06 Dec 2005 11:04 AM | Submit Comment
by Rumsey Taylor | Source: Cable television
05 Dec 2005 9:46 AM | Submit Comment
by Rumsey Taylor | Source: TCM
05 Dec 2005 9:45 AM | Submit Comment
An uncharacteristic effort from Jim Jarmusch, Broken Flowers bears the unfortunate stigma of housing a lethargic, sympathetic Bill Murray. It’s like every film he’s been in during his indie renaissance: deadpan and morose (and amplified in a magnificent soundtrack), and now familiar and worn.
Matt’s thoughts | Leo’s thoughts | Jason’s thoughts
by Rumsey Taylor | Source: Focus Features DVD screener
05 Dec 2005 9:43 AM | Submit Comment
by Rumsey Taylor | Source: New Line DVD
05 Dec 2005 9:24 AM | Submit Comment
Far more engaging than expected. Syriana is a thicket of political intrigue, handled intelligently and avoiding the emotional pitfalls that it could have easily fallen into. The most appealing storyline (at least for me) involved the subversive training of young Muslim fundamentalists, mainly for its humane and nearly sympathetic qualities.
by Jenny Jediny | Source: 35mm Theatrical Print
04 Dec 2005 10:36 PM | Submit Comment
Nicely done character- and actor-based comic drama, even if the cinematic style is merely efficient and undistinctive.
by Ian Johnston | Source: DS DVD
04 Dec 2005 12:42 PM | Submit Comment
This is one comedy of remarriage which hasn’t aged so well. Slow; the jokes to modern taste few and far between; and Jimmy Stewart hams it up badly in the early part of the film. The film’s ideological project – patriarchy’s taming of the threat offered by the Katharine Hepburn persona – is unlikely to be well-received nowadays; certainly not by me.
by Ian Johnston | Source: WB DVD
04 Dec 2005 12:38 PM | Submit Comment
An ultimately tiresome exercise in adolescent puerility. Rodriguez’ (or “Rodriguez and Miller“‘s) carbon copy of comic book visuals is a failure on his (their) part of cinematic imagination; and for all the cod-poetic romanticism of these “strong man saving abused woman” narratives, the final effect is misogynist in the extreme.
by Ian Johnston | Source: Dimension Mirimax DVD
04 Dec 2005 12:29 PM | Submit Comment
Jean-Marie Téno’s documentary traces a public and personal genealogy of economic and spiritual colonialism in Cameroon with a grab-bag of interviews, flashbacks, and early ethnographic films. The film focuses mainly on linguistic oppression, but Téno is also interested in African self-expression in general, and the foundation of an African cinema in particular. Witty, fragmentary, and disconcerting, Afrique, je te plumerai is itself pronounced in the voice of a voiceless people.
by Leo Goldsmith | Source: California Newsreel VHS
02 Dec 2005 1:13 PM | Submit Comment