Not Coming to a Theater Near You

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Rust Never Sleeps / USA / 1979

Another Neil Young concert film, except this one is extremely silly and makes Heart of Gold look like the pinnacle of cinematic art. Extended footage of Jawas setting up oversized equipment, occasional visits from coneheads with monkey-masks, pseudo-3D (“Rust-o-Vision”?), and Bernard Shakey himself in painter’s pants, a sleeping bag, and a cocaine frenzy. The music is quite good, but the weak, persistent efforts at psychedelia, complete with Woodstock sound-bites blasted through the PA during scene changes, will be wearying even for the most devoted fans. Recommended only with one hand on a bong and another on the fast-forward button.

by Leo Goldsmith | Source: Vapor US DVd
31 Mar 2006 12:41 PM | Submit Comment

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Jimmy Houston’s Guide to Bass Fishin’ / USA / 1986

A few weeks ago, while browsing a local video store offering 10 used VHS tapes for 10 dollars, I spotted a copy of Weapons of Death starring Eric Lee. I picked it up. The back cover proclaimed that Mr. Lee displayed “heroic and classy Kung-Fu showmanship.” Sold. I added the film to my pile of VHS treasures, paid my ten bucks, and went home.

Some time later, in a fit of rampant obsessive-compulsiveness, I decided to watch bits and pieces of the ten films, just to make sure they worked properly and I had gotten my dollars’ worth. I put on Weapons of Death. Instead of Eric Lee’s classy Kung-Fu, however, I got a flabby white boy sitting in a boat. I ejected the tape and checked the label. Sure enough, the film I’d purchased was not Weapons of Death, but Jimmy Houston’s Guide to Bass Fishin’.

At first, I was appalled. How had I been duped so easily? Is it not the first rule of used-VHS buying to check the tapes themselves, not just the alluring covers? But soon enough, dismay gave way to joy as I watched in amazement as Jimmy Houston, for more than an hour, and in all his tight-blue-t-shirt, oversized-black-sun-glasses glory, detailed the finer points of bass fishin’, accompanied all the while by an instrumental rendition of Harry Chapin’s “Cats in the Cradle.”

Little did I know, for example, that in bass fishing, you have yourself four seasons, them being spring, summer, fall, and winter, or that a junction area is “where two things come together.” And who knew that fish, just like people, need some good lovin’ every now and again?

Of course, I toyed with the idea of returning the film and demanding my dollar back, but that Jimmy Houston was just so entertaining, and so full of bass fishin’ wisdom, that I figured I’d more than gotten my money’s worth, and I decided to keep the tape. And, lacking a spare case, I decided to forever store the documentary in the Weapons of Death sleeve. Who knows? Maybe someday, my hypothetical, Kung-Fu loving son will get the hankering for some Eric Lee heroics, and find himself unwittingly opening his mind to some top-notch bass fishin’ tips. Thanks Jimmy.

by Thomas Scalzo | Source: United Home Video VHS
30 Mar 2006 10:57 PM | Submit Comment

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Neil Young: Heart of Gold / USA / 2006

Jonathan Demme’s film bears some of the stylistic markers of his previous Talking Heads film, but here the photography is only occasionally inspired and much of the editing (particularly the culling of footage from several performances into a single run-through) is distractingly sloppy.

As a document of Young’s Prairie Wind performances in Nashville, the film finds the singer in his less laid-back, more stagey, legacy-building mode, à la Live Rust and Decade, collating some greatest hits, spinning some self-mythologization, and paying tribute to his forefathers and contemporaries.

As such, and in spite of some hasty (and badly shot) interviews at the film’s outset, Demme’s emphasis on the performance rather than the event might well have pushed the whole show into an even more onanistic tone. But Young’s presence, his heartfelt delivery, and the audience’s fore-knowledge of his brain aneurysm and his father’s death add enough weight to make the film a surprisingly emotional experience.

And all this despite the fact that Prairie Wind is not even a very good album. In fact, its main value here is to spawn some revealing (and very occasional) anecdotes, as well as connections to better albums, like the masterful and often overlooked Comes a Time. On that note, it’s puzzling to me why the film is named after “Heart of Gold.” Of course, it’s Young’s most famous song (and Neil Young: The Needle and the Damage Done would be less appropriate), but it has very little to do with the film overall, and the rendition of it here is particularly perfunctory. My suggestion: Neil Young: Old Man.

Rumsey’s thoughts.

by Leo Goldsmith | Source: Paramount Classics 35mm Print
30 Mar 2006 12:18 PM | Submit Comment

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He Who Hits First, Hits Twice: The Urgent Cinema of Santiago Álvarez / Cuba / 1965

The eight films on this disk span roughly eight years (1965-1973) and provide only a slim aperture through which to view Álvarez’s body of work, which is reputed to comprise some 700 films. In this sampling, we have an outsider’s perspective of U.S. foreign policy in the late ’60s and early ’70s, filtered through the filmmaker’s personalized, Latinized take on Soviet montage. One wonders what the connection might have been between Álvarez and Agnès Varda, the style of whose 1963 short Salut les Cubains (featured in her 2004 portmanteau, Cinévardaphotoars a striking resemblance to Álvarez’s highly kinetic use of still photography.

by Leo Goldsmith | Source: Extreme Low Frequency DVD
28 Mar 2006 1:38 PM | Submit Comment

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The Ringer / USA / 2005

Arriving at the movies too late to catch Inside Man, I was relegated to this harmless slice of low budget comedy crap. Johnny Knoxville attempts to rig the special Olympics in order to pay for his gardener’s hand operation, and learns all about being different and being true to yourself and telling the truth and yadda yadda yadda. South Park covered the same ground in 22 minutes, and far more effectively.

by Tom Huddleston | Source: 35mm Print
28 Mar 2006 7:20 AM | Submit Comment

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Anchorman: The Legend Of Ron Burgundy / USA / 2004

Simple entertainment, perhaps not as funny as it ought to be, but lovingly crafted enough to slip by quite satisfactorily. There are a few great moments- Paul Rudd naming his balls (James Westfall and Dr. Kenneth Noisewater, FYI), the all-star Anchor-fight, and the bearpit ending- but it’s a lesser film from great talents better served by Old School, Elf and The 40 Year Old Virgin.

by Tom Huddleston | Source: Sky Movies
28 Mar 2006 7:17 AM | Submit Comment

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V For Vendetta / USA / 2005

The critical response to this film in the British press has been savage bordering on psychotic- they simply hate it. I can’t for the life of me understand why- sure, it’s ludicrous, but it’s still an effective, hard hitting slice of politically charged action junk that asks pertinent questions and questions pertinent truths. Natalie Portman was a mistake- her accent is rotten- and Hugo Weaving struggles to act behind the obligatory mask, leaving a central hole that the film struggles to fill. But Stephen Fry is a joy, as is John Hurt, the set design is superb, the action well staged and the plotting tight and speedy. Alan Moore’s novel could have been treated a lot worse than this.

by Tom Huddleston | Source: 35mm Print
28 Mar 2006 7:14 AM | Submit Comment

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King Kong / USA/ NZ / 2005

Self indulgence on a truly mammoth scale- the most unnecessary film since Gus Van Sant’s Psycho, King Kong is hugely entertaining but totally empty. You could see it coming, too- The Return Of The King was a messy, overboiled ending to an otherwise excellent saga, but even the basic character work that enlivened that epic sprawl is missing here- Naomi Watts and Adrien Brody are empty shells, and as for Jack Black’s feeble Welles impersonation… he should stick to rockin’. The monkey acts them all off the screen. Jackson’s setpieces are inspired- the brontosaurus chase and the T-Rex attack are ludicrously exciting, action with a sense of speed and dynamism never before seen onscreen- but one can’t shake the feeling that it all could have been done in half the time- in fact, it was.

by Tom Huddleston | Source: DVD
28 Mar 2006 7:13 AM | Submit Comment

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Indiana Jones And The Last Crusade / USA / 1989

Raiders improves with age, Temple Of Doom was always a fairly nasty (if guiltily enjoyable) mistake, but this one seems to pale with each successive viewing. On release it seemed like a breath of fresh air, not too serious, now it just feels like crude slapstick, undermining the potential grandeur of its subject matter with feeble jokes and swiss- cheese plotting (how do the Jones boys get from Austria to Berlin without being caught? We’re clearly not supposed to ask). Sean Connery mugs up a storm, Harrison Ford frowns a lot, John Rhys Davies and Denholm Elliott, fine actors both, are reduced to caricatures. And the love interest is just utterly forgettable- no wonder Alison Doody disappeared into swift obscurity.

by Tom Huddleston | Source: Sky Movies
28 Mar 2006 7:12 AM | Submit Comment

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Hangmen Also Die! / USA / 1943

A riveting WW2 adventure scripted by Bertolt Brecht and directed by Fritz Lang, one of the few American films made during the conflict to accurately portray the extent and ruthlessness of Nazi atrocities. And it’s still relevant- Brian Donlevy plays underground assassin Svoboda, on the run from Gestapo agents after he murders Heydrich, ‘The Hangman’. He’s a terrorist, but a dashed charming one. The plot is intricate but moves at a rattling pace, and the great Walter Brennan excels as an avuncular college professor jailed for his beliefs. The happy ending may fail to convince in the light of all we know about the actual situation in Prague, but taken as politically spiked entertainment the film is enormously satisfying.

by Tom Huddleston | Source: DVD
28 Mar 2006 7:09 AM | Submit Comment

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Night of the Creeps / Homecoming Night / USA / 1986

Halfway through Fred Dekker’s forgotten zombie classic there’s a slow but genuine realization on the part of the audience—this is more than just a cheesy horror film from the Reagan era. Night of the Creeps is Michael Jackson’s Thriller meets Sixteen Candles. It’s a well-choreographed and expertly shot piece of original cinema that manages to lampoon itself, as well as parody every implausibly bad film about over-sexed and clueless teens, with incredible subtlety. The self-ridiculing special effects, overly inane characters, and superb performance by the vastly underrated Tom Atkins all add to the film’s subversive charm, not to mention some of the greatest one-liners in satirical film history.

by Adam Balz | Source: Bootleg DVD
27 Mar 2006 7:07 PM | Comments (1)

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Sky High / USA / 2005

This is what happens when you’re stuck at the video store and pay a little too much attention to Mike D’Angelo’s recommendations in Esquire. Quite honestly the film does display some charm, particularly in Kurt Russell’s cartoonishly dense superhero American father. I’m also a sucker for Kelly Preston, no matter how crazy she might be. It’s also nice to see my two favorite Kids in the Hall get some work.

by Chiranjit Goswami | Source: Walt Disney DVD
27 Mar 2006 3:19 PM | Submit Comment

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King Kong / USA / 1933

Rumsey’s review.

Given the similarities between the perfectly serviceable original and the recent exhausting do-over, it seems that Peter Jackson need only have expressed his admiration with something like this.

by Leo Goldsmith | Source: Warner Bros. DVD
27 Mar 2006 12:49 PM | Submit Comment

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Ed Wood / USA / 1994

At once, this film derides the career of its subject and esteems it at the same time. This dynamic is best exhibited in a late scene in which Ed Wood, having stormed off the set of what would become Plan 9 From Outer Space because of the interference of his Baptist producers, approaches Orson Welles in a bar. The men share a particular ambition, one sharpened by the prohibition of the Hollywood system. That this scene occurs with Wood in drag is a gesture of both derision and humility.

by Rumsey Taylor | Source: IFC
27 Mar 2006 10:27 AM | Submit Comment

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Faster Pussycat! Kill! Kill! / USA / 1965

Full review.

by Rumsey Taylor | Source: RM Films VHS
27 Mar 2006 10:25 AM | Submit Comment

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Lessons of Darkness / Lektionen in Finsternis / Germany / 1992

Full review.

by Rumsey Taylor | Source: Anchor Bay DVD
27 Mar 2006 10:24 AM | Submit Comment

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Fata Morgana / Mirage / West Germany / 1971

Full review.

by Rumsey Taylor | Source: Anchor Bay DVD
27 Mar 2006 10:23 AM | Submit Comment

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Wallace & Gromit in The Curse of the Were-Rabbit / UK / 2005

I adore Gromit, and the film is funny. But I still prefer the criminal penguin in The Wrong Trousers to the villains they’ve cooked up for the last few films.

by Jenny Jediny | Source: DVD
26 Mar 2006 6:41 PM | Submit Comment

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Richard III / UK/USA / 1995

Staging Shakespeare on the silver screen is like recreating a Lichtenstein painting with ketchup and mustard—the results are destined to be muddled and sacrilegious. With Richard III, Ian McKellen and Richard Loncraine come very close to succeeding. Based on a stage production by Richard Eyre, Richard III condenses Shakespeare’s five-act play down to a 104-minute pseudo-monologue by the vengeful brother of King Edward. An allegory of Nazi Germany that relies on historical incongruities, McKellen’s King Richard, a deformed metaphor for Adolph Hitler with the suggestive black uniform and all, is a malicious and unforgiving, slowly purging his family in search of the throne.

Much of the film’s charm is its array of acting talent. Adding to the fated royal family is Maggie Smith, Jim Broadbent, Annette Bening, John Wood, Kristin Scott Thomas, and Nigel Hawthorne, all of whom embody their roles in an exemplary film that, unfortunately, builds to a swift and unappetizing finale.

by Adam Balz | Source: DVD
26 Mar 2006 5:06 PM | Submit Comment

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The Fog / USA / 2005

Decent and generally faithful remake of the Carpenter/Hill classic offers a well-spun ghost story, creepy special effects, and a young, attractive cast. And the plot here actually makes more sense than the original. Instead of the bizarre insta-relationship between Tom Atkins and the hitchhiking Jamie Lee Curtis, for example, we have the roadside reunion of an established couple. And instead of Tom Atkins suddenly taking it upon himself to save the DJ’s son, we have the DJ’s romantic interest coming to the rescue. In other words, the loose threads of the original are here neatly knotted.

On the other hand, the actors in this updated telling generally lack the charisma of their late ’70s counterparts. From Atkins, Hal Holbrook and John Houseman to Jamie Lee, Janet Leigh, and Adrienne Barbeau, the original cast of The Fog was a colorful bunch that easily outshined the loose plot points. Do we really care that the Atkins/Curtis relationship makes no sense? Of course not. It happens, it’s funny, and that’s enough.

by Thomas Scalzo | Source: OnDemand Cable Feature
26 Mar 2006 1:21 PM | Submit Comment

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Inside Man / USA / 2006

A hugely entertaining heist film, with a refreshingly straightforward plot, excellent characters, and just the right amount of Spike’s snarky class/racial digs. The acting here is what keeps things moving along, with Denzel turning in a particularly brilliant (and near-invisible) performance as a cocky police negotiator who’s neither too smart nor too heroic to be anything less than wholly credible. Clive Owen is also very well-used (charming, hilarious, and frightening), and Jodie Foster has a new career ahead of her playing pursed and pedicured Lizzie Grubman types.

As much as I think that Spike Lee is one of the most underrated directors around, it would seem that straighter genre films fit his skills more than his usual grab-bags, which often attempt too much at once. Here, a fairly simple bank robbery film is the perfect vehicle for a cross-section of present-day New York, leaving plenty of room to riff on racial profiling, PSP’s, cell-phone civics, etc. I can’t think of another director as committed to portraying contemporary reality as Lee is, and certainly none who does it with such ease and style.

by Leo Goldsmith | Source: Universal Pictures 35mm Print
25 Mar 2006 1:21 PM | Comments (18)

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Storytelling / USA / 2000

Narrative indulgences in the second half of this doublet degrade my praise for this film, but the first – fiction – is near-flawless, precisely for its manipulation, and is perhaps Todd Solondz’s most characterizing work.

by Rumsey Taylor | Source: IFC
24 Mar 2006 11:12 AM | Submit Comment

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Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow / USA / UK / 2004

It’s something to look at, but god the dialogue is horrible.

by Rumsey Taylor | Source: Cable TV
24 Mar 2006 11:07 AM | Submit Comment

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Bamboozled / USA / 2000

Full review.

Along with Team America, one of only a very few truly great satires in recent American cinema.

by Leo Goldsmith | Source: Cable broadcast
23 Mar 2006 5:21 PM | Comments (2)

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The Man with Two Brains / USA / 1983

It’s pronounced “azaleas.”

by Leo Goldsmith | Source: Cable Broadcast
23 Mar 2006 5:08 PM | Comments (1)

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Man With a Plan / Fred Tuttle is the Man With a Plan / USA / 1996

The charm of John O’Brien’s Man With a Plan is twofold. The tale of a retired Vermont farmer who decides to run for Congress, O’Brien’s cult classic has also become an unusual piece of American history. Two years after portraying himself, Tuttle ran for the Senate against a Republican lawyer from Massachusetts, only to endorse Patrick Leahy after winning the primary.

Filmed around the small New England town of Tunbridge, Man With a Plan follows Tuttle as he becomes the antithesis of a career politician. In need of money for his 95-year old father’s hip surgery, Tuttle begins a grass roots campaign against the district veteran, a wiry-haired man named Blachly who’s earned the support of both parties. Tuttle’s also incredibly honest, and his speeches are short, poorly delivered, and incoherent. Nevertheless, his home-grown humility and pureness make him a lovable protagonist, and the film’s humor is admirable and unexpectedly clever.

by Adam Balz | Source: Bellwether Films VHS
22 Mar 2006 1:55 PM | Submit Comment

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The Whales of August / USA / 1987

Lindsay Anderson’s The Whales of August is a daunting and forgotten milestone in American cinema. It marks the last film appearances of both Lillian Gish and Ann Sothern, and the last great performance of Bette Davis’s career (she would die two years later, after rightly abandoning the infamous Wicked Stepmother); the film’s fourth star, Vincent Price, would follow Davis in 1993. For the casual moviegoer, the film’s appeal is minimal, at best: Libby and Sarah, two elderly sisters, spend their final summer together at their oceanfront home in Maine, where they await the yearly arrival of whales. A gossipy neighbor checks in on them occasionally, as does a spry Russian fisherman named Maranov, but they’re almost always alone.

Anderson’s film is nostalgic and somber. As the sisters recall the better years, when the autumn whales would swim close to the shore, we find ourselves in a deep yearning for the past. In the back of our minds is the knowledge that, slowly but elegantly, these women are dying; Libby is now blind, and Sarah worries for her. This is also the curtain call of an entire motion picture generation; by 1987, American cinema was dominated by John Hughes and Freddy Krueger. There was no longer room for gifted relics like Gish or Davis, who are starkly unrecognizable; even Price, who would soon recapture fame in cartoons and Tim Burton films, would never find the same loyal audience. It’s the curse of Hollywood—fame in one Golden Age means obscurity in the next. The Whales of August is more than a depiction of four old people; this is the final, graceful goodbye of a grand era.

by Adam Balz | Source: DVD
21 Mar 2006 3:24 PM | Comments (1)

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Brighton Rock / Young Scarface / UK / 1947

Classic British noir, with Sir Dickie Attenborough truly unsettling as dead- eyed psychopath Pinkie, marrying a potential witness to one of his crimes in order to keep her quiet. The atmosphere of the English seaside permeates every frame, there’s an air of cheap thrills and petty desperation, empty lives blowing away with the chip wrappers. And it’s subtly subversive- the police are useless so the legwork falls to brassy, middle aged vaudevillian Ida (Hermione Baddeley), surely one of the strangest detectives in film history.

by Tom Huddleston | Source: DVD
21 Mar 2006 8:23 AM | Submit Comment

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The Day After Tomorrow / USA / 2004

Daft destructo-porn with eco-warrior sensibilities, this should have been bigger and better- the first half is entertaining enough, as the northern hemisphere freezes hard and everyone runs for cover. Unfortunately it descends into a feeble rescue movie, as Dennis Quiad struggles through the snow to save his gay cowboy son. And then it just sort of stops- clearly someone forgot to write an ending, or maybe they all just gave up.

by Tom Huddleston | Source: Sky Movies
21 Mar 2006 8:21 AM | Submit Comment

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The Innocents / UK / 1961

Henry James’ Turn Of The Screw inspired this handsomely mounted study in paranoia, with Deborah Kerr outstanding as the mild- mannered governess sent to watch over two orphaned children in a remote country estate. Director Jack Clayton really plays with the creep- factor inherent in well bred English children, and the haunting melody of a music box is used throughout to chilling effect. At times the film comes across like an inferior blend of Night Of The Hunter and The Haunting, at others the atmospheric locations (photographed by Freddie Francis) and mounting hysteria lend the film a spookiness all its own. And on a topical note, Truman Capote co- wrote the screenplay.

by Tom Huddleston | Source: DVD
21 Mar 2006 8:20 AM | Submit Comment

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Harry Potter And The Goblet Of Fire / USA/ UK / 2005

Not a patch on Alfonso Cuaron’s masterful third chapter (for my money the best film about childhood in years, and truly beautiful to look at), but still leagues ahead of the yawn inducing first two. Based on by far the best of JK Rowling’s books (which admittedly isn’t saying much), The Goblet Of Fire has so much ground to cover that at one point the producers were discussing a Kill Bill-style two parter. Thank God they didn’t, because the constraints of childrens’ bladders has forced the producers to drop any unnecessary filler, and focus on the story and the characters. The three leads are growing into their roles now, ably supported by the cream of British acting talent, and the design and effects work is second to none.

by Tom Huddleston | Source: DVD
21 Mar 2006 8:18 AM | Submit Comment

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Kiss Kiss Bang Bang / USA / 2005

Shane Black’s return to screenwriting (and debut as a director) is as trashy, violent and mildly offensive as one would expect; surprisingly, it’s also superbly cast, disarmingly good natured and genuinely funny. The dialogue could be described as post-Tarantino- there are a fair amount of pop culture references and a whole lot of swearing- but uniquely for a film of this type it feels as though Black genuinely cares about his words and chooses them carefully- every line feels picked over, precise, chosen with loving care.

by Tom Huddleston | Source: DVD
21 Mar 2006 8:09 AM | Submit Comment

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The Red Shoes / UK / 1948

See review here.

Though as an afterthought, I would like to note that The Red Shoes did confirm my long- held suspicion that ballet really is the silliest form of respectable art, even more so than poetry.

by Tom Huddleston | Source: DVD
21 Mar 2006 8:05 AM | Submit Comment

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Breakfast on Pluto / Ireland/UK / 2005

Given the infectious pop music-infused soundtrack and Cillian Murphy’s lively, confident performance, one would expect that the movie’s violent scenes (chronicling the “troubles” that plagued Northern Ireland in the 1970s) would come across as jarring tonal shifts. It is to Neil Jordan’s credit that they instead seamlessly blend with the scenes of discos and magic shows, a coherence befitting a main character who often teeters on the edge of despair but steadfastly refuses to give in to it. The film moves along with much of the same joyous momentum.

by Beth Gilligan | Source: Sony Pictures Classics 35mm print
20 Mar 2006 12:32 PM | Submit Comment

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Drawing Restraint 9 / USA / Japan / 2006

No doubt this film will generate the type of hyperbole shit-storm that has accompanied most of Barney’s recent output, with one flock praising the god-like brilliance of the Master Artist and the other flock calling out, “pretentious!”

What is undeniable is that this, even more than Barney’s previous work, is a film of outrageous, startling ingenuity and beauty. And regardless of whether you think Barney’s doing anything innovative with film narrative — I do — Drawing Restraint 9 is visually and emotionally arresting, grotesque, erotic, romantic, and highly whimsical. This last note, consistent throughout Barney’s output, is perpetually overlooked by those who want to either deify or defrock the director-sculptor.

by Leo Goldsmith | Source: IFC 35mm Print
20 Mar 2006 11:48 AM | Submit Comment

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H Is for House / UK / 1973

H is for hidden, but H is also for hint. Most importantly (or not), H is for Hapax Legomena.

by Leo Goldsmith | Source: Zeitgeist DVD
20 Mar 2006 11:47 AM | Submit Comment

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Open Water / USA / 2003

Open Water is an innovative concept, to be sure, but I found it to be exemplified in its trailer.

Tom’s thoughts.

by Rumsey Taylor | Source: Lions Gate DVD
20 Mar 2006 10:35 AM | Submit Comment

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Return of the Evil Dead / El Ataque de los muertos sin ojos / Spain / 1973

If you’re curious as to how long the horror of fumbling, cloaked, cursed knights may be sustained, it’s about exactly ninety-one minutes.

by Rumsey Taylor | Source: Blue Underground DVD
20 Mar 2006 10:34 AM | Submit Comment

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The Shaft / Down / USA / Netherlands / 2001

An Evil Dead II frankensteining of Dick Maas’ previous The Lift, The Shaft makes an unexpected argument in favor of auteurism. The concept is virtually identical to Maas’ previous rendition of elevators that kill people (you get the clever title now, yes?), only here in English as opposed to Dutch, New York as opposed to Amsterdam, and a cast of David Lynch alums instead of unknowns. (I’m inclined to note that this contains both Naomi Watts and Dan Hedaya, and was released the same year as Mulholland Drive.) It’s apparently a pronunciation of Maas’ enormous phobia of elevators, and iterates many of the prior film’s death scenes. This isn’t a blatant rehash, however, as the killer elevators are given new scenarios, namely, a trip of pregnant women who fill the car to capacity, and a blind man who, triggered by the “bing” of opening doors, walks into an open shaft and pulls his seeing-eye dog down with him. This is a justifiably incompetent film in many aspects, but a very well-executed (and even innovative) genre piece by some measure.

by Rumsey Taylor | Source: Cable TV
20 Mar 2006 10:32 AM | Submit Comment

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Rooster—Spurs of Death! / USA / 1983

“Violent Cockfighting!…There’s More at Stake than Just Money!”

The eighteen-year-old son of a well-known cockfighter prepares for his first big match, all the while learning valuable lessons about life, love, lust, and what it takes to be a man in this world.

Although we don’t get to see any actual cockfighting for about an hour, the engrossing multiple human dramas (including a vertically challenged young man’s obsession with his employer’s vivacious daughter, a father introducing his son to the dangers of loose women, a husband and wife trying to overcome infidelity, and a prostitute determined to make it to Mexico someday) fill the time nicely. Whenever one plotline starts wearing thin, don’t worry, a new one is right around the corner.

And when the cockfighting does start, replete with extensive slow-motion sequences and plenty of disgruntled roosters, the stories converge admirably and all loose ends are tied up. There’s even a blood-soaked shootout in the old cockfighting barn to add an exclamation point to the proceedings.

I can’t believe this movie exists. Watch it if you can.

by Thomas Scalzo | Source: VHS
19 Mar 2006 11:01 AM | Submit Comment

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Predator / USA / 1987

A ridiculous amount of machismo with not one, but two governors blowing up everything in sight. I do have a newfound appreciation for Carl Weathers though.

by Jenny Jediny | Source: VHS
17 Mar 2006 12:41 PM | Submit Comment

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Crash / U.S.A. / 2004

A rather belated viewing on my part, so, given what I’ve heard about Crash, I’m not surprised at how facile the whole film is. But I am surprised that a film that takes as its major (only!) theme race – or rather, racial antagonism – should turn out to be so soft and sentimental. The Short Cuts/Magnolia model is obvious, but Paul Haggis hasn’t learnt the lesson of allowing his narrative, camera style, and acting performances sufficient space to expand, breathe, surprise us… Everything is far too neat, planned, controlled, confined, and predictable.

by Ian Johnston | Source: 35mm print
17 Mar 2006 11:08 AM | Submit Comment

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Vincent / USA / 1982

This six-minute animated film by Tim Burton, created using the same stop-motion techniques as The Nightmare Before Christmas, is the director at his uncorrupted best. Examining the dark daydreams of a lonely and awkward boy, inspired by both the verse of Edgar Allen Poe and 1950s horror films, Burton cast his childhood hero Vincent Price as the narrator. Against the recitation of a grim poem, little Vincent Malloy imagines burying his wife alive, encasing his aunt in wax, and turning his pet dog into a lurking zombie. It’s a delightful, imaginative, and graceful work of short cinema that evokes the fantasy-driven innocence of youth and the long-lost creativity of Burton’s older, better films.

by Adam Balz | Source: Internet Download
16 Mar 2006 11:01 PM | Submit Comment

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Brokeback Mountain / USA / 2005

When all the hype and controversy has washed away- say, a week from now- what will we be left with? I think Brokeback Mountain will endure, perhaps not as a genuine all- time masterpiece, but as a timely work of liberal conscience and superb characterisation- the modern equivalent of To Kill A Mockingbird or Silkwood. There are images in this film- mostly of men standing proudly with fixed jaw- that will outlive us all, and certainly the feeble prejudices that inspired them. And my God, Heath Ledger’s performance is astounding.

by Tom Huddleston | Source: 35mm print
15 Mar 2006 8:39 AM | Submit Comment

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Das Experiment / The Experiment / Germany / 2001

A glorious slice of slam- bang crypto- fascist trash, reducing a group of ‘ordinary’ guys off the street to the status either of ‘prisoners’ or ‘guards’, in a dramatic film inspired by the infamous Stanford Prison Experiment of 1971. It’s hard to say how seriously director Oliver Hirschbiegel takes any of this, but as the contrivances pile up and the plot twists itself into delirious knots it’s impossible not to get dragged along for the ride.

by Tom Huddleston | Source: DVD
15 Mar 2006 8:38 AM | Submit Comment

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A History Of Violence / USA / 2005

I’m a lifetime Cronenberg devotee, and I find this film utterly perplexing. I see very little inherent in the material that would be out of place in one hundred other DTV crime capers, albeit executed with that edge of crisp flair we’ve come to associate with the man’s work. There are scenes here that just confound me- the apple- cheeked brat with ‘monsters in the closet’, the sub- Dawson’s Creek high school sequences, the entire last act- if these are meant to be ironic, they display a cold contempt for the characters (and genre cinema in general) previously absent in Cronenberg’s work. If not, it’s just unprecedentedly bad writing. I don’t know which is more worrying.

by Tom Huddleston | Source: DVD
15 Mar 2006 8:36 AM | Comments (5)

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The Proposition / Australia / 2005

A grimly authentic Australian western, written by Nick Cave and reflecting many of the enduring themes inherent in his music- betrayal, retribution, murder and flies. Lots and lots of flies. It quickly becomes obvious that in his screenwriting, as in his lyrics, Cave seems unable to think in anything other than archetypes; the characters here are utterly irrelevant beyond what they represent- the civilising force, the darkness of nature, the double face of progress. Only the very finest actors- namely Ray Winstone, Emily Watson and John Hurt- manage to squeeze anything especially memorable from their drastically underwritten parts; lesser talents, most notably Guy Pearce, are reduced to trotting around the desert looking glum and trying to avoid getting shot, with a notable lack of success. Which is a shame because the premise- the proposition itself- is so perfect. It would have been interesting see what a writer or a director with a real understanding of (or interest in) humanity- Peckinpah, for instance- would have made of this material.

by Tom Huddleston | Source: 35mm print
15 Mar 2006 8:33 AM | Submit Comment

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The Girl Next Door / USA / 2004

Entrepreneurial similarities to Risky Business notwithstanding, this teen fantasy is uncharacteristically sincere, to the extent that the employment of the title character (porn star) is rendered as an afterthought. This may not be an entirely fair appraisal, as the scenario founds a juvenile humor. But it is a well-executed story, however familiar and dressed in the genre’s ephemera.

by Rumsey Taylor | Source: Cable TV
14 Mar 2006 10:38 AM | Submit Comment

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Malek Khorshid / Iran / 1975

There is little information for this animated (presumably) 1975 film, conceived by painter Ali Akbar Sadeghi. This lack of information promotes the film’s mystique. It is a telling of the Sun King, a motif in which he battles a series of creatures evocative of Grendel, and his protection of a princess. There is no dialogue, only occasional animated calligraphic captions, and the soundtrack is entirely percussive. The result is absolutely beautiful.

by Rumsey Taylor | Source: Wholphin No. 1
14 Mar 2006 10:37 AM | Comments (1)

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Soldiers Pay / USA / 2004

David O Russell’s documentary on veterans of the Iraq war, Soldiers Pay (rather, the excerpt reviewed here) tells a scenario coincidental to that of Three Kings, and lends O Russell’s magnificent 1999 war film an improved contemporary relevance.

by Rumsey Taylor | Source: Wholphin No. 1
14 Mar 2006 10:34 AM | Submit Comment

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Al Gore Documentary / USA / 2000

The potential of this Spike Jonze film may be exaggerated in the liner notes of the first issue of Wholphin — despite the possible impartiality of the director, it retains the fragrance of campaign propaganda — but it does serve, in its brief duration, to establish Al Gore as a human being with more points of articulation than his 2000 Presidential campaign otherwise suggested.

by Rumsey Taylor | Source: Wholphin No. 1
14 Mar 2006 10:33 AM | Submit Comment

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The Baxter / USA / 2005

A promising premise told in a disappointingly flat manner. Perhaps that’s befitting a movie about the sort of guy who’s relegated to the background in most romantic comedies (think Ralph Bellamy), but given the talent involved, I expected more wit and antic pacing.

by Beth Gilligan | Source: Cable TV
13 Mar 2006 12:18 PM | Submit Comment

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Crash / USA / 2005

My reaction falls somewhere in between that of Roger Ebert and Scott Foundas. If that sounds strange (as there’s a rather large gulf between the two), it’s because I came away from the film with a certain degree of ambivalence. I don’t think it sheds a huge amount of light on how race is lived in America, but I felt that it did succeed in demonstrating that (as a far superior director once pointed out) everyone has their reasons. Plus, who knew that Ludacris was such a fine actor?

by Beth Gilligan | Source: Lions Gate DVD screener
13 Mar 2006 12:09 PM | Submit Comment

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The House on Sorority Row / USA / 1983

Uncharacteristically well-made early 80s slasher film, and thankfully, as is becoming of its pedigree, it is predictable, filled with Oblivious Future Victims, gratuitous nudity, and Second Deaths. It is also beautifully scored, and the soundtrack features New Wave relic Four Out of Five Doctors. These features eclipse the flaw of the slasher killer, taken nearly verbatim from Halloween.

by Rumsey Taylor | Source: VHS
13 Mar 2006 11:16 AM | Submit Comment

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The Baxter / USA / 2005

The Baxter is pure formula, a film whose narrative trajectory is announced in its opening scene. But it is a postmodern formula, a concept that relies upon romantic comedies of past eras; it is some sort of catharsis for the decades-worth of baxters left at the alter. (And although my knowledge of and interest in celebrities is virtually nonexistent, The Baxter is lent a metaphysical relevance in the result of Michael Showalter’s relationship with Michelle Williams, which expired after this film wrapped.) At the very least, this reinvigorated my interest to have The State on video in some form.

by Rumsey Taylor | Source: Cable TV
13 Mar 2006 11:15 AM | Submit Comment

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Crash / USA / 2004

Crash lacks both the desperation and comedy that characterize its peers in patchwork, ensemble exercises in the coincidental. Its sledgehammer irony is as lucent as it is contrived—a woman is pinned in her overturned SUV, and is rescued by the same racist, sexist policeman that molested her in a routine (and unwarranted) pull-over the previous evening. Her screaming demand for him to leave her alone is drowned out by the policeman’s instant compassion (and the film’s Eno-esque score). She’s won over, and her life is saved; it’s the sort of transformation persuasive to the sort of films that the Academy bestows with gold. This compassion is, however, stifled by liberal racism. If the dialogue were muted, save for racial slurs, profanities, and gun shots, it would be exactly the same film.

by Rumsey Taylor | Source: Lion’s Gate DVD Screener
13 Mar 2006 11:14 AM | Submit Comment

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M. Butterfly / USA / 1993

Full review.

by Rumsey Taylor | Source: Logo broadcast
13 Mar 2006 11:09 AM | Submit Comment

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The Squid And The Whale / USA / 2005

I’ll admit to feeling slightly underwhelmed by Baumbach’s debut feature, but that might just be because I was so looking forward to seeing it. It’s well written and beautifully acted, with a terrific sense of location- without doubt the best use of Brooklyn’s redstone streets since Paul Auster and Wayne Wang’s Smoke, with which this shares a certain literary sensibility and a focus on fathers and sons. But this is yet another American indie movie where characters have the occasional tendency to speak and act like they’re in an American indie movie, especially the children- when did pre- pubescent kids become unable to express themselves except through perverted sexuality? I suppose it’s the legacy of The Ice Storm, a much better film than those that followed- the brutal Happiness, and the wildly overrated Me And You And Everyone We Know. The Squid And The Whale lacks the self conscious cringiness of those two films, but the characters’ more extreme aspects do tend to unbalance what is otherwise a nicely judged, hugely likeable family drama.

by Tom Huddleston | Source: DVD
13 Mar 2006 5:20 AM | Comments (8)

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The Road To Guantanamo / UK / 2006

The campaign to close Camp Delta will gain few converts through Michael Winterbottom’s excellent dramatisation of three British mens’ experiences within those white fences. It’s a heartfelt piece of work, beautifully photographed, with real insight into the lives and hardships of British Moslems. But it’s also completely one sided- Winterbottom never questions the men’s (often unbelievable) stories, and opts simply to recount their version of events, eschewing any attempt at documentary objectivity. Part of the reason for this is the suspicion that all the voices who speak for the other side have a tendency to lie, as is proven repeatedly throughout the film. And Winterbottom is under no obligation to justify his directorial choices, he can make whatever film he chooses. But one does get the feeling of being slightly short changed, even hoodwinked, eager for hard evidence to back up the extraordinary events you’re witnessing onscreen. I can’t wait to see the reaction in America…

by Tom Huddleston | Source: Channel 4
13 Mar 2006 5:19 AM | Submit Comment

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The Defiant Ones / USA / 1958

An established classic, and rightly so. The Defiant Ones is the kind of film that gets written out of the newer histories as a piece of liberal propagandist hokum, as if that’s a bad thing- true, it lacks the stately grandeur of To Kill A Mockingbird, but then Kramer never was the subtlest of directors. But there’s a huge amount to enjoy here- Poitier’s unexpectedly terse, unlikeable performance, Curtis’s strange, fey twist on manliness. In a modern context the film says far more about gender than it does about race, and even takes a few jabs at religion- the most daring moment for contemporary audiences has to be the scene where a gang of bloodthirsty rednecks describe Poitier’s impending lynching as ‘a good ol’ fashioned prayer meeting’.

by Tom Huddleston | Source: DVD
13 Mar 2006 5:15 AM | Submit Comment

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A History of Violence / U.S.A. / 2005

Cronenberg’s film is very good, but nowhere near the masterpiece and the probing exploration of violence that its enthusiasts have made out. For me, the most telling moment of how the act of violence seeps into this idyllic family life was the moment when Tom slaps his son – we guess, from the look on Tom’s face, perhaps for the first time. I expected – from the seriousness with which the film takes itself – that this was the direction A History of Violence was going in. Instead, the graphic novel source asserted itself. The final section of the film, with Tom visiting his brother, seems particularly misconceived and unconvincing. A pity.

by Ian Johnston | Source: 35mm print
12 Mar 2006 11:44 PM | Comments (1)

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Pride & Prejudice / U.K. / 2005

A three-quarter successful adaptation. Overall, a clever, modern take on the Austen novel, although some of the changes are disconcerting (Mr Bennet as a gentleman farmer rather than a library recluse). Director Joe Wright has looked for visual ways to convey the story, with a roving camera that picks up snatches of conversation that in the novel are the subject of whole scenes. The downside is that all the characterisation tends to get flattened out; and figures like Mrs Bennet, Mr Collins, and Lady Catherine de Bourgh are far less a subject of criticism or a source of comedy. But the non-Austen additional dialogue is a real irritant – often far too modern and anachronistic and clashing with the lines from Austen that have been retained. And why has Lady Catherine’s magnificent “I take no leave of you, Miss Bennet” been replaced with an anodyne “I’ve never been thus treated in my life”? – unless there was a fear that the contemporary audience wouldn’t understand?

by Ian Johnston | Source: 35mm print
12 Mar 2006 11:35 PM | Submit Comment

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Domino / USA / 2005

Jerry Springer, 90210 co-stars, WB Reality TV-shows, Alf, Mickey Rourke, Mo’Nique, Christopher Walken, etc. How could anyone take this Tony Scott film seriously or not have some small amount of fun while watching it? I know I can at least appreciate the effort it puts towards expanding my vocabulary regarding racial classification.

by Chiranjit Goswami | Source: New Line DVD
12 Mar 2006 10:00 PM | Comments (1)

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Palindromes / USA / 2004

Todd Solondz’s pseudo-sequel to Welcome to the Dollhouse, Palindromes is a film about love and abortion. Aviva Victor, played by eight actors and actresses of all different sizes and shapes throughout the film, is thirteen and pregnant; her mother, Joyce, wants her to terminate the child, which she refers to as a “tumor.” Aviva, who wants children, soon relents, but during the procedure her uterus is scarred and she’s given a hysterectomy. Not long after, she runs away.

Palindromes is incredibly blunt and real, almost to the point of displeasure. Dialogue about abortion, pedophilia, and underage sex comes and goes like causal conversation. Anyone familiar with Solondz expects this rather open view of the world; those who aren’t will probably consider it a distracting waste of talent.

And there’s a lot of talent. Joyce, played by Ellen Barkin, and Mama Sunshine, portrayed by Debra Monk, are two well-acted contradictions. The first is compassionate and pro-choice but condescending—“You shouldn’t listen to everything Missy tells you just because she’s beautiful and popular,” she tells her daughter in the film’s beginning. Mama Sunshine, on the other hand, is a patriotic pro-life woman who doesn’t ever seem like the raving religious hypocrite she really is. A small appearance by character actor Richard Riehle as a disingenuous Christian doctor is similarly disturbing.

Palindromes is a great study in the limits of allowable filmmaking, as well as how much reality moviegoers will accept, but it’s not a curl-up-with-the-one-you-love kind of movie. Not by a mile.

by Adam Balz | Source: Wellspring DVD
11 Mar 2006 8:20 PM | Submit Comment

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Greendale / USA / 2003

An odd little artifact of the Ashcroft Age, blending neo-luddite Super8 and insidiously crisp video effects, with a gallery of amateur actors lip-synching to Neil Young. The film is peppered with many of Young’s preoccupations. Environmentalism is the most obvious of these (and, by the end of the film, the least interesting), but there’s also the emphasis on characters who tried to their best but they could not, or to put it another way, keep fuckin’ up.

The setting is a rural California enclave of the kind that Young has been waxing solipsistic about for decades. But the great surprise is that the music is almost all excellent (with the regrettable exception of the finale). I think I’ll go illegally download some of it right now!

One more thing: the young environmentalist protagonist’s name is Sun Green, which is also the name of the girl in the flower shop in Jarmusch’s Broken Flowers.

by Leo Goldsmith | Source: Shakey Pictures DVD Screener
10 Mar 2006 12:11 PM | Submit Comment

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Must Love Dogs / USA / 2005

Within 24 hours, by a total coincidence, I watched two Hollywood movies about love triangles centred upon supposedly strong (or at least interesting) women (Clare Danes and Diane Lane, respectively) struggling to make it in the modern world, falling for the wrong guy (who naturally has commitment issues) before finding ‘real’ love with a bumbling, awkward misfit who’s passionate about his work and good with his hands. There was even an identical scene in each movie, as the two lovers, about to clinch the deal, realise neither of them has contraception and are forced to improvise. The way each film deals with this dilemma says a lot about the differences between them. In Shopgirl, it’s a way for Jason Schwartzman’s character to show his selfish side, a shortcoming he will later remedy. In Must Love Dogs, it’s an excuse for an aimless, madcap chase across town in search of condoms, a lot of screeching tyres and wisecracking.

Shopgirl is not a good movie- it’s pretentious, lightweight, not a fraction as insightful as it thinks it is. But it benefits from excellent casting (with the exception of writer Steve Martin, who just comes across as empty and self centred) and a sense of genuine affection for its’ younger characters. And any film which not only features live music from Sun Kil Moon but casts frontman Mark Kozelek in a fairly major role (he’s the best thing in it) gets my vote.

Must Love Dogs is the worst John Cusack movie since One Crazy Summer a full 20 years ago. The man can usually coast by on charm alone, but here he’s hampered by an Oprah- winning screenplay and the fact that he’s playing second fiddle to Lane’s neurotic, lonely middle- aged male- fantasy schoolteacher. This is a film which seems to go out of its way to avoid doing anything remotely interesting. Even when potentially disruptive characters enter the frame- such as Stockard Channing’s lonely retiree- they are swiftly neutered into bland clichés like the rest of the pale, meandering cast.

by Tom Huddleston | Source: DVD
09 Mar 2006 5:35 AM | Submit Comment

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Shopgirl / USA / 2005

See above- Must Love Dogs.

by Tom Huddleston | Source: 35mm Print
09 Mar 2006 5:34 AM | Submit Comment

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The Lavender Hill Mob / U.K. / 1951

Another magical Ealing comedy, and perhaps the cuddliest heist movie of all time. There are sly satirical jabs- at the bumbling London police force, most prominently- and a fair amount of genuine suspense, but overall the mood is one of giddy, warm- hearted slapstick, leavened by an almost tangible, wistful longing for the good life. Like Passport To Pimlico, the film takes place amid the lingering rubble and desolation of postwar London, and like that film the characters here yearn to set themselves above the crowd, but naturally find this dream impossible- in Ealing we’re all equal, and that’s the point.

by Tom Huddleston | Source: DVD
09 Mar 2006 5:13 AM | Submit Comment

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Junebug / USA / 2005

The one technique I love the most in Morrison’s film is the muffled voices that are masked by walls within the house itself as the camera continues to create distance from the viewer and the subject. This forces the audience to struggle to hear the characters’ dialogue, furthering the concept of feeling slightly alien within this community. I just hope we aren’t supposed to assume the film itself is a piece of outsider art.

by Chiranjit Goswami | Source: Sony Picture Classics DVD
09 Mar 2006 12:01 AM | Submit Comment

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Saw 2 / USA / 2005

Saw II hits a snag in that it relapses into an old formula: the disciple that will one day continue the teacher’s work. Until then we’ve rather hesitantly regarded Jigsaw as a nonviolent educator; when we’re offered the final scene, as inspired as it may be, Jigsaw’s self-established pedestal of good intentions lowers into the realm of the archetypical serial killer, something myself and audiences have become tired with.

by Adam Balz | Source: Lions Gate DVD
07 Mar 2006 12:50 PM | Submit Comment

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Bring Me the Head of Alfredo Garcia / Traiganme la cabeza de Alfredo Garcia / USA/Mexico / 1974

Sam Peckinpah’s Bring Me the Head of Alfredo Garcia ranks as one of the most confounding uses of morality in film (though it still pales in comparison to Straw Dogs). A graphic spin on the road movie, we’re also given a strong study in the workings of a human mind. Bennie, an alcoholic musician, must make compromises between money and honesty, love and loyalty, respect for life and apathy towards the dead; Elita is the Bonnie to his Clyde, beautiful and hardened but tired of the distant life they’ve led.

Considered Peckinpah’s forgotten masterwork, Alfredo Garcia’s scenes of violence are few and gentle compared to the blood-and-bullet splendor of The Wild Bunch. The body count here hovers around twenty—a paltry number considering the director’s reputation. Nonetheless, it stands as a testament to his ability to infuse a film with style, heart, and romantic flare.

by Adam Balz | Source: MGM DVD
07 Mar 2006 12:39 PM | Submit Comment

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Cremaster 3 / USA / 2002

In all honesty Matthew Barney’s Cremaster 3—the final installment in his five-part art-over-cinema cycle—deserves its own review rather than a short blurb in a screening log. But I wouldn’t know where to begin.

Perhaps one the most visually stunning films ever made, it’s also one of the most confusing. A three-hour piece of media art, Cremaster 3 relies on the stilted, silent performances of writer-director Matthew Barney as the Entered Apprentice, sculptor Richard Serra as stone-faced architect Hiram Abiff, and Nesrin Karanough as the emaciated and gender-reassigned Gary Gilmore, among others. We’re given scenes of cars demolishing one another in the Chrysler Building, decomposing horses running a derby, a man expelling teeth out his intestines. But there’s never any dialogue; instead, much of the sound comes from a club maitre D’ and his elevator harp.

With each moment we’re given something new and unexpected, keeping us spellbound. We may not understand Barney’s intentions, but confusion has never been more enjoyable. If there’s a deeper meaning here, it’s lost on me.

by Adam Balz | Source: 35mm print
07 Mar 2006 12:32 PM | Submit Comment

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The Flower Of Evil / La Fleur du Mal / France / 2003

Another addition to the familiar Chabrol world: the French bourgeoisie; a strong sense of locale; the standard couple of scenes at the dinner table; psychology rather than action/violence (the climactic murder is almost irrelevant to the film as a whole); the grand stylist at work (the camera’s movement down the tree-lined path to the beach as an image of the film’s excavation of the past). Although it never digs as deeply – emotionally, thematically, or in terms of acting performance – as Chabrol’s last great masterpiece La Cérémonie, The Flower of Evil, within the limits Chabrol sets for his world and for his cinema, works in a highly satisfying way.

by Ian Johnston | Source: Palm Pictures DVD
07 Mar 2006 12:13 PM | Submit Comment

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The Brothers and Sisters of the Toda Family / Todake no kyodai / Japan / 1941

Ozu’s social/political conservatism can be something of a barrier, but at least it’s to his credit that this conservatism evolved with the times. So, in 1937 the role of the young female character in What Did The Lady Forget? is to teach the male protagonist the virtues of slapping his stroppy wife, but twenty years later in Equinox Flower it is to teach the paterfamilias how he must accept his daughter’s own choice of a husband, rather than insist on an arranged marriage. Shin Saburi, the actor playing Equinox Flower’s father, turns up as the initially feckless younger son in Toda Family, and one of the fascinations of the film is the glimpses of actors whose faces are more familiar as their older selves in the more famous Ozu classics of the fifties.

But Toda Family truly reflects the time of its making, a product of Japanese militarism’s wartime propaganda — but one which never mentions the war, although China is bizarrely offered as a destination for the morally pure characters to escape to. The best part of the film is the middle section, depicting with humour and understanding the way the widowed mother and younger daughter and shunted from one family household to another. It clearly looks forward to aspects of Tokyo Story.

The moralism of Shojiro’s attack on his siblings is too narrow in conception and is one that a modern audience is resistant to. And it seems that the ideological weight was too much for Ozu himself. The final section collapses into an arranged-marriage comedy, with Shojiro in the very last shot literally running down a beach away from us and the film.

by Ian Johnston | Source: Panorama DVD
06 Mar 2006 12:20 PM | Comments (1)

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Edvard Munch / Norway / Sweden / 1976

An absolutely stunning and heartbreaking film, perhaps the best — certainly the most exhaustive — portrait of an artist and his time on film. Here’s a full review.

by Leo Goldsmith | Source: Project X / New Yorker DVD
03 Mar 2006 5:48 PM | Submit Comment

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Be Here to Love Me / A Film About Townes Van Zandt / USA / 2004

Along with the Xenakis, another tale of death and resurrection, and the freedom of the human will to chose one’s fate, this time in the form of a fairly level-headed film about Townes Van Zandt. The heartache of those who miss Van Zandt (mostly his kids and his country-music colleagues like Steve Earle and Guy Clark) is palpable and even a little distressing, and the film charts the songwriter’s 30-year self-destruction more or less inch-by-inch. But there is so much of the charming country balladeer in the film (through almost non-stop recordings, home movies, and cheesy TNN guest spots) that one can’t help be caught up in the romance of addiction and songsmithery just a little bit. This intoxication is quickly sobered, however, when one gets a glance of Townes’ reconstructive dentistry: almost his entire set of teeth had to be replaced after they were knocked out with a ball peen hammer, the only solution to an airplane glue-sniffing mishap.

by Leo Goldsmith | Source: Palm Pictures DVD Screener
03 Mar 2006 11:56 AM | Submit Comment

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La Légende d’Eer / France / 2005

Not so much a film as a slide-show, Bruno Rastoin’s document of Iannis Xenakis’ 1978 gesamtkunstwerk La Légende d’Eer (commissioned for the opening of the Centre Georges Pompidou in Paris) captures only some of what was likely an overwhelming sensory experience. An enormous red tent-like construction, incorporating 1680 lights, 4 lasers, 400 mirrors, and 7 channels of loud audio tape, all bombarding the audience with the births of stars, wartime air-raid, and other explosions in the sky, the experience itself must have been quite spectacular. Rastoin’s reconstruction offers only a fraction of this, but the live audio mixing on offer at Anthology Film Archives tonight and tomorrow (tweeting, scraping, blaring, and exploding through Anthology’s new sound system) at very least accounts for the sonic portion of the work.

For the uninitiated, here is an obituary for Xenakis.

by Leo Goldsmith | Source: Digital projection + live 7-channel audio mix
03 Mar 2006 11:41 AM | Submit Comment

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Enduring Love / UK / 2004

This intriguing but somewhat aimless adaptation of Ian McEwan’s novel centers around Joe, played rather inscrutably by Bond- to- be Daniel Craig, a nice middle class writer whose life spirals out of control following (yes!) an horrific hot air balloon accident. There are moments of real beauty here, most notably the opening ten minutes, and a scene towards the end which contains one of the most startling, horrific shocks I’ve ever witnessed. But in between the film rambles, introducing characters and dropping them, seemingly for no other reason than they were in the book, the presence of which can be felt in every scene. McEwan’s writing is literary and persuasive, and it seems the creative team were seduced by his prose into thinking they could work this onscreen- for the most part, they were wrong.

by Tom Huddleston | Source: Sky Movies
03 Mar 2006 9:22 AM | Submit Comment

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Serenity / USA / 2005

An unashamedly lowbrow treat, and one of my favourite films of last year. Hopefully the increasing prevalence (and descending cost) of CGI will make films like this a more regular occurrence- epic scale but low budget, an intelligent, heartfelt script backed up with the action and FX necessary to sell the story on the open market. It’s great to see a big screen project for Joss Whedon finally pay off (creatively at least), after the hack’n’slash jobs done on his scripts for Alien Resurrection and X- Men. His work here as writer and director is wonderful, the film effortlessly fulfilling its’ role as closure for his cancelled TV series Firefly without shutting out the uninitiated. The only sad note is that the film’s relative failure at the US box office seems to stifle any chance of a sequel- there’s life in this universe yet.

by Tom Huddleston | Source: DVD
03 Mar 2006 9:21 AM | Submit Comment

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Roger Dodger / USA / 2002

A welcome repeat viewing for one of the most surprising and effective American indies of recent years. Setting itself up as an icy, sarcastic social critique comedy in the Neil Labute tradition, the film turns a sharp corner midway through the first act and becomes something altogether warmer, sweeter and more engaging. Campbell Scott is remarkable as the hateful- tragic title character, Jesse Eisenberg lovably hopeless as his inexperienced nephew looking for help with the ladies. The central section, as the two visit a bar, a party and a whorehouse in an attempt to get laid, is textbook screen writing, enlightening and emotional in equal measure. It makes you wonder if writer- director Dylan Kidd (here making his debut) couldn’t have trimmed down the opening, dropped the vaguely unconvincing coda and set the entire film within one 24 hour period. But even as it is this is a lovely film, well worth revisiting.

by Tom Huddleston | Source: Sky Movies
03 Mar 2006 9:20 AM | Submit Comment

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War of the Worlds / USA / 2005

Still the only Spielberg film to really win me over since Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade, and one of my favorites of last year, War of the Worlds is an ugly jab of misanthropy and a sneering corrective to all the post-9/11 group therapy. Tom Cruise is astonishingly good, channeling (and redeeming) his own deadbeat dad from Jersey, as he tries to protect his wary kids from genocidal aliens. And the rest of humanity? Fuck them; it’s time to look out for Numero Uno. Even the patently ridiculous Hollywood ending — one of the mos