Having a soft spot for revenge dramas, I was led to Lady Snowblood with promises that it would top them all, including Tarantino’s recent adaptation. Yes, there’s a cornucopia of bloody stumps, great soundtrack, well-done choreography, and gallons of blood offered to us in geysers, but it all seems somewhat overdone (well, more overdone than usual). Not to downplay Fujita’s ingenuity as a director—he’s an undeniable trailblazer when it comes to cinematic vengeance. But having seen and loved both installments of Kill Bill, I feel like I’ve already seen this.
by Adam Balz | Source: DVD
29 Apr 2006 11:45 PM | Submit Comment
With the exception of the taut opening section, I thought this rather arbitrary and silly when I saw it upon its initial home video release. And the inclusion of Marilyn Manson kept me from revisiting it for the better part of a decade.
Now, with the hindsight of Mulholland Dr and some recent Twin Peaks-watching, I find it a far more satisfying and intelligible experience, with lots of Lynchian themes in full blossom and a handful of excellent performances. It’s no small feat to coax a good turn from a limp fish like Bill Pullman, but actors like Patricia Arquette and Robert Loggia are given the rare opportunity to show off their chops. Arquette in particular does some fine Naomi Wattsing, especially in her notorious stripping-at-gunpoint scene, in which she morphs from a girl in peril to a femme fatale in a single shot.
Still, Mulholland Dr is, for me, the far superior film with many of these themes more fully realized and a more forceful splicing of the generic with the bizzare. And the last shot of Lost Highway seems to be totally unnecessary.
The Region 1 DVD is awful.
by Leo Goldsmith | Source: BMG DVD
29 Apr 2006 7:36 PM | Comments (6)
Not nearly as bad as I had been led to believe, and pretty scary, too, but not nearly as good as Gore Verbinski’s previous version or presumably Nakata’s original films (which I haven’t seen). Still, I’d even watch Naomi Watts in a Nora Ephron movie if she deigned to do one, and it’s nice to see that that kid hasn’t grown out of his creepy old-man look. But how do you think they explain away those two corpses after the movie’s over?
by Leo Goldsmith | Source: Cable broadcast
29 Apr 2006 7:23 PM | Submit Comment
An unremittingly ugly film,in which every character is at some point covered with blood, filth, sweat, and flies. Written by Nick Cave, with the same style and themes that mark his album, Murder Ballads, this Aussie horse opera doesn’t so much present an exotic, bizarro version of the Wild West as the apotheosis of it: an unforgiving landscape, a new frontier of criminality and libidinous appetites, and a politics of submission and civilization (especially of the “wild” aboriginal peoples). Flavorsome ambience indeed, but the film doesn’t quite come through on its promises. The film’s resolution and the fates of its characters should be apparent from the beginning, and the evil Burns brothers (played by hairy, brown-toothed Guy Pearce and Danny Huston) never truly reveal themselves as the brutal bastards they are rumored to be as perpetrators of “the Hopkins Outrage.” Still, the screenplay constructs at least one utterly fascinating character, which in turn allows Ray Winstone to deliver a career-high performance as a conflicted, portly lawman determined to civilize the savages and protect his wife from all the rape and blood-and-brain-spilling around them.
by Leo Goldsmith | Source: First Look 35mm Print
29 Apr 2006 7:15 PM | Submit Comment
Rewatching this early horror classic, and on the big screen no less, I was astounded at how well it holds up after all these years—the graphic violence, especially Kong’s jungle rampage, elicited many palpable winces from the audience, and the superb gigantic-gorilla animation endeared us to the sympathetic creature. What struck me most, however, was how lean the Ann Darrow storyline is, particularly when compared with the 2005 remake. Instead of Jackson’s lengthy introduction, for instance, which takes considerable pains to flesh out Darrow’s character, Kong under the helm of Merian C. Cooper and Ernest B. Schoedsack jumps right into the adventure—we meet Denham, we meet Ann, and the journey begins. In addition, the idea of the captive beauty reciprocating the beast’s love—a central thematic element in Jackson’s version—is all but nonexistent in Cooper and Schoedsack’s original.
Without question, these storytelling variations result in Naomi Watt’s Darrow emerging as a character significantly more complex than Fay Wray’s. By limiting their leading lady to the strictures of a one-dimensional scream queen, however, Cooper and Schoedsack ensured that their picture remained a tightly wound, Frankenstein-esque horror story—the tale of a misunderstood, mistreated, and, most significantly, unloved monster driven to its death by circumstances beyond its control. In the hands of Jackson, this grim depiction of humanity at its exploitative worst is softened by Darrow’s genuine affection for Kong, and somewhat diluted over the film’s extensive runtime. Jackson’s Kong is unquestionably a superb adventure, and a loving tribute, but Cooper and Schoedsack’s dark, terse tale endures as an incomparable masterpiece of horror.
by Thomas Scalzo | Source: 35mm print
29 Apr 2006 6:58 PM | Submit Comment
Where have you gone, Rick Moranis?
by Leo Goldsmith | Source: Cable broadcast
29 Apr 2006 6:53 PM | Comments (3)
This captivating tale of newsman Edward R. Murrow at loggerheads with Senator Joseph McCarthy offers a much-welcomed reminder that the power of film lies not in lavish special effects or elaborate set designs, but in good writing. The script here (by George Clooney and Grant Heslov) is so finely wrought and tightly focused that we hardly notice the dearth of exterior establishing shots or the simple, stage-play style sets. Instead, our attention is engaged by character and story. Subtle touches throughout, such as producer Fred Friendly surreptitiously tapping Murrow’s leg to let the anchor know that the cameras are rolling, or Murrow clenching his teeth the moment a difficult segment wraps, serve to enhance the intimacy of the film, and humanize this vitriolic episode in U.S. history. As the story ends, Murrow warns that we must not be so blinded by the glitzy entertainment possibilities of television that we forget its latent power to inform, instruct, and enlighten the populace. Clooney and Heslov’s script offers the same reminder for motion pictures.
by Thomas Scalzo | Source: Warner Home Video DVD
29 Apr 2006 1:21 PM | Submit Comment
Missing, my introduction to the notorious Costa-Gavras, was nothing if not prodigious. Having watched a DVD of Amen. come and go from my possession, the victim of restrictive library circulation and my bad schedule, I waited with impatience for this film to hit the local theatre. The wait, as I now realize, was well worth it.
With solid acting by both Jack Lemmon and Sissy Spacek, Missing is the story every conscientious American wants to hear but at the same time dreads. Indeed, there’s an unspoken deliberation on-screen over our national identity. Men like Phil Putnam, who seems to embody the world’s perception of the United States as furtively deceitful, is balanced against Beth and Charlie Horman, the uncomplicated travelers who want peace and political serenity. Costa-Gavras never takes sides—while the American heavies are brutal and deceptive, Ed Horman is a compassionate everyman who awakens with horror from his patriotic coma to understand why—something that embodies good sociopolitical cinema. Two of the film’s most haunting scenes—a woman being rushed into a dark car by government operatives to the revulsion of almost no one, and dead bodies splayed against a glass ceiling—are perfect examples of art conveying the horrors of oppression. There’s no need for the subtle lecturing exemplified by von Trier’s Manderlay, a film that I also enjoy—the skillful acting and evenhanded story say it all.
by Adam Balz | Source: DVD
28 Apr 2006 9:46 PM | Submit Comment
Having never seen Pretty Woman, I’m hesitant to make comparisons between Garry Marshall’s take on client-hooker love and Park Jin-pyo’s. Nonetheless, You Are My Sunshine seems to borrow heavily from American films, most notably in the monotonous, banal storyline and incessant use of variances of the title theme. Though the acting is superb, almost transcendent, the actors seemed dragged down by an overworked social message. But the director, who rose to notoriety in 2002 with Too Young to Die, his explicit examination of elderly love, has the right idea. Now if he could only forget about the billion-dollar industry across the ocean and return to what makes foreign films so great.
by Adam Balz | Source: Bootleg DVD
28 Apr 2006 6:31 PM | Comments (1)
If this were titled The Bloodening, it would be the perfect exploitation film.
by Rumsey Taylor | Source: Cable TV
27 Apr 2006 9:42 AM | Submit Comment
Finder’s Fee, the directorial debut of Survivor host Jeff Probst, is chocked full of those cliches and coincidences you’d expect from a first-time director. Not that the movie is bad—in fact, Probst manages to draw out the story rather well, confining the events to a sole Manhattan apartment. I can best describe it as a mesh of humanity and suspicion, of Hitchcock’s Rope and D.L. Coburn’s famously profane The Gin Game, all simplified for the twenty-something audience.
The plot focuses on a card game between four friends and a newcomer, the owner of a lost wallet played with masterful reservation by James Earl Jones. At stake are five lottery tickets—one of which is worth six million dollars. What ensues is an unwinding of civility and acquaintance as, more and more, they all begin to suspect one another of dishonesty.
Since viewing the film, I’ve enjoyed reading online posts deriding Probst for plot holes and editing errors. While Probst does make a few expected mistakes—an umbrella that changes color, a pizza that mysteriously never appears—he does do something right: he forces us to think. Never have I finished a film with so many vital questions left unanswered. But it’s all part of the film’s amateurish magic. We’re left to put the pieces together, to read the characters as though we ourselves were seated at the card table waiting for the others to show their hands. I’ll be interested to see what Probst does after he’s left the islands and jungles for good.
by Adam Balz | Source: DVD
26 Apr 2006 5:43 PM | Comments (1)
by Leo Goldsmith | Source: 35mm Print
26 Apr 2006 1:27 PM | Submit Comment
A shaky bootleg of the ABC commissioned, Dylan edited version, not the long rumoured Pennebaker cut (from which extensive footage was used in Scorsese’s No Direction Home). Entertaining, informative, occasionally hilarious, Dylan attempts to show through editing the sheer random insanity of life on tour. The crowds boo and cheer in equal measure, celebrities pop up for one line then vanish, songs stop abruptly half way through then just as abruptly pick up again. It’s the green room footage that appeals most- Dylan and Robbie Robertson running through new songs and covers, prefiguring the simplicity and homeliness of the forthcoming Basement Tapes material, incongruous amid the speed- fuelled, wild mercury chaos of the ongoing tour.
by Tom Huddleston | Source: Bootleg DVD
26 Apr 2006 10:40 AM | Submit Comment
Another wild card from late night Cable, this was screened without subtitles, rendering the lengthy scenes in French and Swedish completely incomprehensible. I managed to follow most of the plot- concerning an televised international ‘Peace Game’ which has taken the place of war in a crypto- fascist future society- but had to read a few synopses online to understand the finer points.
It’s an ominous, unforgiving film, shot in pseudo- documentary style like director Peter Watkins’ earlier masterpiece The War Game , but eschewing almost every convention of common narrative cinema- there are no real characters to root for, no build up and certainly no climax, and to make matters worse the parochial, initially informative voiceover soon starts lying to us. The game itself makes no sense, either to the audience or the players, actions consistently lack consequences and rules are randomly broken. Intended as a critique of society in general and warmongering in particular, the film succeeds brilliantly on every level except one- it’s very hard to care what happens next.
by Tom Huddleston | Source: Cable TV
26 Apr 2006 10:39 AM | Submit Comment
An enjoyably twisty thriller, but a mile away from James Ellroy’s vicious, grimy novel. Curtis Hanson’s LA feels bright and twinkly, there’s no real threat here, no flies or sweat or toil. And the political edges are filed off, too- Ellroy’s attacks on, among others, Walt Disney and Howard Hughes clearly weren’t considered suitable for mainstream audiences. A shame, because there’s a lot more to be said here, about the birth of a city and, by extension, a nation, about exploitation and the corruption of innocence, about the masks powerful men construct to hide their true faces. This is a film about heroes- morally compromised, dark- edged heroes, perhaps, but genuine red- blooded American citizens nonetheless. The shamefully undercooked happy ending only throws the filmmakers’ lack of ambition into sharp relief.
by Tom Huddleston | Source: BBC1
26 Apr 2006 10:37 AM | Comments (1)
A genuine masterpiece. Director Shane Meadows channels Ken Loach and Sergio Leone with a touch of Mad Max, an effortless genre- blend that feels like the most natural thing in the world. Paddy Considine’s central performance is terrifying but still somehow sympathetic, dead- eyed and dedicated but still wracked with a very personal anguish, displaying a level of control reminiscent of Pacino in the 70’s, the absolute inhabitation of an unforgiving character. The supporting players barely even seem to be acting, you get the feeling they really live like this; the improvisational nature of many scenes serving to heighten the horror of what follows. The photography is beautiful, the contrasted urban- rural landscape frighteningly familiar to those of us who grew up in it. All in all, the finest British film of the century so far.
by Tom Huddleston | Source: DVD
26 Apr 2006 10:36 AM | Submit Comment
A minor disappointment, not as rich and twisty as I’d been led to expect, but entertaining enough nonetheless. Spike Lee can, has and will do better.
by Tom Huddleston | Source: 35mm Print
26 Apr 2006 10:34 AM | Submit Comment
A compilation of concert footage, interviews, and narration by producers Peter Gabriel and Bobby McFerrin, this 57-minute film spends too much time on gyrating hips and back-up dancers when it should be focusing on the history and social significance of singers like Fela Kuti, whose songs gave a voice to the downtrodden and oppressed of impoverished Nigeria. In one instance, a short introduction to Fela segues into a stone-faced Hispanic man singing about shooting his girl with a pistol (the song climaxes with “…I’ll blow your head off…BAM! BAM! BAM!”), transforming this into the most uncomfortable and poorly-constructed documentary I’ve ever seen. If you’ve ever wondered why there aren’t more music-oriented programs on television, this is why.
by Adam Balz | Source: VHS
24 Apr 2006 7:01 PM | Submit Comment
I might be one of the few that doesn’t find the narrative of Mr. Arkadin to be all that troublesome (though, it should be noted that I never find plot-holes to be that annoying unless the point of the film is plot). What does irritate me is that all the momentum that Welles builds up with considerable effort screeches to an abrupt halt once we are subjected to a maddeningly irritating scene involving Akim Tamiroff’s dying petty crook drone on about his appetite for liver. It might be comical for a moment, but then it becomes painful to endure, and always causes me to become impatient with Welles’s decisions as a director. Otherwise his film could be appreciated for his frame compositions alone and probably should be forgiven for its poor dialogue sync.
by Chiranjit Goswami | Source: Criterion Collection DVD
24 Apr 2006 2:55 PM | Submit Comment
Though it feels a few years out of date and its arguments appears to mirror the strategies of its protagonist a little too often, Jason Reitman’s film features what may be the finest Aaron Eckhart performance yet committed to celluloid. Eckhart seems to have mastered the art of making arrogance appealing and charismatic in his own unique way. It’s a gift that is utterly compelling, whether Eckhart is suiting up here as tobacco lobbyist Nick Naylor or as police interrogator Stan Krolak in Sean Penn’s “actors’ movie” The Pledge. A great deal of credit for Eckhart’s performance should probably be given to Reitman as well, who deftly handles all his actors. Unfortunately his skills of satire aren’t as polished.
by Chiranjit Goswami | Source: Fox Searchlight Pictures 35mm Print
24 Apr 2006 2:34 PM | Submit Comment
Hitchcock’s penultimate film takes the director back to the Covent Garden fruit and veg market where his father was a greengrocer and back to the premise and preoccupations of The Lodger. A grim orgy of perversion and black humor, the film is a lurid, Technicolor kaleidoscope that synesthetically blends Bob Rusk’s lusty bites of fruit with his hungry assaults on women. There are great performances all around, with Anna Massey as an angular (if unlikely) Cockney barmaid, Barry Foster as the dandy murderer, and Jon Finch as the wrong man, as compellingly truculent here as he is in Polanski’s Macbeth.
It should also be noted that this, like A Fish Called Wanda, provides a rare cinematic defense of the merits of British cuisine.
by Leo Goldsmith | Source: Universal Pictures DVD
24 Apr 2006 12:40 PM | Submit Comment
The Magnolia DVD cover sports the murky visage of a ghoul, which does not appear in the film. And the newly minted trailer for the remake is replete with the same sort of apparently malevolent ghouls—these are an embellishment on the original material. In all, Kurosawa’s Pulse is not the visceral horror film that this promotion suggests; it is, however, deeply frightening.
Its subscription to the horror genre is rendered somewhat of an afterthought, but it does employ – if not epitomizes – the characterizing aspects of J-Horror. Several scenes result in tangible dread (I recall few recent films in which I’ve been afraid to look at the screen), but Pulse’s most frightening aspect is its cynicism and alienation. It is for this reason, along with the film’s lack of exploitation, that Pulse doubles as a responsibly sympathetic address to a particular social disillusionment spawned, it contends, in technology.
by Rumsey Taylor | Source: Magnolia DVD
24 Apr 2006 11:10 AM | Submit Comment
This I found to be the most compelling of Peter Greenaway’s short films. At 41 minutes, it’s ostensibly a visual cataloguing of 92 maps, each of which is seen, and most are scrutinized in close-up pans. This film introduces Greenaway’s meticulous numerology (specifically the number 92, which figures prominently in his recent The Tulse Luper Suitcases), the character Tulse Luper (ditto), several of his graphic works (he has constructed/painted each of the aforementioned maps), and a pulsing, rhythmic score by Michael Nyman. It’s brief yet immeasurably dense.
by Rumsey Taylor | Source: Zeitgeist Video DVD
24 Apr 2006 11:04 AM | Submit Comment
Excellent Western adventure featuring Jimmy Stewart as a reformed outlaw trying to start a new life in the wild ninteenth century Northwest. Replete with attacks from the natives, unsavory gold diggers, traitorous gunslingers, and midnight ambushes—and the talents of Stewart, Arthur Kennedy, Julia Adams, and Rock Hudson—the film is a gripping yarn from start to finish. Makes me want to sip some coffee by the fire and sleep out under the stars.
by Thomas Scalzo | Source: Universal VHS
23 Apr 2006 9:27 PM | Submit Comment
John Bryant’s short film, the centerpiece of the Brooklyn Underground Film Festival’s comedy program, is part vanity-project, part PSA, and part grisly lesson in what not to do in case of an emergency.
Despite firkins of blood and Bryant’s persistent shrieking of the film’s title, it’s actually a lot more subtle than one might guess (indie film-nerd joke: the title card for “John Bryant LLC” in the opening credits), with a half-serious morale and some deft use of photo-studio family portraits.
It is, of course, much better to watch the film than have it described to you, so if you missed it at the festival, you can watch it here.
by Leo Goldsmith | Source: Digital Projection
23 Apr 2006 4:40 PM | Submit Comment
Since their collaboration on the brilliant Mr. Show, David Cross and Bob Odenkirk’s brand of endearing, yet mildly sociopathic humor has found homes in a number of places: the beloved Arrested Development and the somewhat baffling Curious George for Cross; Miller beer ads and indie films for Odenkirk.
As The Pity Card demonstrates, indie filmmaking is a suitable venue for Odenkirk’s slightly more lovable and erudite comedy. Screened in the comedy program at this week’s Brooklyn Underground Film Festival but originally intended as a TV pilot, the short film tracks the fallout of a first date at a Holocaust museum. A patently unromantic plan to begin with, the results worsen when it becomes apparent that this is the date’s first exposure to the history of Nazi-Jewish relations during the Second World War. (“More people should know about this!” declares the comically stereotypical blonde that is Simon’s date.) In an attempt to both comfort his date and better his own prospects, Simon inadvertently uses his status as “survivor” (and hence the titular “pity card”) to get laid.
This sort of comedic grand guignol (especially with the Holocaust-as-punchline hilarity) is by now familiar to viewers of Curb Your Enthusiasm, but Odenkirk and his cast infuse the situation with a surprising amount of credibility. This is no doubt because the short follows two nebbish and mostly sincere twentysomethings, and not the fatuous, rich and semi-famous Brentwood residents of David’s series. But it also helps that Odenkirk adds the right dosages of surrealism, as in an impromptu front-yard wrestling match and a lengthy cataloguing of communicable infections.
by Leo Goldsmith | Source: HBO Digital Projection
23 Apr 2006 4:19 PM | Submit Comment
Along with House of 1000 Corpses opening night double-feature in Reverse Shot’s weeklong program of the best features of 2005.
bly more artful than its predecessor and also more morally complex, Zombie’s second feature picks up where House of 1000 Corpses left off but shifts genres entirely. A pastiche of Peckinpah, ‘70’s neo-Westerns, and chooglin’ classic rock, The Devil’s Rejects makes an astonishing moral pirouette in its final act, proving that the only thing more reprehensible than a family of inbred psycopaths is William Forsythe, as a vengeful, vigilante lawman acting in the name of God. Utterly repellent and highly recommended.
by Leo Goldsmith | Source: Lion’s Gate 35mm Print
23 Apr 2006 3:20 PM | Comments (3)
Along with The Devil’s Rejects opening night double-feature in Reverse Shot’s weeklong program of the best features of 2005.
e exercises are at least good for a few hearty, knowing chuckles, but few are as genuinely unnerving and unpleasant as this one. Playing upon and updating many of the social stereotypes common to such films, Zombie clearly relishes the idea of setting backward, backwood country-folk against fanboy nerds. Perhaps my more horror-versed colleagues will disagree, but it seems to me that herein lies the paradoxical and cyclical nature of shock and horror. The film’s bourgeois horror fanboys, in search of sinister simulacra, receive a zap of real nastiness (being tortured, operated upon, and sutured to a fish) at the hands of inbred freaks and/or evil doctors; this, in turn, feeds the appetites for blood and dismemberment of the fanboys watching the film; the cycle continues.
Debate, if you like, the social value of such a cycle of shock, but I, for one, was appalled out of my complacency. I went into this suspecting that the number 1,000 was hyperbolic. It isn’t.
by Leo Goldsmith | Source: Lion’s Gate 35mm Print
23 Apr 2006 3:09 PM | Comments (4)
Finally receiving a proper US theatrical release after two years in limbo, this 2004 festival favorite features some lovely performances from a near-ugly Maggie Cheung and a near-cuddly Nick Nolte. As a story of junkie redemption, it seems a bit old-fashioned (and compares unfavorably with last year’s Little Fish), but director Olivier Assayas’ clear empathy with his actors and characters and his wonderfully atmospheric mise-en-scène make the film quite compelling and, with its assertion that people can change if they need to, very encouraging.
One thing’s for sure: Maggie Cheung has no future as a singer.
by Leo Goldsmith | Source: Palm Pictures 35mm Print
21 Apr 2006 12:15 PM | Submit Comment
Old Columbia TriStar VHS sleeves – discerned by red borders, and the film title in an all-caps serif on one side – contain the most cohesive plot descriptions on the back, which is to say, a film’s key plot points are often spoiled. I sort of admire this trait; the copy on an old Columbia TriStar sleeve is regularly more unembellished and less hyperbolic than that of a Criterion disc.
Which brings me to Sex & Fury, a film about sex and fury. And that’s about all you need to know if you’re moderately interested in watching it. I’ll add to this benchmark of succinctness a description of an early scene: the film centers on a renegade, orphaned, and often nude female nouveau samurai. She is interrupted by a gang in the middle of a bath, and proceeds to off them, with only a sword. If this doesn’t sufficiently describe this film’s signature exploitation, then know that this occurs outside, and in slow motion.
by Rumsey Taylor | Source: Panik House DVD
21 Apr 2006 10:22 AM | Submit Comment
As gorgeous as rumor has it. I found Linda’s voice-over simultaneously moving and grating, but am curious to see how a second viewing would affect me (and am guilty of preferring Sissy in Badlands anyway). But the natural world is glorious and overshadows the human drama, from the eerie onslaught of the locusts to the windblown, sundrenched wheat fields.
Also see Days of Heaven
by Jenny Jediny | Source: 35MM Theatrical Print
20 Apr 2006 1:11 PM | Submit Comment
Opening Night film at the Brooklyn Underground Film Festival.
Adán Aliaga’s feature documentary follows the lives of Marita, a 75-year old widow, and Marina, the 6-year old granddaughter in her charge, in the weeks before they must move out of Marita’s cozy, plaster-built home of 50-odd years. Shot in lurid, acrobatic DV, Aliaga’s film is surprisingly, sometimes aggressively intimate, capturing Marina’s hilarious juvenile flailings and Marita’s wearying attempts to rein them in.
In portraying these two people, Aliaga ventures some bold editing strategies and artful camerawork, but the result is emotionally effective without being maudlin. Especially in the portrayal of Marita, the film might well have played up the pathos of her situation — being coaxed from the house her husband built a half-century ago, in order to make way for some luxury flats. But Aliaga instead opts for a perspective closer to that of Marina’s: dreamy, hyperactive, easily distracted, but always affectionate. And even if the instrumental indie rock that scores the film is of questionable relevance, it nonetheless evokes the dusty, sun-dazed qualities of Marita and Marina’s Spanish town and the ambling, repetitive, but pleasant life they lead there.
by Leo Goldsmith | Source: Digital projection
20 Apr 2006 12:58 PM | Submit Comment
by Leo Goldsmith | Source: Image Entertainment DVD
19 Apr 2006 1:25 PM | Submit Comment
I love the conversation Kieslowski inspires – leaving the theatre I went from hearing the words “exquisite” and “incredible” to two exasperated women trying to figure out why the girl wept so much over her twin. Oy. The film is lovely, as much of a visceral experience as any of the Trois Coleurs, and invites us to trace Kieslowski’s themes even further back into his career. Irene Jacob gives a remarkable performance, her slight nuances and body language creating two entirely unique (yet intertwined) worlds and the individuals inhabiting them. The sequence involving Veronique and an audiocassette late in the film is magnificently structured and a masterstroke (and should be screened for Amelie fans, as the homage in that film pales in comparison).
by Jenny Jediny | Source: 35MM Theatrical Print
19 Apr 2006 1:15 PM | Comments (1)
An uncluttered and effective work invoking Bresson while causing stomach churns worthy of Haneke. The film walks a thin line with its plot (irresponsible, petty criminal attempts to sell his newborn on the black market – I kept considering its Lifetime movie of the week potential) but it is 180 degrees from any trite drama. The winner of the Palme d’Or last year at Cannes.
Also see Beth’s full review
by Jenny Jediny | Source: 35MM Theatrical Print
19 Apr 2006 9:46 AM | Submit Comment
Interesting take on simulacra and the shopping mall.
by Jenny Jediny | Source: 16MM Print
17 Apr 2006 2:37 PM | Submit Comment
A promising premise, but the attempt at satire winds up feeling strained (I’d love to see the Coen Brothers’ or Alexander Payne’s take on the same material). That said, Aaron Eckhart was born to play to the role of Nick Naylor.
by Beth Gilligan | Source: Fox Searchlight 35mm print
17 Apr 2006 1:55 PM | Submit Comment
I’m not surprised this has such a cult following (a little surprised it inspired a live show). I felt like this was a mellow preface to Fight Club in some ways, with its loose message of fighting “the system” and Johnny’s struggle with his opposing Jack/Tyler mentality. Fun stuff.
by Jenny Jediny | Source: DVD
17 Apr 2006 1:09 PM | Submit Comment
That this show set in a dystopian, indistinct future produced both a talkshow host and spokesperson for Coke is one of the endearing features of the 1980s.
by Rumsey Taylor | Source: VHS
17 Apr 2006 10:07 AM | Submit Comment
In the early ’80s, Tom Waits decided he’d had enough of his smoky late-night-bar scene piano melodies. What the new decade needed was off-kilter rhythms, blaring horns, an accordion, maybe some vibes, and a gravelly voiced troubadour growling out line after line of colorful, stupefying, and at times terrifying, lyrics.
Big Time is this new Waits ethos captured on film, and any Waits fans out there who haven’t stumbled upon this treasure need to spare no expense in seeking it out. (And if you’ve never heard of Waits, the film is as good an introduction as you can get.)
Woven through the intoxicating footage of a pencil-thin mustachioed Waits stomping and wailing through tunes from Swordfishtrombones, Raindogs, and Frank’s Wild Years, is an odd narrative thread centered on a down-on-his-luck concert promoter (played by Waits) who spends most of his time either dreaming of the very show we are watching, or attempting to lure new customers into the performance.
This strange framing device, coupled with Waits’s incessant, and hilarious, between-song comedy bits, not to mention the apparent lack of any audience witnessing this madcap performance, lifts Big Time far above the rank of mere concert video and into the realm of a wholly entertaining cinematic experience.
by Thomas Scalzo | Source: 35mm Print
16 Apr 2006 11:39 AM | Submit Comment
What’s happened to David Zucker? The infamously creative (or is it creatively infamous?) director, who has helped give us some great pieces of cultural satire, has forsaken intelligent parody for half-hearted attempts at unoriginal humor. Anna Faris and Regina Hall still manage to induce laughter as dimwitted Cindy Campbell and forthright Brenda Meeks, respectively, but the storyline is an obvious stretch. Yes, the Saw parody is funny, and Charlie Sheen’s cat-versus-erection fiasco is hilarious, but since when have Million Dollar Baby and Brokeback Mountain fallen under the category of horror? Hopefully Scary Movie 4 is only a mediocre stumble in Zucker’s career, but when you begin relegating the talent of Cloris Leachman and Michael Madsen to forgettable roles, you know something is wrong.
If I had more time, I’d extol the virtues of Leslie Nielsen, who once again drags an overly tedious movie from its sinking self, despite being regulated to less than five minutes of actual screen time. For someone who’s incredibly spry despite turning 80 this year, he isn’t given more responsibility as a comic actor, nude scene aside. A shame, a real shame.
by Adam Balz | Source: 35MM Print
15 Apr 2006 10:13 PM | Submit Comment
Judging from the disparate responses Wolf Creek has received, horror is given a modest allowance to frighten but not offend—it is hailed as one of 2005’s best films by some, and one of the past year’s worst by one significant other. Such a disparity in critical response characterizes horror’s more notorious entries, enabling this film’s invitation to what I consider an ill-attended canon, which includes more renowned titles in The Texas Chain Saw Massacre and I Spit on Your Grave. Wolf Creek earns this name-dropping, unlike the majority of horror films from the past two decades that insufficiently measure up to the 70s’ exemplary barometer of horror. Uncharacteristically brutal, humorless, and decidedly misogynist, it is – by and far – the most effective horror film I’ve seen in years.
by Rumsey Taylor | Source: Weinstein Company DVD
14 Apr 2006 2:24 PM | Submit Comment
by Rumsey Taylor | Source: Embassy VHS
12 Apr 2006 10:14 AM | Submit Comment
One of the more original concepts to have emerged in the horror genre in some time (as well as one of the more gruesome print campaigns), and one burdened by its debt to Se7en’s grimy atmosphere and a multitude of flashbacks.
by Rumsey Taylor | Source: Cable TV
12 Apr 2006 10:11 AM | Submit Comment
See forthcoming review.
by Tom Huddleston | Source: Actionmax
11 Apr 2006 5:00 PM | Submit Comment
Expecting trumpets and flags and general up-with-people Yankee Doodleisms, I was surprised to find a rather downbeat, world weary slice of hyper-realism with a ludicrous tacked-on happy ending. Jimmy Stewart’s wide eyed everyman routine must still have been fresh in 1939, the shock of seeing that blithe smile wiped relentlessly off his face by a parade of political charlatans and chicanery all the more upsetting. The film depicts the downward spiral of a true believer, his descent into cynicism, and offers little in the way of recompense, and certainly no useful answers. Stewart’s celebrated filibuster, supposedly the last stand of a brave man, looks like a lot of effort for precious little reward, at least until Claude Rains’ miraculous and unconvincing change of heart. The word Capraesque as we currently understand it seems less and less appropriate- this, like It’s A Wonderful Life, is a slice of abject weltschmertz with a thin sugar coating- the best we can hope for in life is to get to the end without admitting defeat.
by Tom Huddleston | Source: DVD
11 Apr 2006 4:58 PM | Submit Comment
Pretty much delivers what you expect. Good dystopian setting; great British actors; as usual, everything collapses into the boring and the ridiculous in the last half hour. Enjoy, and forget.
by Ian Johnston | Source: 35mm print
11 Apr 2006 2:46 PM | Submit Comment
I’m a Woody Allen fan from way back, enough to desperately try to find moments of interest in any of the films of the last few years. So, yes, it’s a relief that this is Allen’s best film in years. A retread of part of the plot from Crimes and Misdemeanors; a straight drama with almost no jokes. Weaknesses, yes – the “luck” motif is banal, the rutting in the rain ridiculous – but it’s still a thoroughly enjoyable film.
by Ian Johnston | Source: 35mm print
11 Apr 2006 2:41 PM | Submit Comment
Friends have been quick to slot this in with the current crop of political critiques (Syriana, Munich) but I’m not sure Jarhead deserves it. It’s portrayal of Gulf War I as an absurdist black comedy is simply because that’s how our heroes experienced it; the film doesn’t dig any deeper than that. But can a war film do any more? At least it’s self-conscious enough about its limitations – hence the scene of blood lusts being stirred by the “anti-war” Apocalypse Now.
by Ian Johnston | Source: 35mm print
11 Apr 2006 2:34 PM | Submit Comment
I couldn’t last more than 30 minutes with this smug, facile, profoundly irritating film.
by Ian Johnston | Source: WB DVD
11 Apr 2006 2:26 PM | Submit Comment
by Beth Gilligan | Source: Miramax DVD
11 Apr 2006 2:19 PM | Submit Comment
The premise (film noir transplanted from dark alleys and rain-drenched city streets to a modern-day California high school) may sound gimmicky, but writer-director Rian Johnson’s feature debut moves along with the right amount of suspense, humor, and panache to qualify it as a worthy copycat. The dialogue alone is worth the price of admission.
by Beth Gilligan | Source: Focus Features 35mm print
11 Apr 2006 2:11 PM | Submit Comment
Writer-director Nicole Holofcener seems divided between genuine affection for her characters and a desire to lampoon them, and as a result, what could have been either a multi-layered portrayal of female friendships or a sharp satire comes across as a somewhat limp cross between the two. Strong performances by Jennifer Aniston, Joan Cusack, Catherine Keener, and Frances McDormand go a long way in making up for this, but don’t quite pick up all the slack.
by Beth Gilligan | Source: Sony Pictures Classics 35mm print
11 Apr 2006 2:03 PM | Submit Comment
More a tragic (perhaps?) romance than SciFi, Solaris is, either way, a sumptuous evocation of nostalgia. But despite Soderbergh’s competent direction and what is arguably George Clooney’s best screen performance, I much prefer the original.
by Rumsey Taylor | Source: IFC
10 Apr 2006 11:51 AM | Comments (4)
This is the most relevant demonstration of Mike D’Angelo’s prophesying of technological singularity.
by Rumsey Taylor | Source: TCM
10 Apr 2006 11:49 AM | Submit Comment
Hardcore posits scribe (and sometimes lenser) Paul Schrader without the one asset that elicits his work near-unanimous praise: Martin Scorsese. It’s a similar episode of degradation-cum-redemption as in the pair’s seminal collaboration, Taxi Driver, with George C. Scott as a father attempting to locate his daughter in a convoluted network of pimps and pornographers. This father’s investigation necessitates his adhering to this environment, strewn in profanity, after he fires his private investigator, but his degradation is misconceived because of how easily it is made; he dons a fake moustache, wig, and a polyester shirt and he fits in this fringe culture so easily it’s apparent that he’s not only rehearsed this role, he enjoys it to some extent when he should, for all intents and purposes, be repelled by it.
by Rumsey Taylor | Source: Columbia Tristar VHS
10 Apr 2006 11:46 AM | Submit Comment
by Rumsey Taylor | Source: Anchor Bay DVD
10 Apr 2006 11:44 AM | Submit Comment
Absolutely joyous film about a trio of teens, clad in neon spandex and, like, the coolest t-shirts you can imagine, who must outmaneuver a gang of criminals. (In mentioning this film one is obligated to note the presence of a 16-year-old Nicole Kidman.) And they do so on BMX bikes, which prescribes many impromptu bike tricks—in one of the many chase scenes, all three kids ramp off the hood of a Volkswagen. And the soundtrack!
by Rumsey Taylor | Source: bootleg VHS
10 Apr 2006 11:43 AM | Comments (2)
Trim out all of Kevin Williamson’s contrived teenage dramatics, Christina Ricci’s worm-like eyebrows, and the scare chords, and you’re left with three fake-looking CGI werewolves.
by Rumsey Taylor | Source: Cable TV
10 Apr 2006 11:42 AM | Submit Comment
A magnificently photographed telling of delinquent youth, scored in sentiment and little consequence.
by Rumsey Taylor | Source: Cable TV
07 Apr 2006 10:33 AM | Submit Comment
In the long and colorful history of the vampire film, many intriguing and not so intriguing reasons have been offered to explain exactly how a person becomes a vampire. You can be bitten by a vampire, of course, or voluntarily drink or inject the blood of the living. Or if you find yourself in David Cronenberg’s universe, you can develop an insatiable lust for the red stuff after bits of vampire bat innards are spliced with your own. But Condemned to Live must be given credit for offering the world the most outlandish reason of all: exhaustion. Yes, when poor Professor Kristan, the town’s overworked doctor, doesn’t get the proper amount of rest, he loses all sense of who he is, turns into a bloodsucker, and terrorizes the hapless townsfolk.
To be fair, the film does try to justify the absurdity of this plot point through a brief flashback scene in which Kristan’s pregnant mother is attacked by a giant, and we must presume evil, bat. The fact remains, however, that the professor’s inherited affliction is somehow triggered by a lack of sleep, and it is quite wonderful that such a central circumstance of motivation is incorporated into the film with complete seriousness. This terrific vampire-transformation explanation aside, however, the film is a bit on the trite side: lots of stilted conversations about the evil besetting the town, lots of villagers carrying lanterns and shouting, lots of feeble women swooning at the first mention of trouble. But with a run time that is just over an hour, the film is short enough, and audacious enough, to warrant a watch.
by Thomas Scalzo | Source: Platinum Disc Corporation DVD
06 Apr 2006 10:28 PM | Submit Comment
Cary Grant is Leopold Dilg, a rambunctious bloke wrongly accused of both arson and murder. Attempting to escape almost certain execution at the hands of the state, Dilg flees to the quiet home of his friend and one-time romantic interest Miss Nora Shelley (played by a wonderfully bumbling, and astonishingly fetching at forty-one, Jean Arthur), who just happens to be on the verge of renting the place to an illustrious lawyer named Professor Michael Lightcap.
The expected hijinks ensue, of course, but the film does not content itself to be merely a screwball comedy. We also have a series of intriguing debates between Dilg and Lightcap on the nature of law, some tense moments of Dilg evading the cops, and a befuddling romantic triangle that will leave you unsure which pair you were ultimately rooting for to get together. In other words, it’s an impressive multigenre concoction employing supurb acting talents that never fails to entertain.
by Thomas Scalzo | Source: Sony Pictures DVD
05 Apr 2006 7:59 PM | Submit Comment
Until the last act, in which it becomes a fairly rote sex-zombie horror film, Shivers is a masterful satire of bourgeois living and sexuality, not to mention a startlingly perverse exploration of surgical anxiety. Cronenberg’s selection of actors — surely the homeliest collection of people available in Canada (plus one Barbara Steele) — is another of the film’s many points of fascination, as are the subversive obsessions with over-sexualized tweens, ducts and pipes, and flat ’70s interior design. If all of this amounts to what is essentially a cheesy movie, its idiosyncratic preoccupations and matter-of-fact staging nonetheless indicate a type of genius whose provenance (given this film’s odd concordances with both Salò The Shining) is utterly mystifying.
by Leo Goldsmith | Source: Image Entertainment DVD
05 Apr 2006 1:03 PM | Submit Comment
A fully absorbing tale of two brothers whose divergent lives mirror the tumultuous history of Italy over the past four decades. It was difficult not to marvel at the subtlety with which the movie unfolded, especially in comparison to how Hollywood has handled (or I should say, butchered) similarly-themed material (think Forrest Gump). Actors Luigi Lo Cascio and Alessio Boni turn in multi-faceted performances as the brothers, while even the characters around them who appear fleetingly make a vivid impression. After six hours, I wanted to pop it back in the DVD player and watch it all over again.
by Beth Gilligan | Source: Miramax DVD
05 Apr 2006 10:39 AM | Submit Comment
Despite the chaos that the Vietnam War is lent in its cinematic iterations, this is among the most rigid and ascetic exercises in Kubrick’s career. The first third is comprised incessantly of a drill instructor screaming at his platoon with his mouth inches away from their faces. It ends inevitably, and the motif pronounced in this third – that marines are built to be killers – is unambiguous, as is much of the film. It lacks the complexity and dynamics that distinguish its peers, but it’s nonetheless a superior war film.
by Rumsey Taylor | Source: Cable TV
04 Apr 2006 9:24 AM | Comments (2)
Centered around nine idle conversers in a waiting room, The Parlor is an obvious precursor to Miranda July’s Me and You and Everyone We Know. Writer-director Geoffrey Haley crafts a well thought-out and relevant examination of how we yearn for contact while hiding behind technology, with dialogue that is both pure and unsettlingly perverse. The finale, a surprise, is perfect.
by Adam Balz | Source: Google Videos
03 Apr 2006 2:18 PM | Submit Comment
Quite a beautiful film in its own small, harrowing, ugly way, with an unusual earnestness and sense of humor. It is, of course, plainly incendiary, but its flair for both vérité and melodrama, its willingness to take its subject at face value, and its devastating social implications align it with no less a film than Rebel without a Cause.
by Leo Goldsmith | Source: Lions Gate Films VHS
03 Apr 2006 2:16 PM | Comments (1)
The shortest, at 55 seconds, and — by and far — most harrowing film on The Short Films of David Lynch DVD.
by Rumsey Taylor | Source: davidlynch.com DVD
03 Apr 2006 11:10 AM | Submit Comment
Although entirely inconsequential, I can’t imagine any stereotypes of the French or of cowboys that Lynch has omitted herein. And look for Frank Silva’s name in the credits.
by Rumsey Taylor | Source: davidlynch.com DVD
03 Apr 2006 11:09 AM | Comments (1)
Despite consistently rotten film choices, for some reason I continue to like The Rock. Perhaps it’s that he seems to have a genuine sense of humour about himself and the work, and more than a scrap of intelligence- two firsts in the thankfully limited wrestler- turned- action- star field. This is probably his best lead role to date, certainly the only one I’d watch twice. The action is fast and furious, the dialogue largely dumb but suitably self aware and occasionally rather snappy, with a nice line in petty bickering. The supporting cast- most notably Christopher Walken as another scenery- devouring villain- is likeable and well chosen, and the whole thing is carried off with mimimal fuss and maximum flair. There’s even a relevant political message, about Western imperialism and the rape of third world wealth. My only question: why does Ewen Bremner- a Scots actor who at the climax of the film appears wearing a kilt and playing bagpipes- have a Northern Irish accent and a shamrock painted on the tail of his plane?
by Tom Huddleston | Source: Sky Movies
03 Apr 2006 6:14 AM | Submit Comment
An extremely timely viewing (I turned 30 six weeks ago) for John Sayles’ directorial debut, a talky ensemble melodrama about a group of former pseudo- radical college friends reuniting for a weekend in the country. Inspired equally by Cassavettes and Bergman, this is especially fascinating as an early example of truly independent American filmmaking- Sayles raised the miniscule budget himself, and shot on location using largely unknown actors, most of whom have stayed that way (but who would’ve put money on the goon in the baseball cap being the one nominated for Best Actor almost three decades later?). It’s been an inspiration for small scale personal filmmakers ever since- directors like Jim Jarmusch, Spike Lee and Hal Hartley may have imposed their personal idiosyncracies, but the basic blueprint remains Sayles’. And I hope he sued the hell out of Lawrence Kasdan when The Big Chill came out.
by Tom Huddleston | Source: Actionmax
03 Apr 2006 6:12 AM | Submit Comment
More than just a DVD extra, this is an entire feature film made up of outtakes from Anchorman. It’s necessarily scattershot, but hangs together much better than one would have expected- a controversial storyline centring around a SLA- type revolutionary gang (led by Chuck D!) was cut from the original film, and forms the backbone of the plot here. It’s clear that most of the funniest moments were kept for the released film, but there’s much to enjoy- the original cut, before low preview scores and studio disapproval intervened, was probably better than either of the two available versions.
by Tom Huddleston | Source: DVD
03 Apr 2006 5:59 AM | Comments (2)
Had this been an American-made film, Ki-duk Kim’s wonderful moments of silence and contemplation would’ve certainly been replaced by pages of poorly-written dialogue and bathetic revelations. Empathy and sadness, joy and ecstasy, all conveyed through gentle stares and motions, raise this otherwise strange film above the usual storylines and cliches of romance-dramas.
by Adam Balz | Source: Sony Pictures DVD
01 Apr 2006 3:27 PM | Submit Comment
