Screening Log

This new site feature is a collective effort to summarize our viewing habits. Occasionally, you will find titles here that are coming to a theater near you, in addition to films viewed on television, and even films viewed in piecemeal. The screening log is archived each month; to view past entries select a month in the menu below.

January 2007 activity

Total Log Entries: 84

Total Comments: 32

Full Archive

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El Topo / Mexico / 1970

Leo’s thoughts | Full review

by Rumsey Taylor | Source: ABKCO Films 35mm print
30 Jan 2007 4:54 PM | Submit Comment

A Hole in My Heart / Ett Hål i mitt hjärta / Sweden / Denmark / 2004

Lukas Moodysson’s sensationalist A Hole in My Heart occurs principally within the confines of a rather cramped and undecorated apartment unit. The blinds are always shut, and the lights are always on. For the larger part of the film’s duration, four people are inside it, three of them engaged in the amateur manufacture of a pornographic film. Their effort will be interrupted by a variety of cinematograpic interludes: a lightning-fast montage of graphic (apparently genital) surgery footage, or one of the characters’ somber monologues; each is caught invariably by the others’ ambitions toward nihilism. This is an utterly visceral and nauseating viewing experience, and measuring by the scenes it concludes with I imagine that such a response is Moodysson’s very intention.

by Rumsey Taylor | Source: Metrodome DVD
30 Jan 2007 4:52 PM | Submit Comment

Little Miss Sunshine / USA / 2006

Meh.

Adam’s Review

by Jenny Jediny | Source: Fox Searchlight DVD
30 Jan 2007 11:44 AM | Submit Comment

The Decalogue (I) / Dekalog / Poland / 1989

In retrospect, a quiet moment becomes emotionally charged as a bottle of navy ink topples on a desk. Dark splotches and stains appear, trickling down papers and covering a father’s hands and forearms in ink. I neglected to recognize the possible homage to Don’t Look Now , but when it was later pointed out, it sent chills down my spine.

by Jenny Jediny | Source: Facets DVD
30 Jan 2007 11:41 AM | Submit Comment

An Inconvenient Truth / USA / 2006

Not too much guilt watching this; I was converted a long time ago, thanks to an environmentally conscious, bio majoring younger sister. I’ve got my biodegradable detergent, energy efficient light bulbs, and am constantly replacing and recycling when I can. My point being, it’s easier than you (yes, you,) think. Those links are there for a reason, so check them out.

As far as the film goes, well done, and Al Gore has come a long way from an image I’ve held so long in my head. It’s a shame I can’t find a clip: a Simpsons episode where Lisa purchases Gore’s book, Rational Thinking, Reasonable Future and we see Gore throw on Kool and the Gang’s “Celebration,” dryly uttering, “I will.”

by Jenny Jediny | Source: Paramount Studios DVD
30 Jan 2007 11:39 AM | Submit Comment

Eraserhead / USA / 1977

What an incredible nightmare. I don’t think I can add much to Rumsey’s review, as this was my first time seeing Eraserhead, but I do think Inland Empire marks a return to this specific sort of experimentation in Lynch’s work. Quite simply, I loved it. Also of note: if you have the chance to see the restored print recently screened at the Museum of Modern Art and funded by The Film Foundation, go. It’s superb.

by Jenny Jediny | Source: Restored AFI 35mm Print
30 Jan 2007 11:37 AM | Submit Comment

The Man Who Knew Too Much / USA / 1956

Watching Jimmy Stewart verbally manipulate Doris Day, complete with a bottle of sedatives, will never fail to make me queasy.

by Jenny Jediny | Source: Universal DVD
30 Jan 2007 11:35 AM | Submit Comment

Deja Vu / Déjà Vu / USA / 2006

I’ll sheepishly admit I went into this fully prepared to mock, and instead found myself fairly engrossed. Maybe it’s because I’m a pushover for arguments about space + time (even as mumbo jumbo as this) but regardless, it’s kind of fun. I wouldn’t exactly put it on par with Vertigo though.

by Jenny Jediny | Source: Buena Vista 35mm Print
30 Jan 2007 11:34 AM | Submit Comment

Mildred Pierce / USA / 1945

Along with Sirk’s Imitation of Life, Mildred Pierce features some of my favorite spiteful exchanges between daughters and their long suffering mothers (although Sarah Jane doesn’t deserve death by alligators nearly as much as dear Veda).

by Jenny Jediny | Source: Warner Home Video DVD
30 Jan 2007 11:29 AM | Submit Comment

Babel / U.S.A. / Mexico / 2006

What annoys me about Arriaga’s screenplays and the films Inarritu has made from them is the self-satisfaction they project at the supposed cleverness of the intricate narrative(s). There’s little more to these films than the narrative framework itself. Which is why The Three Burials of Melquiades Estrada is the only Arriaga script to produce a superior film, because the agenda of the film is entirely separate from Arriaga’s jazzy narrative flourishes.

As for Babel itself, there’s little more I have to add to what Leo and Adam have had to say. Self-inflated nonsense; the Japanese story is irrelevant (apart from the laboured connect-the-dots “how the gun got where it did”) and the least authentic of the film’s stories; and what do they mean by the title anyway? I suspect they themselves don’t know.

by Ian Johnston | Source: 35mm print
28 Jan 2007 4:12 AM | Comments (1)

3 Godfathers / U.S.A. / 1948

For all the Technicolor splendours of the trek through the desert, Ford’s maudlin religiosity, on display here in excess, is a difficult barrier to get past. As this was the second of two problematic independent productions (following on The Fugitive, equally weighed down by Ford’s religious belief), perhaps it’s a sign of how the heavy hand of a producer like Zanuck could be good for Ford’s art – The Prisoner of Shark Island,Young Mr. Lincoln, Drums Along The Mohawk, The Grapes of Wrath, How Green Was My Valley, My Darling Clementine: a roll-call of far superior films.

by Ian Johnston | Source: WB DVD
28 Jan 2007 3:09 AM | Submit Comment

Children of Men / UK/USA / 2006

One of those rare films in which the true star never appears in front of the camera. Cinematographer Emmanuel Lubezki manages to take the gray, dour plotline—the infertile future, now resigned to rebellion and self-destruction—and make it both exquisitely haunting and disturbingly realistic. This is due, in part, to the film’s ever-deepening verite feel. As Children of Men begins, the camera is near motionless; even the most horrifying scene—the bombing of a coffee shop—is shot without motion, not a duck or a flinch. But as the film progresses—namely in the now famed car sequence—the camera’s movements become more natural and fluid, even frenzied. Near the end, as Owen’s Theo is dodging between the ruins of an old courtyard, the camera follows him as though this were a documentary of sorts. Lubezski has managed to emulate Theo’s mindset. As his journey progresses and he becomes more sympathetic, more devoted to seeing the mission carried out, as well as more submerged in the surrounding politics, we in turn become more drawn in.

In its entirity, Cuaron’s film is indescribable. Still, I shudder at those who characterize the movie as being “apocalyptic” or “dystopic,” simply because it felt like a film about hope rather than man’s apocryphal future. Yes, it’s a dour vision of the world’s millenial history narrowed to a fine, definite point—humanity’s tenebrous curtain call. But it’s also a lesson in the strength of faith, or how the overdependence on it or loss of it can make you desperate and blind. Unlike other films about the future of human civilization, there is no justification, no blatant lesson in how the present needs to change. The plague of Cuaron’s future is simple and undiagnosed—it was unforseeable, unpreventable. This isn’t a film that doubles as a lecture to the masses; it’s a cinematic look at us as a people.

(And, as per a point made by Leo, I found the ending to be more ambiguous than hopeful, or “Spielbergian” as so many have said. Yes, this is a film about hope—its riches and dangers—but it is not hopeful.)

Tom’s Thoughts
Jenny’s Thoughts
Rumsey’s Thoughts
Leo’s Thoughts

by Adam Balz | Source: 35MM Theatrical Print
26 Jan 2007 10:56 AM | Submit Comment

Mikey & Nicky / USA / 1976

Peter Falk is Mikey. John Cassavetes is Nicky. Best friends and gangsters, Nicky is counting on Mikey to help him skip town after stealing money from “the boss”. I tried to ignore the blurb on the DVD cover but this is really one of the best mob dramas on film. Cassavetes is brilliant – and I don’t use the term lightly – as Nicky. He and Falk obviously had a rapport that actors dream of. Reportedly, Elaine May, who directed, would often let the cameras roll while the two actors improvised scenes for extended stretches of time (apparently, much of their work went uncaptured because of May’s approach). It’s an intimate film; tender and tough in a way that the later Analyze This flicks attempt to parody. Friendship is seldom as heartbreakingly treacherous as the one featured here.

by Marlin Tyree | Source: Home Vision Entertainment DVD
25 Jan 2007 7:14 PM | Submit Comment

One Eyed Jacks / USA / 1961

This is one of my guilty pleasures. Marlon Brando stars and directs this Western about Rio, an outlaw, who is abandoned by his partner, Dad Longworth, played by Karl Marlden, and left to rot for five years in a mexican jail. Naturally, Rio vows to kill Longworth, which is how the rest of the movie plays out. On the way to the fatal confrontation Rio falls in love with Louisa, played with great sensitivity by Pina Pellicer, the step-daughter of Longworth’s newfound family. Brando displays style and wit as both director and star but it’s Pellicer’s performance that makes the movie memorable. In all, an above average Western where we see the last vestiges of Brando’s physical charm and menace.

by Marlin Tyree | Source: Alpha Video DVD
24 Jan 2007 5:39 PM | Submit Comment

Nashville / USA / 1975

Both Nashville and Playtime are correlative refractions of life itself. Tati’s film is the more humorous and impersonal, Altman’s the more intimate and vulnerable—vulnerable in that when Linnea is describing her children’s deafness you realize the amplified hardship of her parenthood, or when Sueleen is manipulated into a striptease when she really only wants to sing, you avert your eyes and judge the roomful of men cheering her slavish performance. The violence that closes the film does all but enjoin you in the final, impromptu eulogy.

by Rumsey Taylor | Source: Paramount DVD
23 Jan 2007 5:10 PM | Submit Comment

Hearts of Darkness / A Filmmaker’s Apocalypse / USA / 1991

Francis Ford Coppola declares that his film is Vietnam at the 1979 Cannes press conference for Apocalypse Now. The declaration sounds pretentious and bold, but it’s not even complimentary, associating the privilege of finance and resources his film shares with the war that is its subject, and also the perpetual, hubristic lapses in logic and inability to implement closure. Released in 1991, Eleanor Coppola’s documentary of her husband’s hardships must have constructed necessary facets in admiring the many trials that both enhanced and halted the production of the film, especially since it contains footage of the French plantation sequence—some thirty minutes of film, omitted from the final cut. It also verifies several facts that are now part of the film’s folklore: Sam Bottom’s use of speed, LSD, and marijuana during shooting, Martin Sheen’s self-inflicted injury during the opening sequence, Martin Sheen’s replacement of Harvey Keitel, Martin Sheen’s heart attack, and Marlon Brando’s arrival on set without having read a word of Joseph Conrad’s Heart of Darkness or Coppola’s adaptive script. Brando finally arrives on set, tremendously overweight due presumably to the expenditure of his one-million-dollar advance salary, and he strays unforeseeably from intimate commitment to blatant, hilarious indifference. “I can’t think of any more dialogue to say,” he says, walking straight out of one shot.

Eleanor recorded audio of her husband at regular intervals during production, some of which is used in this film. His neurosis is fanatical—underneath the recordings of his arguments with his crew, he is seen standing anxiously behind the camera or seated at a typewriter with hand-written notes shrouding his peripheral vision. It’s difficult to accuse him of any oversights he is not first aware of. His portrayal paints a stark portrait of a near-ruined man, slaving himself to his every frantic inspiration, who has since produce no film of comparable renown.

Adam’s thoughts

by Rumsey Taylor | Source: Paramount VHS
23 Jan 2007 4:59 PM | Submit Comment

Apocalypse Now / Redux / USA / 2001

It’s been years since I’ve seen this film in its original cut, but the few differences I noticed felt organic and not frivolous. I find it somewhat foolish to appraise this film without acknowledgement of its production. It is, all things considered, the lesser film compared to Fitzcarraldo, but it has much more interesting anecdotes.

by Rumsey Taylor | Source: Cable TV
23 Jan 2007 4:52 PM | Submit Comment

In the Bedroom / USA / 2001

Tom Wilkinson rips in to his wife, Sissy Spacek, and it is a personification of such antagonism that his character — father to a murdered son — assumes the very traits of his son’s killer. For months he and his wife have been living in quiet but tangible discomfort. After this moment, their frustration with each other admitted, he becomes more vicious, and she more submissive, their shared tragedy a catalyst for repression.

In the Bedroom is now an anomaly in Todd Field’s career, or at least it doesn’t fit in sequence. It’s such a model of restraint and nuance that I wonder if Field watched it before making Little Children.

by Rumsey Taylor | Source: IFC
23 Jan 2007 4:49 PM | Submit Comment

Babel / USA/Mexico / 2006

Inarritu’s film disappeared from local theatres a few weeks ago, only to reappear after its “sweep” of the Golden Globes—an obvious attempt by Paramount to garner its film more support for an increasingly inevitable Best Picture win, though a shallow attempt at that. (This morning’s news was disheartening, to say the least, though a few suprises made rising early worthwhile.) And after watching it torn asunder on this site, yet praised on many others, I reluctantly swallowed my pride and paid matinee prices for 142 minutes of three poorly linked plotlines that, in all honesty, were just plain boring.

With other multi-story films like Crash or Magnolia, there is an interconnecting idea, an underlying force that joins all plotlines together into one moral or theme. Babel lacks a theme. Brad Pitt and Cate Blanchett portray a married couple vacationing in Africa to escape the death of a child and what we assume is the infidelity of Pitt’s character. Their children are being watched over by Amelia, a Mexican nanny whose son will soon be getting married across the border. Rinko Kikuchi is Chieko, a deaf Japanese girl who doesn’t fit in; as we later learn, her mother committed suicide years ago. Soon, Cate Blanchett’s Susan is shot by a Moroccan boy trying to outshine his brother, Amelia’s son ditches her and the children in the California desert to elude Border Patrol agents, and Chieko attempts to seduce a police detective. Other than the obvious—a gun, Susan and Richard’s children—never is there a great revelation that these characters are connected. It’s as though screenwriter Guillermo Arriaga decided to combine three separate, unfinished scripts into a feature film.

To be honest, I had decided halfway through Inarritu’s film that I would refer to it thereafter as Babble to highlight its incessant, pointless screenplay; passive-aggressive and immature, yes, but it was how I felt. Unfortunately, certain members of my local audience had other ideas—namely, that any attempt at depicting Mexican characters sympathetically was amusing rather than socially poignant or necessary. An old couple to my right sighed derisively throughout the entire Mexican marriage ceremony; an older woman to my left laughed hysterically as Amelia stumbled through the Southern California desert in search of help. I tried frantically to ignore them, but after another elderly couple a few rows ahead stood up and left I abandoned any hope. Then again, who could blame them? For a movie that teaches universal tolerance and understanding with utmost, albeit failed urgency, I found it alarming that Gael Garcia Bernal’s Santiago was depicted as either intoxicated, lying, or killing a chicken, especially after he claimed in an NPR interview that he avoids stereotypical roles. (On the other hand, Adriana Barraza’s Amelia, while being the stereotypical illegal nanny to a suburban American couple, requires genuine acting, though I could’ve done without the strange seduction scene.) Nonetheless, Rinko Kikuchi steals the film; forced to speak through her eyes and hands and, much of the time, in some form of undress, she weaves heartbreak, vulnerability, and desperation into the fabric of every scene.

Leo’s Thoughts, which are better organized (and much more up-front) than mine.

by Adam Balz | Source: Paramount 35MM Theatrical Print
23 Jan 2007 10:03 AM | Submit Comment

Harold And Maude / USA / 1971

The career of Bud Cort is as tragic a waste as any in Hollywood- his Harold is one of the great leading characters, able to pull off a completely convincing transformation from spoiled, suicidal brat to delirious romantic, complete with astonishing moments throughout- Cort’s to camera sneer after just terrifying one of his prospective dates half to death with a seeming self immolation is nothing less than a perfect moment. But instead of achieving success, the actor vanished into B- movie obscurity- his IMDB resume lists such undoubted delights as Beware! The Blob, Bates Motel, the voice of the computer in Electric Dreams and the title role in Son Of Hitler. But he never went away, and has been seen in recent years in relatively highbrow fare like Pollock, Made and most notably as the hapless bond clerk in The Life Aquatic. Perhaps it’s not too late for a happy ending.

by Tom Huddleston | Source: DVD
22 Jan 2007 12:23 PM | Submit Comment

Superman II / The Richard Donner Cut / USA / 1978

On reflection, it’s fairly easy to see why this original cut failed to pass muster: it suffers from a heavily talky script (by Mario Puzo, no less), some heavy handed ‘comedy’ from Gene Hackman and Ned Beatty, and rather subdued action sequences (there’s no Eiffel Tower, for one). But it’s worth watching for two key scenes, each hinging on the acting skills of Christopher Reeve- the confrontation between Clark and Lois over his identity as Superman is far more touching here, and Superman’s decision to relinquish his powers is infinitely more emotional. In fact, the real loser in the reshooting process seems to have been Reeve- his work here is streets ahead of anything else he managed as an actor.

by Tom Huddleston | Source: DVD
22 Jan 2007 12:22 PM | Submit Comment

Flags Of Our Fathers / USA / 2006

Another inexplicable 10- best staple, along with The Departed and, reportedly, Babel. Not that there’s anything wrong with this film- it’s a superbly acted, lovingly crafted slice of American history, a little portentous but never less than entertaining. But, like The Departed, it’s just nothing special, the work of a director who has done better things. The fragmented nature of Paul Haggis’s script regularly threatens to capsize the film- tension is never built before it’s punctured, and the characters never get the chance to make an impression on the audience.

by Tom Huddleston | Source: DVD
22 Jan 2007 12:20 PM | Submit Comment

Predator 2 / USA / 1990

Coming at the tail end of the 80’s action boom, this sequel suffered at the box office thanks to the absence of it’s predecessor’s leading man, but is in pretty much every conceivable way the superior film. I’m not about to pretend this is any sort of masterpiece, but it’s a tightly constructed, likeable thriller that gets the best from a staunchly Z- list but consistently memorable cast: any film which casts Danny Glover as an action hero gets my vote, and he’s ably backed up by Bill Paxton in full shiteating Hudson mode, a super slimy Gary Busey, not to mention a raft of DTV faces like Robert Davi, Ruben Blades and Morton Downey. Hopkins holds the whole thing together with a surprising amount of panache- the strobe- lit subway attack sequence is a minor classic.

by Tom Huddleston | Source: Film 4
22 Jan 2007 12:19 PM | Comments (1)

Leave Her To Heaven / U.S.A. / 1946

Full review

by Ian Johnston | Source: Fox Studio Classics DVD
21 Jan 2007 11:35 AM | Submit Comment

Lola / W. Germany / 1981

Equal measures of deep cynicism and profound tenderness, wrapped up in the most intense chocolate box colours this side of Leave Her To Heaven. And three flawed but fascinating characters powered by great performances from Barbara Sukowa, Armin Mueller-Stahl, and Mario Adorf.

by Ian Johnston | Source: Criterion Collection DVD
21 Jan 2007 11:32 AM | Submit Comment

Still Life / Sanxia Haoren / China / 2006

Two viewings have already convinced me that this is going to be one of my top films for 2007. As much as I liked it, I had some reservations about The World – the cellphone animation was a distraction, and the ending was too resolved for a Jia film. But Still Life is simply magnificent. It’s a new setting for Jia – a town in Sichuan about to be flooded in the Three Gorges Dam project – but he populates it with characters (and familiar actors) from his home province of Shanxi, and once again he focuses on the people that are losing out in China’s rushed economic modernisation: these are the “good people” (haoren) of the original Chinese title. Shot predominantly but not exclusively in slow (but never too/ slow) masterful long takes, this is a film of immense formal beauty and of profound feeling for its characters. I’m not sure about the couple of moments of magic realism (the UFO, the spaceship taking off!) but the final shot with the tightrope walker in the far distance ends the film splendidly.

This Mainland Chinese DVD (with English subtitles) also has an unsubtitled disc of the documentary Dong that Jia made at the same time. This I like a lot less – one of the problems for me is that the subject, Liu Xiaodong, is a painter whose realist style is banal and regressive. In addition, the second half shot in Bangkok lacks the authenticity of the Fengjie setting. But one interesting aspect to the documentary is that it includes shots from Still Life, some of which – those in which Han Sanming appears – are clearly “acted”.

by Ian Johnston | Source: WB DVD
21 Jan 2007 11:18 AM | Submit Comment

His Kind Of Woman! / USA / 1951

Howard Hughes didn’t actually direct this enjoyable film noir romp starring Robert Mitchum and Jane Russell though, as producer, his touch is obvious. The director credit goes to Richard Fleischer, who was brought in to re-shoot the entire film after John Farrow gave it a go. There are many flat patches in this moody caper; stock scenes that introduce us to the players who set the ball rolling, but there is love intrigue and flat out farce as well, particularly from a scene stealing Vincent Price. Mitchum plays a gambler set up to be murdered and subsequently replaced by a gangster, played by a sullen Raymond Burr, who needs a new identity. On the way he bumps into bombshell moocher, Russell, who happens to traveling his way but in hot pursuit of the millionaire movie star, Price.

Yep, the shenanigans abound. But Russell can actually sing, Price is hilarious as the thespian sharpshooter and Mitchum is as confidently cool and suave as ever. Although the film is filled with sharp dialogue, deliberate stylized photography (what’s noir without shadows on ceilings?!!) and nice ensemble play, (as Russell quips after watching Price ham it up in a film within the film) “it’s an hour and a half too long.”

by Marlin Tyree | Source: Turner Entertainment DVD
18 Jan 2007 7:09 PM | Submit Comment

Stand By Me / USA / 1986

I have a handful of very intense aversions that were instilled in my youth, and paramount among them is a disgust of marshmallows after ingesting a bowlful when I was about six. I haven’t eaten one since.

Another is Stand By Me, probably the first R-rated film I ever saw with the mix of panicked excitement and fear a first-time thief must feel following his escape route. I didn’t make it past the campfire scene, during which the story of “Lardass” is told. He ingests a stomachfull of raw eggs and vinegar, and proceeds to induce an entire crowd of people to vomit all over themselves and each other. Henceforth, any remembrance of this scene triggered nausea of some intensity.

So imagine the discovery, some two decades after the fact, that this scene isn’t gross at all. It looks like hosed grape juice. And suddenly, I’m not so afraid of marshmallows anymore.

by Rumsey Taylor | Source: Cable TV
18 Jan 2007 3:04 PM | Comments (1)

Only You / USA / 1992

A twenty-nine-year-old Helen Hunt is about as good a remedy for a hangover as one may hope for.

by Rumsey Taylor | Source: Cable TV
18 Jan 2007 3:02 PM | Submit Comment

The Descent / UK / 2005

For much of its 99 minutes The Descent comprised entirely of undomesticated surfaces, dusty, precarious rocks or wet, gravelly soil. There is no natural light. The six women who enter this place (on an annual adventure) are belaying down, across, and within these surfaces—you become increasingly knowledgeable of your own comforts while watching this film, as well as your vulnerability if you’re watching it alone in a potentially creature-filled night.

Adam’s thoughts

by Rumsey Taylor | Source: Lionsgate DVD
18 Jan 2007 3:00 PM | Submit Comment

Office Space / USA / 1999

My appreciation for Idiocracy is entirely contingent upon this film, which establishes Mike Judge’s aesthetic of parodic brand saturation. The first morning following his life-changing hypnosis, Peter brazenly enters a Chotchkies and asks Joanna, the server he’s been eyeing, on a date—which will either occur at a Chili’s or a Flinger’s depending on her decision. The choice, we know, is superfluous, because both restaurants (including the one Joanna works at) are essentially the same obnoxious eateries with a bunch of crazy crap on the wall. Five hundred years later, I only imagine it growing more obnoxious and the crap even crazier.

by Rumsey Taylor | Source: IFC
18 Jan 2007 2:52 PM | Submit Comment

Northfork / USA / 2003

This is a solidly divisive film, from what I’ve read, and I was thoroughly enthralled by every minute of it. (And for that reason, I’m relieved that Adam’s response mirrors my own.) But I still can’t explain it thoroughly, or describe its plot other than in a few sentences: in 1955, a group of men outfitted in identical fedoras (imagine the Bible salesmen from the Maysles’ Salesman) are recruited to facilitate the evacuation of Northfork, Montana, in anticipation of a dam that will flood the entire town. Some leave without haste, others prepare for the flood as a collective of Noahs—one even equips his house to float once the water rushes mightily forth. This is a film that is variably comedic, visionary, and compositionally symmetrical (as in how so much of Kubrick may be described as such), but it remains a brazenly original and ruminative film for which most any interpretation is inadequate.

by Rumsey Taylor | Source: Cable TV
18 Jan 2007 2:46 PM | Submit Comment

The Good German / USA / 2006

While Steven Soderbergh may be no Michael Curtiz (not with this picture, anyway), The Good German nevertheless succeeds as an examination of the tangled loyalties and deep-seated corruption in post-war Germany. While George Clooney is somewhat ineffectual (perhaps deliberately so) in the lead, Cate Blanchett delivers a haunting performance as a woman deeply scarred by the atrocities she has witnessed (and in some cases, participated in). Some have criticized Soderbergh for an overly clinical approach to the film’s subject matter, but given the ruins of the city and lives onscreen before us, his choices here seem fitting. Despite a poster and a closing scene that directly reference Casablanca, this is no love story.

by Beth Gilligan | Source: Warner Bros 35mm print
16 Jan 2007 9:38 PM | Submit Comment

Dreamgirls / USA / 2006

I have to agree with Beth—the days of mainstream movie musicals seem quite over, as I noticed last year. Nowadays, people don’t break into song and dance in alleyways, parks, or the pouring rain; instead, they vocalize their emotions on stages and in recording studios. It takes away something from the storyline to have musicals actually be about music.

Though I was impressed with the songs, flashy wardrobe and choreography, Jennifer Hudson’s performance was the only redeeming aspect of Dreamgirls. She delivers every song with gusto and attitude, and she even manages to outdo Beyonce. (Why Ms. Knowles is considered a leading actress in this film is beyond me.) Also good are Jaime Foxx, Anika Noni Rose, and Eddie Murphy—though I’m not as convinced that his performance is especially noteworthy compared to others, he’s still a great showman and a surprisingly good singer.

But Dreamgirls made me groan too frequently, such as during a rapid montage of the Dreams’ world tour when a photograph of the group alongside the Beatles appears on screen after a ridiculously fake issue of Time Magazine. And shame on whoever designed those closing credits—it felt like nothing more than brazen Oscar promotion.

by Adam Balz | Source: Dreamworks 35MM Theatrical Print
16 Jan 2007 8:31 PM | Comments (5)

Curse of the Golden Flower / Man cheng jin dai huang jin jia / China/Hong Kong / 2006

A more appropriate title would have been Large Jiggling Chests and the Homicidal Emperors Who Love Them.

As Leo already noted, Zhang Yimou is renowned for his use of color. Hero, a vibrant and violent depiction of pre-empirical China, was aesthetically pleasing, offering us a visually digestible balance of man-made colors and the natural world. (The autumnal fight between Flying Snow and Moon—Maggie Cheung and Ziyi Zhang, respectively—still ranks as one of the most beautiful, expertly shot moments I’ve ever seen put to film.) With Curse of the Golden Flower, the director outdoes himself, casting eye-blinding rainbow hues into every nook and corner. Not a single appliance or piece of furniture is spared; even the emperor’s armor clangs with gold. Needless to say, the colors seem to hide a very bland and predictable plot, and the ending, which I hoped would offer us an incredible fight, left me immensely disappointed. And the fact that this film was given more critical attention than Zhang’s Riding Alone for Thousands of Miles, which was both heartfelt and easy on the eyes, left me feeling even more letdown.

Leo’s Thoughts

by Adam Balz | Source: Sony Pictures 35MM Theatrical Print
16 Jan 2007 8:30 PM | Submit Comment

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

I’m just crackers about these two.

by Beth Gilligan | Source: Dreamworks DVD
15 Jan 2007 3:39 PM | Comments (1)

Little Children / USA / 2006

The key to understanding this film is found in the title. Much like L’Enfant, the titular “little children” are the adults rather than their kids. When they discuss blowing off tests, anxiety over “tonight’s game,” and running away together, it’s as though we’re viewing a postgraduate episode of Friday Night Lights rather than a film about adultery and sexual perversion. Add to that the collection of gossiping women who stare and giggle childishly at “the Prom King” (note the high-school prominence of that title), and the film becomes an allegory of adolescence.

This aspect is only strengthened by the now infamous narrator, who delivers much of the plot in a deep, monotonous, and all-pervasive voice. The academic way in which this nameless, faceless man summarizes emotions, hopes, and stinging regrets mocks the very characters before us. He derides them for their ways, their self-important lives, their sad little escapades thought so brilliant. It adds an air of absurdity to the film, apparent especially during the football game, when everything comes together so idealistically, as though it were perfectly choreographed.

Hence, I was not only pleasantly surprised by this film, but I also liked it. Expecting to abhor the spoon-feeding narrator, whose voice sounds so familiar yet so distant, I instead embraced him as an all-knowing friend, a presence in the theatre air allowing me to laugh at the husbands and wives before me rather than pity them for their selfish problems. Jackie Earle Haley’s Ronnie McGorvey may be the film’s villain—and what an incredibly deep and terrifying villain he is—but Sarah, Brad, and all their friends are Field and Perrotta’s true subjects of scorn and ridicule.

Jenny’s Review

by Adam Balz | Source: New Line 35MM Theatrical Print
15 Jan 2007 2:40 PM | Submit Comment

The Great New Wonderful / USA / 2005

2006 marked the first year that major studios began releasing films based on or around September 11. First came Paul Greengrass’ United 93, about the plane that went down in Shanksville, Pennsylvania. Later that year was Oliver Stone’s World Trade Center, about two firefighters caught in the rubble at Ground Zero. And while I found both films moving, they’re prefaced by an overlooked third film: Danny Leiner’s A Great New Wonderful, which was given a small release in the later months of 2005 but was ultimately ignored. Leiner’s film prides itself on being a “romantic comedy” about a post-9/11 New York City, in which laughter and therapy take the place of heroism and mourning. The only problem is that, for a movie so devoted to investigating humanity, the characters remain incredibly distant.

Created in the mold of films like Magnolia and Short Cuts, The Great New Wonderful follows a diverse collection of New Yorkers a week before the first anniversary of September 11. Connected only by their location, Leiner and screenwriter Sam Catlin attempt to elicit apathy for their New Yorkers, even while portraying them as shallow, repressed, and even violent.

Perhaps my desire to like this film stems from it underlying similarities to the profoundly simple stories of A.M. Homes: A devoted family man (Naseeruddin Shah) has an affair at a grocery store and forgets to bring home waffles; a famed cake decorator (Maggie Gyllenhaal) rises to prominence, then falls apart when her greatest rival commits suicide; a school counselor (Stephen Colbert) suggests to the parents of a violent child that he be allowed to send their son “away”; a retired wife (Olympia Dukakis) finds herself caught in her husband’s choking routine; a psychologist (Tony Shalhoub) helps heal a patient’s suppressed, violent tendencies through jokes and thinly-veiled insults. There are no great moments of heroism—only the trickling aftermaths of small realizations. Suddenly the couple’s troublesome son is gone, his room empty; the psychiatrist is on the floor, knocked unconscious by a thrown chair; the retired woman’s husband breaks his routine and washes dishes. But where Homes stories find wealth in apparent everyday simplicity, Leiner’s film is profoundly flat. We’re never allowed to sympathize with any of the characters, even when we desperately want to. The filmmakers hope that, by including characters who’ve all suffered from 9/11, they have an ingrown and immediate sympathy, a connection.

The most bothersome aspect is, however, how little optimism can be drawn from Catlin’s characters. When Allison and David Burbage decide to “send away” their son, is that action symbolic of their coming-to-terms with the tragedy of last year or further suppression? When Emme’s rival commits suicide, does it create an awareness in her about the sudden anniversary? All stark, necessary questions that, unfortunately, must go unanswered.

by Adam Balz | Source: First Independent DVD
15 Jan 2007 2:06 PM | Submit Comment

Twelve and Holding / USA / 2006

A devastating, heartbreaking look at the lives of pubescent children from Michael Cuesta, the director of L.I.E., who’s quickly becoming a personal favorite of mine. His seemingly effortless guidance of his young actors is a rarity in Hollywood today, and all three principle actors—Conor Donovan, Jesse Camacho, and especially Zoe Weizenbaum—are superb. (The latter’s rendition of “I’m Burning for You” is especially soul-wrenching.) An admirable second film, though Cuesta seems to be encroaching somewhat on Larry Clark territory.

by Adam Balz | Source: IFC Films DVD
15 Jan 2007 2:04 PM | Submit Comment

Good Morning / Ohayo / Japan / 1959

An interesting look at how the post-war Americanization of Japan turned Japanese children into farting TV addicts. I loved it!

by Adam Balz | Source: Criterion DVD
15 Jan 2007 2:04 PM | Submit Comment

A Dirty Shame / The Neuter Edition / USA / 2004

Five minutes shorter than Waters’ original NC-17 cut and mutilated by an unbearable amount of pixilation and dubbed dialogue, it nonetheless remains faithful to the director’s reputation as a craftsman of the crude and bizarre. Tracy Ullman as Sylvia Stickles, a petulant suburbanite transformed into an over-sexed “apostle” by an accidental knock on the head, radiates with the explicit sickness known only to Waters’ most willing and devoted fans. Other new additions to the director’s usual cast—Patricia Hearst and Mink Stole are both present and deliciously perverse—are singer Chris Isaak as Sylvia’s oblivious husband, Selma Blair as Sylvia’s monstrously-busted daughter Caprice, and Suzanne Shepherd as Sylvia’s mother Big Ethel. And while A Dirty Shame lacks any of the shit-eating self-molestation that made Waters famous (and infamous), it’s mischievousness for the twenty-first century: Sylvia gyrating erotically to the “Hokey Pokey,” Johnny Knoxville’s Ray-Ray extolling the virtues of the sexually liberated, a grown man defecating into a purse. And, in true Waters form, there’s an overly blatant message about the importance of diversity and acceptance. But, then again, no one really watches John Waters’ films for their collective social implicitness, do they.

by Adam Balz | Source: New Line DVD
15 Jan 2007 2:02 PM | Submit Comment

Another Gay Movie / USA / 2006

My generation will forever be identified with the American Pie franchise, something that makes me continuously ashamed. Where other generations can pride themselves on The Best Years of Our Lives or Easy Rider, Wall Street or Goodfellas, we have a seemingly endless multi-million-dollar series that protracts the decades-long stereotype of apathetic, over-sexed teens. And while Adam Herz’s franchise, founded on the bizarre notions of pastry lust and Band Camp self-abuse, has its moments—Eugene Levy is endlessly funny—the whole idea is embarrassingly preposterous.

Written and directed by Todd Stephens, Another Gay Movie is his take on the American Pie series. It’s also very, very gay, which is apparently all you need nowadays to instigate a cult following. For 92 minutes we’re subjected to sight gags involving fake genitalia, sex toys, lubrication, BDSM, ejaculate, masturbation, lesbianism, Richard Hatch’s unpixilated crotch, and lots of simulated sex, including one scene with a quiche. The dialogue is unrelentingly flat, and the filmmakers go overboard in creating a cinematic collage of naked asses. (The overly stereotypical characters, I assume, were written as such to make a valid point. I’m still waiting on what that point is.)

Still, Another Gay Movie is distastefully hilarious. The main characters all graduate from San Torum High School (note the fading social reference) and make a pact; what follows are a half-dozen desperate, bizarre, and overall doomed attempts at losing their virginities before college. Included in their journey is a wealth of cameo guest stars—Scott Thompson, Graham Norton, gay porn icon Matthew Rush, and “Last Comic Standing’s” Ant. There’s even George Marcy, an aged actor dragged from the 1950s who sounds like Wally Gator.

But most of all, Another Gay Movie is noteworthy for two things: The title song “Another Gay Sunshine Day,” sung by Nancy Sinatra, that’s so unbelievably campy it becomes embedded in your skull; and a five-minute cut scene found in “Special Features” starring Mink Stole as Sloppy Seconds, a drag queen who accosts one character in a dance club restroom with a story so unbelievably terrible and bizarre I was laughing for days.

by Adam Balz | Source: TLA Relesing DVD
15 Jan 2007 2:01 PM | Comments (1)

Scoop / USA / 2006

Woody’s inexplicable and deeply misguided fascination with the British aristocracy gathers pace with this intermittently entertaining ‘romp’ through the stately homes of the rich and corrupt. Vividly recalling his own Curse Of The Jade Scorpion, the film is basically an excuse for Woody to hang out with Scarlett Johansen, indulge his lifelong passion for low rent stage magic, poke around a few old houses and recycle a few equally elderly gags (like the one about ‘converting to narcissism’). Fair play to him, at least he’s still plodding on, and it’s always nice to spend 95 minutes in such cosy, familiar company.

by Tom Huddleston | Source: DVD
15 Jan 2007 6:39 AM | Submit Comment

Apocalypto / USA / 2006

Madman Mel’s Mayan adventure may be wildly inaccurate, but it’s also pretty spectacular, reminiscent of Children Of Men in the heart- pounding relentless chase stakes. And I was pleased to note that the film goes a long way towards confirming my long held suspicions about Mel’s tortuous Catholic guilt and closeted sexual proclivities- once again, we’re treated to the sight of near- naked men undergoing graphic torture, paying the price for some unnamed and unchosen crime. In fact, there’s more exposed male flesh in this film than any other in recent memory- the women, by contrast, seem almost demure. It’s the subject matter, defenders will cry, he’s only reflecting the fashions of the day. Seems like an awful big coincidence to me.

by Tom Huddleston | Source: 35mm print
15 Jan 2007 6:38 AM | Submit Comment

Idiocracy / USA / 2006

You can read Rumsey’s full review (and my comment) here.

by Tom Huddleston | Source: DVD
15 Jan 2007 6:37 AM | Submit Comment

Shampoo / USA / 1975

I love Ashby’s earlier films, so I was disappointed with this sharp but ultimately rather boring trawl through LA’s 60’s heyday. Robert Towne and Warren Beatty’s script is crammed with wit and intelligence, but in the service of such insular, disinterested characters, it quickly becomes very hard to care. The highlight is Jack Warden’s ageing business tycoon, exploiting the free love generation for his own selfish ends.

by Tom Huddleston | Source: BBC4
15 Jan 2007 6:33 AM | Submit Comment

Seabiscuit / USA / 2003

Perfect New Year’s Day viewing, undemanding and full of hope- a solid story, well told.

by Tom Huddleston | Source: BBC1
15 Jan 2007 6:33 AM | Submit Comment

City Slickers / USA / 1991

One of those films that sneaks up on you- on the surface it’s a rather obvious buddy comedy, with all the requisite wisecracking, scrapping, bonding, learning and growing that entails. But the film exudes an unexpected pull, forcing to you to actually start caring what happens to these people, whether you want to or not. It’s largely the fault of the cast- Bruno Kirby and Daniel Stern were never better, ably backing Billy Crystal playing squarely in his comfort zone. The script is witty and flawlessly constructed, peppered with great jokes and moments of genuine insight.

by Tom Huddleston | Source: ITV3
15 Jan 2007 6:32 AM | Submit Comment

While You Were Sleeping / USA / 1995

A quality Christmas romcom, with that nice Sandra Bullock falling for that nice Peter Gallagher, before finally finding true love with that nice Bill Pullman. That nice Jack Warden (RIP 2006) provides dependable support.

by Tom Huddleston | Source: BBC1
15 Jan 2007 6:30 AM | Submit Comment

Night At The Museum / USA / 2006

Not half as bad as everyone’s complaining, but not half as good as it should be. Ricky Gervais proves once again that he’s capable of playing one character- himself.

by Tom Huddleston | Source: 35mm Print
15 Jan 2007 6:29 AM | Submit Comment

The Black Dahlia / USA / 2006

Why does everyone insist on sweetening James Ellroy- his books are mired in the gutter, seeping with bile and human misery, whereas the film adaptations (notably L.A. Confidential and this) are star studded spectaculars, set against the glittering backdrop of tinseltown and crammed with glamour and impressive period hair. But at least with the former they managed to retain the sharp dialogue and characters- this is just plain dull.

by Tom Huddleston | Source: DVD
15 Jan 2007 6:28 AM | Submit Comment

Borat / Cultural Learnings Of America For Make Benefit Glorious Nation Of Kazakhstan / USA / 2006

I went into this already half- cringing, expecting 90 minutes of unrelieved awkwardness and embarrassment, never my favourite style of comedy. So I was surprised by the range of Baron Cohen’s targets, and the breadth of his comedy- there’s slapstick, wordplay, real character and actual warmth, albeit filtered through a viciously dark lens. Bring on the legions of cheap imitators.

by Tom Huddleston | Source: 35mm print
15 Jan 2007 6:23 AM | Submit Comment

An-Magritt / Norway / 1969

Sandwiched between two of Bergman’s great late-60’s chamber pieces, An-Magritt is easily overlooked and is rarely screened in the U.S. But it is at least notable for bringing together two generations of Scandinavian cinema with three of its most central figures: the Swedish cinematographer Sven Nykvist, Norwegian actress (and later director) Liv Ullmann, and the most important of mid-century Norwegian directors, Arne Skouen, whose last film this is.

But even with the contribution of two key members of Bergman’s team, the film is quite different from the Swedish director’s work. Set in the rural, Danish-ruled Norway in an unspecified period of the Middle Ages, the film’s title character struggles under the weight of class inequities and rigid religious code, laboring in the collection of coal for the local chamberlain and struggling to keep from starving or freezing to death. Nykvist’s work here is distinct from that of his films with his great Swedish collaborator, taking in the often brutal winter landscape that envelopes the film’s characters rather than zooming in to incisive closeups of their inner thoughts. And while the film utilizes the indeterminate vastness of this landscape to suggest the many imperceptible forces, political and religious, that guide the lives of An-Magritt and her fellow laborers, its effects are always social, rather than psychological as in Bergman.

Ullmann’s performance is characteristically sympathetic and involving, balancing (as she does often in Bergman’s films) a watchful vulnerability with an occasionally childlike defiance and determination. This is not far from her roles in Shame and The Passion of Anna bookend this film, but the key difference is Skouen’s emphasis on An-Magritt’s pluck and resourcefulness. Bergman, on the other hand, uses Ullmann’s seeming vulnerability as a mask for more sinister, more hateful attributes.

of this is perhaps to say that Skouen’s is simply the more old-fashioned film, more concerned with enveloping the audience in a remote and anthropologically exotic context than plumbing emotional depths or probing relationships and metaphysical quandaries. This is not to point up a deficiency in Skouen’s film, as he achieves his goal quite equitably: approaching, but ultimately resisting the varieties of romanticism and miserablism that usually serve to prove that those long-ago times were either more essential or more unbearably horrible than our own. An-Magritt — convincingly acted, beautifully shot, well constructed, and rather unexpectedly funny as it is — manages to draw us into this world of work, love, hardship, religion, and hope in a way that makes it seem inhabitable and plausible, if not the least bit cozy.

And true to that wonderfully ardent, colloquial Scandinavian socialism, there is even a strangely successful bit of unionizing at the end, as the laborers demand fair tariffs for their work — and get it.

by Leo Goldsmith | Source: Norsk Film 35mm print
13 Jan 2007 2:43 PM | Submit Comment

2046 / China / 2004

If this is a sequel (of sorts) to Wong Kar-Wai’s In the Mood For Love it’s only because the actor, who played the main character in Wong’s previous effort, re-appears in a more poignant relationship. The characters, however, are very different.

I’ve only watched this once but it still leaves a lasting impression. The thing I remember most about Wong’s film is the incredible sense of alienation between the main character, Cho Mo-Wan, a writer played by Tony Leung, and virtually all the women in his life; but chiefly, Bai Ling, played by Zhang Ziyi, star of Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon and House of Flying Daggers. It’s a story told, for the most part, from Tony’s point of view, and has more to do with how former love affairs, especially early ones, shape and influence the outcome of subsequent relationships. We spend a great deal of time in the past watching this film and on a certain level, Wong seems to imply that what we are is, in fact, a collection of past events and incidents. He ably demonstrates that the two main lovers who meet each other are not meeting each other at all, but reliving old love affairs. Not many filmmakers are able to do this as deftly as Wong, though it helps that the main character is a writer, one whose work is by nature an exercise in memory told through the lens of an incredible imagination.

Essentially, a hack writer (he pays the bills writing soft porn), writes a novel about a mysterious train which leaves for 2046 taking people to recapture lost memories. It’s said that nothing ever changes in 2046 but then no one’s ever returned save the author. He wants to change. But considering the method and means by which he chooses to free himself from himself we know it’s impossible. So he’s doomed to fail – and the love story within his quest is doomed as well.

I suppose this scenario fits the third category of romance, that is, the great obstacle to love. Here’s a film where the obstacles are the lovers themselves. They want to be together yet, unconsciously, tragically, they want more to have their lover break their hearts thereby completing the cycle of heartbreak which began with a former lover some time in the past.

by Marlin Tyree | Source: CIC/Paramount DVD
11 Jan 2007 6:40 PM | Comments (7)

Shoeshine / Sciuscià / Italy / 1946

De Sica is considered the purveyor neorealist cinema, so it is perhaps ignorant on my part to deem his works — especially this film — foremost examples of dramatization. In Umberto D, a late scene finds the impoverished and near defeated title character framed carefully through a hole in his apartment wall. This staging may relay the actual circumstances of Umberto’s living, but it is nonetheless dramatized, which I feel is somehow antithetical to the fundamental tenets of neorealism.

Such dramatization extends to (or rather, is established in) Shoeshine, and the effect is much more disheartening. Two young boys are arrested for their inadvertent involvement in a theft, and at the juvenile prison they are told to ink their hands and stamp their fingerprints. By the time they are released, you fear, their hands may not even match these ephemeral facsimiles.

by Rumsey Taylor | Source: Masters of Cinema DVD
11 Jan 2007 11:40 AM | Submit Comment

Blood Simple / USA / 1984

As immaculately taught as this tightrope of a film is, it is M. Emmet Walsh’s showcase entirely. Imagine Big Bird cramped inside a Volkswagan Beetle, speaking with a heavy drawl that sounds unlike any other accent, and you have what is among the most endearing and memorable supporting performances in film.

by Rumsey Taylor | Source: Cable TV
11 Jan 2007 11:18 AM | Submit Comment

Through a Glass Darkly / Såsom i en spegel / Sweden / 1961

Way back when, I numbered Bergman’s 1961 film among my favorites, and I’ve no reason to back out on that after this viewing. It’s by no means as watertight as many others of Bergman’s films — Sawdust and Tinsel, Smiles of a Summer Night, Wild Strawberries, Shame, Cries and Whispers, and Scenes from a Marriage seem to me virtually perfect films, and there are probably others — but Through a Glass Darkly is a good fulcrum for Bergman’s career, a distillation of themes that preceded it and a hint of what’s to come. It is, for starters, Bergman’s first with Nykvist as a full-time staffer and his first film on Fårö, and the way in which Nykvist captures the island’s somber light, the film’s beautifully measured pacing, and the plot’s truly weird tug-of-war between concrete reality and delusion, more than make up for the silly, uneven characterization of Minus and his rather obvious, embarassing epilogue.

by Leo Goldsmith | Source: Tartan Video DVD
10 Jan 2007 5:03 PM | Submit Comment

The Painted Veil / China/USA / 2006

Despite strong performances by Edward Norton, Toby Jones, and Diana Rigg, this is Naomi Watts’ movie all the way. Her transformation from a spoiled, sheltered young woman into someone with a broader view of both her marriage and the world around her enlivens what could have easily been another dusty adaptation of W. Somerset Maugham’s work.

by Beth Gilligan | Source: Warner Independent Pictures 35mm
10 Jan 2007 11:38 AM | Submit Comment

Henry V / UK / 1989

It’s probably the most stunning debut effort by a filmmaker in the history of the form. Kenneth Branagh’s Henry V (1989) has always been my favorite film version of the play. Branagh was obviously influenced by Oliver Stone’s Platoon, which he had apparently just seen (blood and guts spilling in slo mo), not to mention Akira Kurosawa’s Seven Samurai (rain, rain and more rain) when he set out to make his version of the Bard’s classic about the great conflict on the field at Agincourt (1415). As I recall, at the time he said something to the effect of presenting a film version of the play that was not a peon to British nationalism (like the Olivier version, which was produced around the time of WWII). I must say he succeeded.

If Branagh never made another film after Henry V, it alone would put him up there with the 20th century’s best filmed Shakespeare directors. From the film’s first frame with the famed Derek Jacobi serving as chorus, we are compelled by Branagh’s deliberate filmatization of one of the most famous conflicts in English history. You really don’t need to know the particular’s of the politics involved, nor have memorized the succession of Norman English monarchs and their historically tumultuous relations with France to enjoy this film. The plot is simple: Harry, the king of England, is insulted – and Harry, like any bully, intends to make a very big deal about it, despite the fact that his forces are greatly outnumbered – 5 to 1, as the legend goes.

Branagh was very lucky to have such notables as Jacobi, Judi Dench and three or four other great talents along for the ride, especially for his directorial debut. The scenes depicting the household of Pistol and Mistress Quickly (Dench) and a nice cameo by Robbie Coltrane as Falstaff are very well done and augment the battle scenes quite nicely.

But the last scenes of the film (Act V of the play) are always a letdown. Once Harry has France in his grasp and makes an attempt at courting the French king’s daughter, the film takes a decided downturn. Granted, Emma Thompson does an admirable job at playing the startled and wary young Katherine, uncomfortable with the brash forwardness (and English) of the young English conquerer, the final scenes (film-wise, certainly) move more like a series of stiff tableaux than an apt conclusion to a great armed conflict, especially one involving such seemingly insurmountable odds. But the fault, in this case (dare I suggest it?), lies with the playwright.

Nevertheless, it’s surely one of the best of the Bard on celluloid.

by Marlin Tyree | Source: MGM DVD
09 Jan 2007 6:22 PM | Comments (4)

Love Object / USA / 2003

Now if more horror movies were made like this I’d be a die-hard fan of the genre. I’ve never laughed so hard at a first viewing. The film is essentially about a lonly tech writer (Kenneth Harrington) who orders a female sex-doll to fill the void in his life. Trouble is, he models it on a real live aquaintance. As the real relationship begins to bloom the doll takes on a life of its own and begins to destroy him.

The film is well written, directed and executed, for the most part, though the twist conclusion is a bit tired and, of course, (the director) Robert Parigi had to go the gore route. Why I don’t know. If it had remained a satirical psychological thriller it might have been a real classic. Instead, I’m afraid it’ll become one of the cult-classic, bargain-bin DVD specials. It appeals to the ridiculous in us all (which, imo, we don’t see nearly enough of in American Cinema). Parigi takes his treatment of contempoary alienation and lonliness to hilarious limits and then goes overboard for the sake of cheap effects. In doing so, however, he throws the premise away. The bite of Parigi’s social commentary is muted with the ending. Perhaps others here who have seen this feel differently. I do think, however, that he may have taken a wrong turn.

None of this would have worked without the the fabulous performance by Desmond Harrington in the lead. His performance is utterly convincing save the banal ending – but I suppose that given the script it couldn’t be helped.

Bravo.

by Marlin Tyree | Source: Lions Gate DVD
09 Jan 2007 6:10 PM | Submit Comment

PlayTime / France/Italy / 1967

Fantastique!!

Rumsey’s Full Review

by Jenny Jediny | Source: Criterion Collection DVD
09 Jan 2007 1:26 PM | Submit Comment

Take the Money and Run / USA / 1969

Job interviewer: Have you any experience in running a high-speed digital electronic computer?

Virgil: Yes, I have.

Job interviewer: Where?

Virgil: My aunt has one.

However rudimentary Allen’s directorial debut may seem in hindsight, it’s nonetheless as consistently hilarious as his best comedies. One can practically still hear the Zucker brothers chomping at the bit to run out of the theater and buy (or steal?) a movie camera.

It’s also worth watching just to see how much of a cutie Woody used to be.

by Leo Goldsmith | Source: MGM 35mm Print
09 Jan 2007 12:31 PM | Submit Comment

Climates / Iklimler / Turkey/France / 2006

Leo’s Review

by Beth Gilligan | Source: Zeitgeist 35mm print
09 Jan 2007 11:05 AM | Submit Comment

Pan’s Labyrinth / El Laberinto del Fauno / Mexico/Spain/USA / 2006

I seem to be in the minority here, but something about this film left me a little cold. It’s beautifully realized, but like Tom, I felt the narrative never fully cohered.

Jenny’s Review

by Beth Gilligan | Source: Picturehouse 35mm print
09 Jan 2007 10:46 AM | Comments (1)

Children of Men / UK/USA / 2006

Shame on whoever decided to release this film in the U.S. on December 25. From what I could tell from the various Top Ten lists I read, many critics did not have the chance to see (and/or fully digest) it, and it appears to be getting lost in the barrage of year-end releases. I don’t have much to add that hasn’t already been noted by Leo, Rumsey, Jenny, and Tom, but allow me to join the chorus of praise, and state that if I had seen it prior to our Year-End feature, it would have certainly been at the top of my list.

by Beth Gilligan | Source: Universal Pictures 35mm print
09 Jan 2007 10:14 AM | Comments (6)

Cries and Whispers / Viskningar och rop / Sweden / 1973

Sven Nykvist, 1922-2006

by Leo Goldsmith | Source: The Criterion Collection DVD
08 Jan 2007 5:52 PM | Submit Comment

Miami Vice / Director’s Cut / USA / 2006

I have never greatly admired a Michael Mann film. Most all of them are wildly bombastic, grossly self-assured crime thrillers, and among them Miami Vice is the most wildly bombastic and the most grossly self-assured. Colin Farrell’s sand-coated larynx is to make you think he’s talked his way through a lifetime of drug stings, and Jaime Foxx’s gestures of calm (they look like he waves both hands down with a determination you’ve seen in no other human being) would instantaneously diffuse the most panicked hostage crises. It’s a great entertainment, to be sure, but I’m not sure the result was intended to be so ridiculous.

Jit’s thoughts | Beth’s thoughts | Leo’s thoughts | (More of) Leo’s thoughts | (More of) Jit’s thoughts

by Rumsey Taylor | Source: Universal Pictures DVD
08 Jan 2007 4:35 PM | Submit Comment

Notes on a Scandal / UK / 2006

I’ve never been more impressed with Judi Dench. As Barbara Covett, the actress is hoary and vicious, her personality blinded by a nonexistent love with Cate Blanchett’s Sheba Hart. But she’s also someone who’s downright vulnerable and pathetic, a pitiable presence who’s built a life on cunning, unstoppable obsession. Every scene is humanity torn assunder as Covett pursues Hart, meets her family, and witnesses her fall victim to an unthinkable temptation; when Covett confronts Hart and hears her confession, she uses the moment to her advantage, plotting madly. From there on, only self-destruction can—and does—follow.

Patrick Marber’s screenplay is written dangerously and within an inch of its life. Any minute it risks becoming a farce, a mockery of its own subjects, and even lets one foot dangle over the cliff’s edge by adding a handful of poorly-included jokes. But the film succeeds with absoluteness, thanks almost solely to Dench. She allows herself to become Barbara Covett, submitting her regal face and personality to the miserable poison that is her character. Cate Blanchett remains an almost sad, stagnant presence until the second half, when she explodes into a fury of emotion, and Bill Nighy as Richard, her older husband, is deserving of much credit, despite being forgotten by most critics. On top of that, Philip Glass’ score is solemn and intrusive—both compliments—and the cinematography, which alternates between steady and frenzied, sets the mood perfectly.

I must admit that in one scene, as Richard and Sheba are fighting—an occurrence Barbara refers to as the “opera”—Richard flies into a rage, shouting, and spits unintentionally across the room; it speaks to the intensity of the moment, the conviction of the actors and, for someone who loves realism in film, tops off an incredible picture.

by Adam Balz | Source: Fox Searchlight 35MM Theatrical Print
08 Jan 2007 3:09 PM | Submit Comment

Pan’s Labyrinth / El Laberinto del Fauno / Mexico/Spain/USA / 2006

Expecting Alice in Wonderland framed by the Spanish Civil War, I was instead beguiled by Guillermo del Toro’s fantasy film for adults, in which the fantasy aspects were scant, left to a minimum, with a creature here or there. While this may annoy those who’ve seen nothing other than pictures of Pan, the Giant Toad, and the Pale Man, del Toro’s decision to limit their on-screen appearances makes those scenes even more beautiful.

And Guillermo del Toro is someone who knows how to cultivate beauty from the deepest and darkest of circumstances. With the exception of Hellboy, which was itself naturally harsh and gloomy, del Toro’s never created a bright, lighthearted film. Not that I’m complaining—he’s obviously found a niche in which he’s not only comfortable but skilled, gifted with a seemingly endless supply of images and ideas.

And while the underlying messages and symbols are a bit vague—some parts of the film, especially the ending, feel like allusions to the New Testament—Pan’s Labyrinth never fails to disappoint. In fact, del Toro seems inexplicably able to manipulate our mindsets, to touch something deep within us that isn’t nostalgia or longing; the various “Oohs” and “Ahhhs” and especially “Ughs” that came from the audience, and even from me at times, are a measure of what this film can accomplish, even for an all-adult audience. No, this isn’t a movie for children—there is blood, gore, torture, man committing violence against man. And yet it speaks to an innocence in us, an idealism that adults tend to dismiss as nonsense. Definitely one of the best films of last year.

Jenny’s Review

by Adam Balz | Sourc