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
- Adam (16)
- Andrew (0)
- Chet (0)
- Chiranjit (0)
- David (0)
- Eva (0)
- Evan (0)
- Ian (5)
- Jenny (8)
- Katherine (0)
- Leo (5)
- Megan (0)
- Rumsey (19)
- Teddy (0)
- Thomas (0)
- Timothy (0)
- Victoria (0)
Total Comments: 32
- El Topo (0)
- A Hole in My Heart (0)
- Little Miss Sunshine (0)
- The Decalogue (I) (0)
- An Inconvenient Truth (0)
- Eraserhead (0)
- The Man Who Knew Too Much (0)
- Deja Vu (0)
- Mildred Pierce (0)
- Babel (1)
- 3 Godfathers (0)
- Children of Men (0)
- Mikey & Nicky (0)
- One Eyed Jacks (0)
- Nashville (0)
- Hearts of Darkness (0)
- Apocalypse Now (0)
- In the Bedroom (0)
- Babel (0)
- Harold And Maude (0)
- Superman II (0)
- Flags Of Our Fathers (0)
- Predator 2 (1)
- Leave Her To Heaven (0)
- Lola (0)
- Still Life (0)
- His Kind Of Woman! (0)
- Stand By Me (1)
- Only You (0)
- The Descent (0)
- Office Space (0)
- Northfork (0)
- The Good German (0)
- Dreamgirls (5)
- Curse of the Golden Flower (0)
- Wallace & Gromit in The Curse of the Were-Rabbit (1)
- Little Children (0)
- The Great New Wonderful (0)
- Twelve and Holding (0)
- Good Morning (0)
- A Dirty Shame (0)
- Another Gay Movie (1)
- Scoop (0)
- Apocalypto (0)
- Idiocracy (0)
- Shampoo (0)
- Seabiscuit (0)
- City Slickers (0)
- While You Were Sleeping (0)
- Night At The Museum (0)
- The Black Dahlia (0)
- Borat (0)
- An-Magritt (0)
- 2046 (7)
- Shoeshine (0)
- Blood Simple (0)
- Through a Glass Darkly (0)
- The Painted Veil (0)
- Henry V (4)
- Love Object (0)
- PlayTime (0)
- Take the Money and Run (0)
- Climates (0)
- Pan’s Labyrinth (1)
- Children of Men (6)
- Cries and Whispers (0)
- Miami Vice (0)
- Notes on a Scandal (0)
- Pan’s Labyrinth (0)
- Volver (0)
- Night Watch (0)
- The Long Goodbye (0)
- Thank You For Smoking (0)
- Look Both Ways (0)
- Children of Men (3)
- The Bat (0)
- Shadowboxer (0)
- Sophie Scholl: The Final Days (0)
- The Bishop’s Wife (0)
- Children of Men (1)
- Delicatessen (0)
- McCabe & Mrs. Miller (0)
- Infernal Affairs (0)
- Dial M for Murder (0)
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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