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.

August 2007 activity

Total Log Entries: 52

Total Comments: 35

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The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly / Il Buono, il brutto, il cattivo / Italy/Spain / 1966

For all the attention lavished upon its grandiose gunfights and its memorable score, Leone’s famous film always wins me over with two understated scenes. The first reveals the enduring bitterness that emerges from a lifetime of sibling rivalry and resentment when Tuco and his brother, Pablo, confront one another after years apart. Pablo chastises his brother for his impious lifestyle, his eternal estrangement from their family, and his shameful absence at their father’s funeral, which took place only a few days before. Tuco responds with equally harsh words deriding the convenience and cowardice buried underneath Pablo’s childhood choices. Through his callous comments, Tuco reveals that Pablo’s departure felt more like a desertion, leaving Tuco as a child without adequate resources or proper guidance, and thus unable to combat the responsibilities of adulthood without taking criminal short-cuts. Their volatile encounter ends in an unsurprising torrent of aggression and violence, further illustrating Tuco’s audacity and deterioration, but also revealing Pablo’s recognition of his own conceit and arrogance.

The scene that immediately ensues is almost the polar opposite in tone. In a film that so often amplifies its actions and dwells on discord, Leone is smart enough to recognize his central characters sometimes require a brief beat of tranquility and harmony. As Tuco and Blondie depart their saintly sanctuary, their awkward and temporary alliance is reinforced by a brief moment of bonding as Tuco beams with pride while boasting of the eternal compassion his brother, Pablo, constantly exhibits towards Tuco. Unbeknownst to Tuco (though Eli Wallach’s acting is skilled enough to convey the possibility that Tuco is aware that his appalling prior actions were quite public), Blondie has been privy to the preceding events that tumultuously ended in humiliation for both brothers, yet he gives his companion no indication that he has witnessed such disgrace. Instead, Blondie allows Tuco to retain whatever remaining dignity he might still desperately cling onto and offers his cohort a pull from his cigar as a sign of their fleeting equality and brief bond based upon their mutual knowledge that they have chosen a life of isolation.

Such interaction between the two men is a welcome relief and a dramatic deviation from the constant cruelty both men exhibit towards one another throughout the majority of the film. Thus, Leone provides us with a glimpse of the humanity both men might still possess if their lifestyle didn’t require them to be so ruthless. If there is a better scene at demonstrating the unspoken respect men possess for their fellow man, but are not allowed to openly acknowledge, I have yet to watch it.

Rumsey’s Review

David’s Review

by Chiranjit Goswami | Source: MGM Collector’s Edition DVD
31 Aug 2007 6:34 PM | Comments (1)

Maniac Nurses Find Ecstasy / Bloodsucking Freaks II / USA / 1990

Why oh why oh why do I keep letting these Troma titles dupe me? Let’s start by saying that Maniac Nurses Find Ecstasy is neither as maniacal nor as ecstatic as it purports to be. Apparently the nurses in question have become so inured to excess that now they can only derive sexual pleasure from killing people. There are long scenes of bored women reading porn and stripping for each other with a voiceover helpfully spelling this out for us. Oh, and one of them is having sex with the woman who’s secretly, her mother— that’s the “horrible secret” the helpful voiceover makes clear to us in the first five minutes. Nothing else really happens until three-quarters of the way in, when a bunch of campers pitch a tent nearby— finally, with someone around for these homocidal maniacs to kill, it’s bound to get better, right? Wrong. Eventually, of course, the daughter is doomed to learn that she’s sleeping with her mother, at which point she goes crazy and kills everyone.

Doesn’t this sound like it should be at least a little fun to watch? Like it should have some redeeming qualities, at least if you’re into this kind of thing? It doesn’t. It’s hard to communicate exactly how torturous this film is. The pacing is so slow that it actually causes physical pain, until the nurses start hunting down the innocent campers, at which point it somehow gets even slower.

When you rent a film with a title like Maniac Nurses Find Ecstasy, you’re obviously looking for a very specific type of entertainment, but the last thing a film like this should be is boring. And with such a promising premise, the headache-inducing awfulness of this is inexcusable. Don’t make the same mistake I did and get sucked in by the title. No one should ever watch this movie. Seriously. For your own good, avoid it like the plague that it is.

by Megan Weireter | Source: Rampage DVD
30 Aug 2007 1:28 PM | Comments (2)

When The Levees Broke: A Requiem In Four Acts / USA / 2006

An epic undertaking, almost as much for the viewer as the filmmakers, this somehow manages to hold the attention throughout it’s entire 260 minute run time. Focussing as much on the (ongoing) reparation effort as on Hurricane Katrina herself, Spike Lee is, as ever, unafraid to lay blame (or credit) where it’s due, and that’s mostly at the feet of the US government: Kanye West’s infamous comment is played three times in quick succession, just in case we weren’t paying attention. But this sort of enthusiastic hectoring is exactly what Lee does for a living, and never to better or more deserving effect than this.

by Tom Huddleston | Source: BBC4
30 Aug 2007 12:52 PM | Submit Comment

Eastern Promises / UK/ Canada / 2007

As a longtime Cronenberg fan, but also someone deeply skeptical of A History Of Violence and it’s glowing critical reception, I went into Eastern Promises with mixed expectations. The trailer had been underwhelming, looking like another gritty Lahndan crime drama with arty pretensions. I should have had more faith- this is terrific, completely ludicrous but utterly enthralling, taking the pseudo-subversive preoccupations of it’s predecessor and running with them. The inherent clichés of the crime thriller are still present and correct (there’s a third act twist which you can see coming a mile off), but this time the whole thing feels better integrated, less calculated and infinitely more human.

And the cast is just phenomenal, particularly Viggo Mortensen in what could be his first genuinely convincing acting performance, as a steely-eyed psycho with a heart of gold. It also features what could be a first for mainstream cinema, as Viggo beats the hell out of two evil thugs clad only in a large number of intricate tattoos. Sure, we’ve all seen it before, but never quite so active.

by Tom Huddleston | Source: Focus Features 35mm print
30 Aug 2007 12:51 PM | Submit Comment

The Departed / USA / 2006

It’s impossible to watch a film objectively after it wins the Best Picture Oscar, but this one feels like a particularly bad call. I mean, it’s no Crash or Beautiful Mind, but when compared to the major crime pictures of the last few years- Heat, say, or L.A. Confidential- The Departed just doesn’t stack up. Sure, it’s fun, but that’s about all. The characters are pretty thin, and Jack Nicholson’s performance is nothing we haven’t seen him do a lot better on numerous previous occasions. There’s nothing spectacular in the photography or the direction, even the soundtrack just feels like the same old Scorsese tricks- has he actually managed to use the entire Stones back catalogue in his movies now? I don’t know, perhaps I’m missing the point, but don’t you just want more from these people?

by Tom Huddleston | Source: DVD
30 Aug 2007 12:46 PM | Submit Comment

Knocked Up / USA / 2007

Finally hitting these shores, Knocked Up would have been one of the best films of the year even if the cast had just sat and stared at you for two hours. It’s basically a scripted Freaks and Geeks/ Undeclared reunion party, and that’s worth anyone’s money. That said, a few minor reservations: what happened to Seth Rogen being an illegal immigrant? Did I miss something? I wanted more of Martin Starr’s beard, more of Harold Ramis, and less of Judd Apatow’s wife. And the ending feels like a bit of letdown after The 40 Year Old Virgin gave us perhaps the finest closing scene in comedy history. But these are infinitesimal quibbles, and I’m already looking forward to seeing it again.

by Tom Huddleston | Source: 35mm print
30 Aug 2007 12:45 PM | Comments (5)

Little Children / USA / 2007

There’s an intrusive, rumbling voiceover throughout the full two-plus hours of this movie that often makes it seem as though you’re watching a very, very long trailer. It’s evidence of the film’s origins as a novel, and also of the fact that the original author co-wrote the screenplay and clearly couldn’t let go of his own prose. A shame, because this is the worst thing in an otherwise nicely constructed movie, and threatens to derail the whole thing just when you’re starting to enjoy it.

Essentially this is a high school movie with (if not for) adults- dowdy (miscast) Kate Winslet has an affair with muscular, mysterious prom king Patrick Wilson, but knows he’s never going to leave overachieving Jennifer Connelly. The trouble is they all have kids, so the stakes are so much higher. The film is nicely photographed and very well acted, and only the aforementioned narration and a predictably bleak ending let it down.

by Tom Huddleston | Source: DVD
30 Aug 2007 12:44 PM | Submit Comment

Fantastic Four: Rise Of The Silver Surfer / USA / 2007

An improvement on the original, but then again so was major dental surgery. The whole thing just feels like a kids TV show blown up to ludicrous proportions- the jokes, the characters, even the effects just feel resolutely small scale. But it doesn’t outstay it’s welcome, and there are a few exciting scenes. Overall, relatively painless.

Interesting to note, screenplay co-credit on both films goes to Mark Frost, co-creator of Twin Peaks. Further, slightly saddening proof of who really had the chops in that collaboration.

by Tom Huddleston | Source: 35mm print
30 Aug 2007 12:43 PM | Submit Comment

The Bourne Ultimatum / USA / 2007

It’s been said that the revitalization of the Bond series with Casino Royale came as a direct result of Bourne’s popularity- if so, thanks, Bourne. But surely that means this series has to step up it’s game in order to compete, and there’s not much evidence of this here. It’s enjoyable enough, and there’s a fist fight half way through which is definitely one of the best I’ve ever seen, but overall it just feels rather thin and repetitive- he goes to a European city, meets up with someone, that person dies, some bad guys attack, Bourne kills them and escapes, rinse and repeat. And great as it was to see Paddy Considine playing, of all things, a Guardian journalist, it would have been nice if he could have lasted more than ten minutes.

by Tom Huddleston | Source: 35mm print
30 Aug 2007 12:40 PM | Submit Comment

Transformers / USA / 2007

For years I’ve been a Bay apologist, loving Armageddon and The Rock, even enjoying The Island. But this feels like the work of a director suffering from early onset dementia, or at least a very specialized form of infantilism. For the audience it’s like being repeatedly hit over the head with something very shiny and very loud, for well over two hours.

I’m not sure what I was expecting- this is a movie made to sell toys and vehicles in roughly equal measure, and doesn’t attempt to disguise it’s omnipresent product placement. I just don’t think art and commerce have to be quite so mutually exclusive- there’s a decent action movie here trying to get out, and for a few scenes, mostly in the first half, it just about manages to. But the ending is just a hopeless muddle, there’s no way to tell what’s even going on half the time, characters appear and disappear, things blow up for no apparent reason, and it all started to give me a headache.

by Tom Huddleston | Source: 35mm print
30 Aug 2007 12:39 PM | Submit Comment

Being Michael Madsen / USA / 2007

The title alone gives you pause. And the film is pretty much exactly what you’d expect upon hearing it: a pseudo-ironic examination of the culture of celebrity, this time constructed as a loose documentary about a documentary. The premise is that the titular beefcake has hired a gang of budding documentarians to follow around his paparazzi nemesis, but they get caught up in the action, become celebrities themselves and yadda yadda yadda. There are some great cameos- Harry Dean Stanton, David Carradine and sister Virginia all manage to emerge with dignity largely intact- but for the most part this is a half-baked, chronically smug piece of filmmaking, cleverer than it could have been, but nowhere near as clever as it thinks it is.

by Tom Huddleston | Source: DVD
30 Aug 2007 12:38 PM | Comments (2)

The GoodTimesKid / USA / 2005

A rather vague and whimsical slice of US indie, showing over here as part of the Raindance festival. It’s one of those films where all the guys suffer from a deep seated ennui brought on by the meaninglessness of everyday living, so they float about listening to post-punk records and falling in love with skinny, long legged girls who dance in the kitchen for no reason. Harmless, occasionally sweet, largely forgettable.

by Tom Huddleston | Source: DVD
30 Aug 2007 12:36 PM | Submit Comment

Carefree / USA / 1938

Well, no one’s really going to believe Fred Astaire as a psychoanalyst treating his best friend’s fiancee Ginger Rogers with inevitable romantic complications, but who cares if they end up dancing and singing together? It’s enjoyable enough but there’s a sense that the oomph is starting to go out of the Astaire-Rogers pictures. Way too few songs for my taste, too.

by Ian Johnston | Source: Warner DVD
26 Aug 2007 9:18 PM | Submit Comment

Music and Lyrics / USA / 2007

As good a Hollywood rom-com as you’re likely to find. Hugh Grant continues his ironic self-mocking persona, Drew Barrymore does a good quirky but not too kooky love interest, there’s a simultaneous parodic and loving recreation of the kind of eighties pop music I hated (now it has a nostalgic whiff to it), and the story’s lean and to the point without any flabby diversions or sub-plots.

by Ian Johnston | Source: Warner DVD
26 Aug 2007 9:11 PM | Submit Comment

Inland Empire / France / Poland / USA / 2006

Two-thirds of the way through Inland Empire I was convinced this was the most perfectly-realised work that Lynch has done yet, a fascinating, dazzling, irresistible being-sucked-into the hermetic Lynchian world. But in the end, it’s not enough (emotionally, thematically, aesthetically)in spite of Laura Dern’s tremendous performance, and I join the notcoming dissenters Tom and Beth. For me, Blue Velvet remains – and it looks like, will always remain – Lynch’s best work, which has something that Inland Empire lacks, the structure of a traditional Hollywood narrative and, just as importantly, an emotional centre which Lynch can then twist and turn and distort. It’s the fine balance and tension between the two that makes Blue Velvet so rich and satisfying in a way that Inland Empire can never achieve. And I’m deeply unconvinced by the “feminist” theme that has been read into the film by so many, as a study of the way Tinseltown takes women in, chews them up, and spits them out. It’s all rather undermined by the leering way the handheld camera hovers at breast-level over so many beautiful young women, an effect which is reinforced in the brilliant “dying” scene’s monologue by the Japanese woman, where her tale of a prostitute friend’s perforated vagina wall to me reflects no emotional or sympathetic engagement on Lynch’s part, but rather a lurid indulgence that is a hair’s-breath away from misogynistic. Jenny’s review Leo’s review Thoughts from Rumsey Leo Adam

by Ian Johnston | Source: Absurda DVD
26 Aug 2007 5:27 AM | Submit Comment

Why We Fight / USA / 2005

When Why We Fight shifts to the Iraq war, it loses some footing, if only because the choir it preaches to is bigger than ever, and already knows all the songs. But for the most part, this one stands out from usual flood of left-wing documentaries because it asserts that there is nothing particularly new or surprising about our current war: the United States has been getting into conflicts it has no business getting into for over fifty years. Holding up Eisenhower’s farewell warning of the nation’s growing “military-industrial complex” as the last great yelp of peaceful rationality, Why We Fight answers its titular question with what amounts to a one-word answer: Money.

by Teddy Blanks | Source: http://tv-links.co.uk/
24 Aug 2007 10:15 AM | Comments (1)

Paths of Glory / USA / 1957

Europe. World War I. Kirk Douglas is a French army colonel ordered to attack an impenetrable German position. After several futile attempts to dissuade his commanding officer from going through with the attack, the scheduled time arrives, and his men go over the top. No sooner do they reach the fringes of No Man’s Land than the German artillery begins picking them off, one, two, three at a time. And then the machine guns start. It’s a futile effort, and the men turn back. The fighting is so fierce that the second wave never even leaves the trench.

Convinced all the men need is proper motivation, however, the general in charge of the operation, concerned only with his reputation in the press, orders the men in the trenches to be fired upon. When this order is repeatedly refused, he grows irate, and begins to hatch a plan of vengeance. His solution is to accuse the troops of cowardice in the face of the enemy, and to have a select few executed as examples to all those who would shirk their patriotic duty.

Far from a poignant relic championing glorious deeds of The Great War, this is a terse, unflinching, unsentimental, and terrifyingly contemporary tale, relying on a stark, relentless depiction of allegedly true-to-life events to make a simple argument against the madness and futility of war. Never before has a film made me so angry at injustice, so dismayed at the selfishness and cruelty of the human race, or so incensed at the unwarranted devastation of armed conflict. Were it not for the calming presence of Kirk Douglas’s humane and honorable Colonel Dax, Kubrick’s naked portrayal of humanity at its worst—particularly the infuriating kangaroo court martial, in which three men are haphazardly tried and convicted to placate the bruised ego of a sad, inconsequential old man—would have made this a difficult film to endure.

by Thomas Scalzo | Source: Comcast On Demand Feature
24 Aug 2007 12:00 AM | Submit Comment

Hannah Takes the Stairs / USA / 2007

It’s so easy to shit on this type of movie just because the characters are young and inarticulate and sometimes talk about blogs, but Hannah’s characters actually remind me of people I know, and mainstream movies do such bad jobs of depicting my generation. My guess is, ten years from now, the ‘Generation DIY’ movies (or whatever you want to call them) will look a lot less ‘self-indulgent’ and a lot more truthful to those whose confused post-college years took place in the mid-00s.

Rumsey’s review.

by Teddy Blanks | Source: IFC On Demand
23 Aug 2007 7:09 PM | Submit Comment

Superbad / USA / 2007

This is essentially American Pie: Redux—the story of close-knit, foul-mouthed high school friends hoping to get girlfriends, and get laid, before college begins. Only Superbad, helmed by director Greg Mottola, is actually a smart, funny, and compassionate R-rated teen comedy that doesn’t belittle its subjects or audience. The jokes are fresh—McLovin, an off-key sing-along over cocaine, a bizarre preteen dick-drawing disorder—without being overly juvenile. (At times the story descends into barf-joke territory but quickly recovers.) Plus, Bill Hader and co-writer Seth Rogen as two boozing, party-monster cops who befriend newcomer Christopher Mintz-Plasse’s Fogell, are worth it.

by Adam Balz | Source: 35MM Theatrical Print
23 Aug 2007 2:40 PM | Comments (2)

Jesus Camp / USA / 2006

A terrifying, if not entirely surprising documentary that, like it or not, sets out to unmask the cruel, fanatical face of the Christian conservative movement. But where Evangelical youth pastor Becky Fischer has received the most criticism, that condemnation seems a bit misdirected. Yes, she oversees a program that fosters intolerance, blind faith, and egotism; in a radio interview that closes the film, she even professes support for “indoctrination.” But the program wouldn’t exist were it not for the parents, one of whom is featured early in the film schooling her son in the overblown nature of global warming and extolling the absoluteness of the Bible; science, in her mind, is inconclusive. These men and women have abandoned their responsibilities as parents, instead using their children as pawns in a growing sociopolitical game of chess. A young girl tries to stand outside and simply enjoy the rain, only to be scolded by her mother; a young boy tells ghost stories with others at night, only to be reminded by a counselor that those stories are blasphemous; another boy confesses with a wide smile over lunch to seeing the Harry Potter films, eliciting a stunned silence from the table. They are kids trying to be kids, attempting to genuinely enjoy themselves. Instead we’re left with haunting images of kids with red pro-life tape over their mouths, of kids meeting the ominous Ted Haggard, and of a young mop-haired boy crying because he’s questioned his faith. Terrifying.

by Adam Balz | Source: DVD
23 Aug 2007 2:32 PM | Submit Comment

Titicut Follies / USA / 1967

While the actions of the Bridgewater staff are unspeakable, the greater horror is their willingness to act as such on camera. They know they will be seen, will be preserved on film in the public domain for decades thereafter, and still they harass and belittle and abuse their patients. They no longer see what they do as immoral—perhaps they never did—and their shamelessness is haunting.

by Adam Balz | Source: Zipporah Films VHS
23 Aug 2007 2:30 PM | Submit Comment

Ultraviolet / USA / 2006

From writer-director Kurt Wimmer comes Cliché. Chocked full of enough Christian symbolism to make you vomit sacramental wine, Cliché is a romp through the shitty distopian future, in which a Hemophage named Violet must defend her race against the dictatorial reign of a pure-human government. Is this an allegory for the Holocaust, as the opening leads us to believe? Yes. Is this a story of religion’s hold over politics? Absolutely. Is this just an excuse to see Mila Jovovich in amazingly tight clothes? Definitely. Cliché is whatever you want it to be! Kick-ass sci-fi flick, futuristic tear-jerker, subdued hero-and-geek romance—you name it, and Wimmer has somehow jostled it into the storyline.

In all seriousness, this is a truly awful color-by-numbers revenge film, heavy with purpose but lacking in the will or creativity to express it. During many of the choreographed action sequences, Mila Jovovich ambles from one villain to another, unable to express any emotion besides complete boredom. (In fact, if you look closely, you can actually see her falling asleep mid-slaughter.) The special-effects is jumpy and overly blinding while, at the same time, not fully formed—the final shot, in which the camera swoops down over the teeming utopia, reveals that the entire populace is living in plastic Monopoly houses rather than fully-formed homes.

The only upside: An actress who goes almost unnoticed as the voice of a computer. When Jovovich’s Violet steps into the Ministry and her body is scanned for ammunition, the computer’s reply is simple and quick, with a hint of fun: “Number of weapons found: Many.”

by Adam Balz | Source: DVD
23 Aug 2007 2:26 PM | Comments (2)

Eyes Wide Shut / USA / 1999

There seems to be a level of delicate personal contribution to this film, whether it’s the visual mentions of Kubrick’s earlier films or the ominous tension between Cruise and Kidman’s married characters, that adds a feeling of inevitable End—the director’s death, the couple’s divorce. Supplementing this is a strange, almost ironic insinuation about the sexuality of Cruise’s Bill Harford; considering the actor has been dogged by similar rumors for years, much of the storyline feels too close and intrusive to be simply coincidental. (These uncertain suggestions are epitomized when, for no apparent reason, Bill is harassed on the street by a group of young men.)

Whether these suggestions mean anything is debatable, though the trail to that conclusion is certainly negotiable amidst Kubrick’s Jodorowskian aesthetics—vibrant color, nude women presented as fleshen works of art, and shapes scattered along walls and floors.

by Adam Balz | Source: DVD
23 Aug 2007 2:19 PM | Comments (1)

Seraphim Falls / USA / 2006

Pierce Brosnan spent seven long years playing James Bond when he could have been making great indie films like this. Seraphim Falls is a Western in the tradition of John Ford’s The Searchers, that model tales of vengeance across the untamed West. What begins in the snow-drenched hills of the American Southwest ends atop a lake of boiling sand, where Brosnan’s Gideon and an old Confederate colonel, played by Liam Neeson, finally confront one another over the past.

The past, as it happens, is presented to us in flashback—the worst aspect of the film. While others deride David Von Ancken’s feature debut for its slow descent into the bizarre—a Native American at a puddle of water, Angelica Houston as an underhanded mystical peddler (apparently, you can’t do a great American Western without some member of the Houston family involved)—it’s those aspects that make Seraphim Falls so enthralling. The American West was a cruel idea—a borderless realm of misery and sedition made into mystical shining gold by dime novelists. The depiction of the world beyond the Mississippi River, post-1850s, is one of surprise, deception, and death.

by Adam Balz | Source: Destination Films DVD
23 Aug 2007 2:04 PM | Submit Comment

The Puffy Chair / USA / 2005

Despite its unfortunate title, The Puffy Chair makes for an excellent introduction to the (also unfortunately named) “mumblecore” film movement that’s getting some long deserved attention now due to a recent article in the New York Times and an upcoming series of screenings at the IFC Center in New York. It’s got all of the usual conceits: shaky hand-held camera, nonprofessional actors, a focus on aimless twenty-somethings and their love lives. But it also has a fairly traditional road-trip romance story arc, an impressive collection of weird old Southern folk as a supporting cast, and three damn good performances by its principals. All of which should make it appeal to people who aren’t, well – lets face it, hipsters like me.

by Teddy Blanks | Source: DVD
22 Aug 2007 12:16 AM | Comments (1)

Red Dawn / USA / 1984

In the middle of a high school history lecture on Genghis Khan, his tactics in siege and guerilla warfare, the Reds parachute straight onto the campus, each of them in camouflage that separates them distinctly from the environment. This is fodder for much contrivance – an otherwise segregated high school population banding together to flex the Reagan muscle, driving the Reds out with the patriotism the national anthem instills in them every morning – but the concept is handled with some deftness. Our focus is, expectedly, the football team’s starting lineup (each of them white, handsome, and lettered), and they immediately flee into the forest, to apply the very history lesson the Reds so opportunely interrupted.

The students’ refuge will last throughout the fall and winter—Red Dawn is syncopated by title cards that display the months as they pass by. During this time, little is known about the particulars of the invasion; the communist threat is forwarded not via propaganda, but a more primal paranoia: gun shots heard in a distant horizon, or the thumping blades of a helicopter encroaching from some direction. Because of this, the conflict’s expanse is isolated to only a mid-Western town, but the students refer to it as “World War III” without hesitation because it’s an assault on their limited perception of the world.

by Rumsey Taylor | Source: MGM DVD
20 Aug 2007 2:38 PM | Comments (1)

Robot Monster / Monster from the Moon / USA / 1953

In a preemptive strike against the increasing intelligence of humanity, the race of Ro-man, an ape-like species from another world, unleashes a furious assault upon the Earth, incinerating nearly all of humanity via their Calcinator Death Ray. Even though a man known as The Professor had the foresight to create a miracle inoculation (a serum capable of warding off any and all diseases, and, fortunately, extraterrestrial death rays), he was only able to preserve the lives of eight hapless humans. Furious at this inability to dispatch the entire human race in one fell swoop, the leader of the Ro-mans (referred to as Great Guidance) dispatches his ablest lackey (named, creatively, Ro-man), to do away with the insufferable survivors.

Rife with idiocy, this is one of the most entertaining bad sci-fi films I’ve ever seen. From the befuddling stock footage of lizards fighting to the death (interspersed with an even more befuddling stop-motion animation sequence featuring a triceratops), to a giant space helmet-wearing ape creature making the moves on a young lady, to the wedding ceremony featuring a groom without a shirt and a scientist quoting the Beatitudes, it’s nearly impossible to wrap your mind around the logic of this bizarre world.

Indeed, with each passing moment of Robot Monster’s 60-minute running time, a new question arises:

When is this story taking place? On the one hand, we have a human-run space platform hovering somewhere in the atmosphere. On the other hand, we have dinosaurs.

Does love turn seemingly normal human beings into mimes? Witness the inexplicable dalliance between the two leads, just as the end of the world seems nigh. Settling down in a field, the pair begins an animated conversation about their feelings. Suddenly, the words cease, the conversation continuing via exaggerated hand gestures.

Can bubbles facilitate communication? Judging by Ro-Man’s heavy reliance on the Million Bubble Machine every time he checks in with Great Guidance, we must assume that the future of interstellar dialogue involves massive quantities of water and soap.

I’m sure that there is supposed to be a deep message in here somewhere, about faith, redemption, and, more than likely, the evils of communism. But what I learned from the film was much more practical: be nice to people while you can, because someday a giant ape astronaut might kill everyone you know.

by Thomas Scalzo | Source: Treeline Films DVD
19 Aug 2007 12:42 PM | Submit Comment

Touch of Evil / USA / 1958

Before any word of praise or criticism can be uttered in reference to Orson Welles’ go at film noir, it must be stated which version of the film said critic viewed. For there are so many cineastes out there with entrenched positions on particular versions that to ignore such a topic would surely cause said film lovers to chime in with a vengeance. And so, I state here that it was the “Restored to Orson Welles’ Vision” version that I saw, replete with the missing Mancini opening-scene score, the cropped frame, and the retooled narrative.

Never having viewed the film before, however, I was unaware of the treason I was committing, and had no idea of what I was missing. Frankly, I cannot see how the film could manage to resonate more in my mind, regardless of which version I viewed, for it is simply beautiful to behold—the light, the shadows, the bizarre camera angles, all contributing to one of the most visually enjoyable film experiences I’ve had.

That being said, I cannot imagine that the muddled story could have been saved, no matter how many reedits the picture underwent. Although the tale of a semi-crooked cop plying his trade on the U.S. – Mexico border is interesting, the myriad intricate pieces just don’t add up to a cohesive and satisfying whole. For instance, is Sanchez actually guilty? Is Quinlan’s legendary intuition strong enough to arrest a man without evidence? What’s the connection between Quinlan and Grandi? Maybe I wasn’t paying close enough attention, but none of these plot threads seemed to come together.

It’s possible, of course, that I was distracted by the magnificent sight of a marble-mouthed Orson stomping about desolate southern locales, or dumbstruck by the idea of the ebullient Charlton Heston rendered almost invisible by the mammoth weight of Orson’s shadow, but it seems that this tale, though engrossing and tantalizing, doesn’t completely work when all is said and done. Perhaps that’s why so many analysts out there spend so much energy discussing the controversial editing process and not the actual story.

by Thomas Scalzo | Source: Universal Studios DVD
18 Aug 2007 6:28 PM | Comments (1)

A Clockwork Orange / U.K. / 1971

Yes, it’s brilliant and clever, but put this beside Lolita, Barry Lyndon, or Eyes Wide Shut, and it’s dispiriting to see a great director produce anything so cold, callous, self-satisfied, and shallow.

by Ian Johnston | Source: Warners DVD
18 Aug 2007 7:18 AM | Comments (7)

Les Misérables / France / 1934

I can’t say I ever heard of director Raymond Bernard before this Eclipse release, and while we’re not dealing with anyone operating at the level of Vigo or early Renoir, there’s plenty of interest here. Certainly the almost five hours taken to adapt Hugo’s novel allows it to spend more time on eisodes that other shorter versions skip over – it’s fascinating, for example, how much time is given over to the student revolutionaries’ construction of their barricades. But this is a film that you have to make allowances for because of its age. It suffers from the slow pace of early mainstream sound cinema where huge pauses sit between simple exchanges of dialogue. And although the male leads are great – Harry Baur’s huge hulking Jean Valjean, Charles Vanel’s tightly wound-up Inspector Javert, and Charles Dullin’s wonderfully theatrically villanous Thénardier -, the female roles are all played awfully, with an unbalanced emotionalism. Given that Orane Demazis, for example, is so different in the Fanny films, it seems that Bernard simply couldn’t get as good performances out of his females actors as his males ones – or perhaps he concentrated too much on all the cantered angles the film is full of.

by Ian Johnston | Source: Eclipse Series 4 DVD
18 Aug 2007 7:10 AM | Submit Comment

The Magnificent Seven / USA / 1960

The most striking aspect of John Sturges’s iconic western is the marked contrast between the jaunty, uncomplicated story set up, and the dark, contemplative tone that comes to dominate the tale. Backed by a boisterous Elmer Bernstein score, the film begins with a village of poor farmers beset by ruthless outlaws. Next we meet a pair of guns for hire—two of the titular seven—as they stand up for the burial rights of a dead Indian. Soon enough, the farmers ask the men to protect their village. And though the pay is a pittance, a deal is struck: for these are men of valor, and injustice cannot be tolerated. It’s a tale of good versus evil, right versus wrong. Nothing could be simpler.

Defending the village against the outlaws doesn’t go as smoothly as planned, however, and soon enough, the lines of good and evil, right and wrong, even oppressed and oppressor, begin to blur. In line with an increasingly subdued soundtrack, the grim realities of life and death in a land of bullets take center stage. Gone are the easy black and white ideals from the story’s start, and with them any notion that this merely a mindless action movie. As the fighting slogs on, we realize that the heart of this film, as in Seven Samurai, is not the fate of the village, but the fate of the men; the true battle a confrontation with what it means to have honor, strength, and courage.

by Thomas Scalzo | Source: Comcast On Demand Feature
17 Aug 2007 4:16 PM | Submit Comment

Nighthawks / Night Hawks / USA / 1981

Sylvester Stallone. Billy Dee Williams. Rutger Hauer. Smooth-talking terrorist versus tough-as-nails NYC detectives. Stallone in a night club. Billy Dee in a knife fight. Hauer gets a face lift. With such ingredients, it’s a given that Nighthawks is, at the very least, a decent action flick. The question is, does it strive to be greater than the sum of its parts—does it do something more? Unfortunately, the answer is no. Some nice action setpieces aside (in particular a solid subway tunnel chase, and an impressive hunter-becomes-hunted closing sequence), the film never reaches the level of a nail-biting thriller, and doesn’t live up to its dream of presenting a riveting chess match between two powerful intellects.

Although the cat and mouse games are intriguing, particularly Stallone’s DaSilva attempting to hone his profiling skills and anticipate Wulfgar’s next move, we never get deep enough into the terrorist’s devious psyche to appreciate either the intensity of his evil, or Stallone’s efforts at stopping him. And we never get to know Stallone’s character well enough to root for him. Ultimately, Hauer steals the show as the soulless Wulfgar, with his grandiose delusions of becoming an instrument of worldwide revolution, and yet the most entertaining scenes come early on, before the actual plot even gets moving, with Stallone and Williams taking down a dope operation, dressing up as old ladies, and cursing loudly at their superiors.

by Thomas Scalzo | Source: Comcast On Demand Feature
16 Aug 2007 11:57 PM | Submit Comment

Slaughterhouse Five / USA / 1972

Between his birth in Ilium, New York, and assassination several years later, Billy Pilgrim endures an alien abduction, the bombing of Dresden in WWII, a plane crash, and the death of his wife. At almost any instant, he is aware of each of these violent milestones as he is “unstuck in time,” and he remains disaffected by much of it because, I think, it has all served to thicken his numbness. The traits that would describe a man have become buried deep within an exterior of anonymity and indifference.

In Vonnegut’s novel, Billy Pilgrim is established as so naïve and shellshocked that you don’t entirely trust the clarity of his visions of the future and past (which he often sees in quick succession). He’ll describe his lodging on the planet Tralfamadore, but he remains rooted behind enemy lines in Germany, plodding through the snow, with others, toward a POW camp. In the film – which emulates Vonnegut’s fractured narrative closely – Billy’s travels command a variety of set pieces; the film is about where he goes and what he sees, whereas its source is foremost concerned with how these places and experiences affect him. It’s an admirable effort, even if Vonnegut’s innovative literary techniques resist adaptation. So it goes.

by Rumsey Taylor | Source: Universal Studios DVD
15 Aug 2007 9:28 AM | Submit Comment

Hot Fuzz / UK / 2007

One of Shaun of the Dead’s more compelling aspects is Shaun’s resolute ordinaryness. His tactics are unexceptional, so he’s a useful proxy with which you share the same ideas and fears. When he reconfiguring his priceless LP collection as valuable ammunition against a growing tribe of zombies, you realize his hesitance and his intense paranoia, as well as the resultant outburst of triumph when he discovers that they’re capable of lodging in a zombie’s cranium with a proper whisk.

Simon Pegg’s Nicholas Angel is far more exceptional than Shaun. A much-heralded policeman-officer, his speech imparts stoic determination; when he speaks he’s short and to the point, saying nothing extraneous to his intent to sustain the law. And for all his responsible intentions, it is difficult to sympathize with him—he visits his ex-girlfriend prior to his relocation away from London in a scene that’s totally unnecessary, save for one of the most ingenuous cameos I’ve ever seen. Of course, he’s a caricature whose stoicism will crumble to the temptation to deliver clever puns (“Where’s the trolley boy?” “In the freezer.” “Did you say ‘cool off?’”) and dive through the air firing two pistols simultaneously, so although his extraordinariness alienates you he remains responsibly in service to good fun.

Related: Adam, Leo, Tom

by Rumsey Taylor | Source: Universal Studios DVD
13 Aug 2007 7:59 PM | Comments (2)

Sunshine / UK / 2007

With hints of influence from almost every great (and mediocre) sci-fi film from the last forty years — 2001, Solaris, Sphere, Mission to Mars, etc. — Danny Boyle’s Sunshine is a beautiful migraine. Perhaps I should have paid more attention in high-school science class—I was, scene after scene, forced to ask myself, “Is that even possible?” I know science fiction is concerned primarily with the intangible, forcing us to set aside our staunch thresholds of reality, and I’m fine with that. But Boyle’s film lacks even the simplest sliver of common sense. Somehow, the dead bodies of seven people coat an entire space station in dust. Somehow, simple wall insulation is a sufficient defense against ungodly space temperatures. And somehow, the eight astronauts entrusted to save six billion people are, for the most part, very young and very pretty. (If a collection of astronauts is ever forced to take on a mission such as this, I’d expect the physics expert aboard to be an academic juggernaut, one of those silver-haired masterminds who talks of tensor calculus in the same manner others talk of football or cars, rather than a Teen Choice Award nominee.)

With the notable exception of Chipo Chung, who appears in voice only, the acting herein ranges from average to awful. (Apprently, my future tax dollars will be used by NASA to school cadets in the delicate art of long, dramatic pauses.) And still, despite every conceivable reason not to, I wanted desperately to like this film. The first 90 minutes left me speechless, culminating in scenes of sheer terror: as four crewmembers of Icarus 2 explore the ruins of their predecessor, faces of the dead flash in mono-frames of red before our eyes; later, after their short excursion becomes a disaster, we are told there is an unintended new member of Icarus 2. But the last half-hour is an utter tragedy, and it feels like an act of desperation. Suddenly, the plot becomes wholly shameful, the astute cinematography is taken over by intended blurs and distortions, and the dialogue is reduced to clichéd sci-fi mumbles of “Finish it.”? I agree—just finish it.

by Adam Balz | Source: 35MM Theatrical Print
13 Aug 2007 2:35 PM | Submit Comment

Rescue Dawn / USA / 2006

Given Herzog’s frenetic inclination towards authenticity, I was surprised by his use of special effects in the scene where Dieter Dengler’s plane is shot down. Perhaps it’s a tool to highlight Dengler’s affinity towards flight, a passion rooted so deeply in his life that his first flight seems romanticized, almost surreal. Or perhaps the director is simply sampling what Hollywood magicians have to offer.

Nevertheless, once those few seconds of irregular Hollywood magic disappear, Rescue Dawn falls into the lap of Christian Bale as Dengler, and he runs with it. Over the next two hours he becomes increasingly emaciated, eats maggots, crawls through mud, endures leeches, and is repeatedly shot at. At the same time, Steve Zahn and Jeremy Davies completely steal the film from him as two POWs—soft-spoken Duane, who becomes Dengler’s closest ally, and a delusional American named Gene.

A great film, though the documentary on which this is based could never be outdone, even by Herzog himself.

Chiranjit’s Review

by Adam Balz | Source: 35MM Theatrical Print
13 Aug 2007 2:34 PM | Submit Comment

The Wild Blue Yonder / USA / 2005

You see aliens as these technologically advanced super-beings who destroy New York City in two minutes flat. Well, I hate to say this, but we aliens all suck.

Had Herzog spent more time focused on Brad Dourif’s Alien rather than NASA stock footage set against music by Ernst Reijseger, I would have loved this film. Dourif hasn’t had a deep, engaging role in decades, and Herzog gives him gold—a monologue spoken directly to the camera, with dirty, static Americana in the background. The role requires no make-up, no intricate wardrobe—this alien wears jeans—and no incessantly annoying redheaded horror doll. This is simply the actor, his unadorned face and his unaltered voice, exploring the future of Earth and the delusions of science-fiction films through a nameless, heartbroken extraterrestrial.

by Adam Balz | Source: DVD
13 Aug 2007 2:26 PM | Submit Comment

The Bourne Ultimatum / USA / 2007

In many ways, the Bourne movies serve as an antidote to sexist, materialist, imperialist world conjured in so many Bond films, so it’s interesting to note the degree in which they seem to have influenced 007’s latest outing, Casino Royale. As much as I adored the latter, I can’t help but feel that Jason Bourne is much more emblematic of this day and age than James Bond (no matter the degree to which his character is tweaked) will ever be. Matt Damon has never made much of an impression on me as an actor, but in this respect the role of Bourne is uniquely suited to him – he is a cipher, always two steps of ahead of his pursuers (and the audience) and in too much of a rush to register anything more than fleeting emotion.

by Beth Gilligan | Source: Universal Pictures 35mm print
08 Aug 2007 10:00 PM | Submit Comment

The 11th Hour / USA / 2007

Whereas An Inconvenient Truth occasionally felt like an Al Gore campaign informercial, The 11th Hour eschews any personal interest stories in favor of a series of talking heads delivering dire prognoses on the state of the planet. As such, it is drier than the Gore film, but nonetheless effective in its ability to alarm even the most complacent viewer.

by Beth Gilligan | Source: Warner Independent Digital Projection
08 Aug 2007 9:51 PM | Submit Comment

Shanghai Express / USA / 1932

“It took more than one man to change my name to Shanghai Lily,” intones Marlene Dietrich, who has never looked better than she does in this film (and that’s saying a lot). Stunning cinematography aside, Shanghai Express doesn’t have a whole lot going for it (clunky plot, dull male lead, etc), but the latter is more than worth the price of admission.

by Beth Gilligan | Source: Paramount 35mm print
08 Aug 2007 9:42 PM | Submit Comment

Trasgredire / Cheeky / Italy / 2000

Oh, those lusty Venetian women! In Trasgredire, Lovely Carla moves to London, finds a flat, and waits for her stodgy university-student boyfriend to join her. The airline seems to have lost the suitcase that contained all her panties, but that doesn’t stop Carla from strolling the sunny, tropical streets of London and seducing almost everyone she meets with her lovingly-shot derriere. By the end of the film, Stodgy Boyfriend has discovered the joys of voyeurism and learned to stop taking sex so goshdarned seriously— and so will you. OK, yes, this is essentially softcore porn, but it’s also lighthearted brain candy that will make you smile and dream of happy, attractive Italians goosing each other in the park. This is a film that they invented the word “romp” to describe.

by Megan Weireter | Source: Lion Pictures DVD
07 Aug 2007 3:40 PM | Submit Comment

Faces / USA / 1968

It’s taken me quite a few years to realize that this, above all others, is my favorite Cassavetes film. Shadows is exhilirating and touching all at once, and my band in college was named after the oily emcee in the brilliant The Killing of a Chinese Bookie (we were awesome, by the way), but Faces so perfectly comprises all of Cassavetes’ most empathetic insights into men and women and the difficulties they have with each other.

In many ways, Cassavetes’ protagonists, the Forsts, are more upstanding and restrained in comparison to the blustering, shameless friends and colleagues that surround them, but they are far from restrained. Richard, the volcanic, self-composed businessman, missing the tenderness he has lost at home, seeks it out in the arms of Jeannie, a prostitute; and Maria, his prudish and pursed-lipped housewife, retaliates first with a night on the town with the girls and then with a night in bed with a hippie Seymour Cassel. If this set-up seems to reify the rather stale truism that all marital problems stem from the husband’s wanting to have sex and the wife’s having a headache, the film nonetheless manages to avoid (or at least deepen) this clichÈ in the impossibly sensitive combination of its cinematography and performances: the affectionate glances shared between Jeannie and Richard, suggesting the unlikely, but still deep and genuine connection that each is grasping for; and the tragicomic one-night stand between Chet and Maria, which begins as an act of desperation and ends as a crucial moment of self-realization.

To a great extent, Husbands and A Woman Under the Influence also individually achieve this profound dissection of marriage, but one can’t really watch those films without feeling slightly pummelled. The physical effects ofFaces are slightly more muted, and therefore slightly more enjoyable, tending more toward resignation than exasperation. Exhausted from 130 minutes of near-suicidal marital warfare, the Forsts sit on the staircase of their home and have a quiet cigarette. Like them, the spectator is finally rewarded with a little clarity and a chance to breathe.

by Leo Goldsmith | Source: The Criterion Collection DVD
07 Aug 2007 2:13 PM | Submit Comment

The Bourne Ultimatum / USA / 2007

The Bourne Ultimatum, like its gritty predecessors, is constructed with hand-held camerawork intent to feign both authenticity and urgency. And to this end it’s a cohesively thrilling enterprise—during a rather elongated fight between Bourne and a would-be assassin, the camera is thrown to-and-fro, intrinsic to the plight of our amnesiac protagonist. This camerawork is all pretense, of course, serving to obscure a now familiar formula.

Related: The Bourne Identity

by Rumsey Taylor | Source: 35mm print
06 Aug 2007 10:35 AM | Submit Comment

Viva Baseball! / USA / 2005

Narrated by the soft-spoken, salsa crooner, Mark Anthony (who, unfortunately, does no crooning here), Viva Baseball! is a marvellous retrospective of the influence that Latino ballplayers have had in the American Major Leagues since the late 19th century. Now, of course, nearly half of the current players in the big leagues are of latino descent but the film shows how, during the 20th century, latin players and latin countries, particularly Cuba and Mexico, have been galvanizing influences in the business of Major League Baseball. Though any serious baseball fan will be familiar with some of the statistics flouted by former and current players and analysts, the personal stories and anecdotes really make the film stand out from the usual baseball-reel style films. It’s a must-see for all baseball fans.

by Marlin Tyree | Source: Anchor Bay DVD
04 Aug 2007 12:39 PM | Submit Comment

Holiday / USA / 1938

Holiday shares much with The Philadelphia Story: director George Cukor, stars Grant and Hepburn, playwright Philip Barry, screenwriter David Ogden Stewart, and a Depression-era story of social climbing, featuring an average joe among the inordinately rich. Of course, Cary Grant is nobody’s average joe and Hepburn’s heroine, while as idiosyncratic as her similar character in The Philadelphia Story, is more fragile than frosty. This last is one of the film’s most daring aspects: a portrait of a wealthy socialite with girlish eccentricities that veer close to the edge of a crippling neurosis, and Hepburn plays this character with a fascinating combination of bristling frivolity and heartbreaking, almost childlike sensitivity. Against Hepburn’s fascinating, unstable performance, Grant’s charming, hard-working dreamer attains a strangely philosophical depth. His seeming idealism about giving up the chance to earn lots of money alongside his future father-in-law becomes nothing short of a search for the meaning and purpose of work, money, and romantic partnership.

In retrospect, all of this may seem like the most shallow kind of Depression-era Hollywood mythmaking, extolling the virtues of love over money at a time when the latter was, for many, hard to come by. But in the hands of Cukor & Co., this fantasy sheds its homespun hokeyness to become a slightly scathing indictment of the values of the extremely wealthy, and Grant’s romantic and professional dynamism is its own kind of New Deal, reviving middle class implacability and prompting Hepburn’s coddled and cosseted socialite to grow up into self-responsibility.

Like Philadelphia, Holiday blends fairy tale, slapstick, social conscious, and family drama into a very curious mix, and so it’s a film that seemingly doesn’t know (or else refuses to choose) what kind of film it wants to be. And this is fitting: the refusal of this kind of rigidity is precisely what these characters are looking for.

Rich’s review

See also: Matt, Ian, and me on The Philadelphia Story

by Leo Goldsmith | Source: Columbia/TriStar DVD
03 Aug 2007 5:17 PM | Submit Comment

Cloak & Dagger / USA / 1984

This film was a childhood favorite of mine, and while I cannot say it holds up to any high standard, it is at very least a fascinating case study in the now totally streamlined economy of movie-video game tie-ins. Universal happened to be developing this spy movie about a kid who finds secret government plans (for a stealth bomber, no less) in a video game and called upon Atari to consult. Atari happened to be developing a spy game called “Agent X,” and so a marriage was made in franchise heaven. Well, maybe not heaven — both game and film remained pretty well cloaked from public view, the latter buried in 1984’s nasty blockbuster clusterfuck (Beverly Hills Cop, Gremlins, Ghostbusters, Revenge of the Nerds, The Karate Kid, Temple of Doom, Red Dawn, etc., etc.). But this at least explains the handful of extended (and, frankly, boring) video game sequences in the film.

Apart from this interesting (if unsuccessful) tie-in, the film is strictly Spielberg Lite (or even Spielberg Zero, as we might say these days): Henry Thomas stars in an obvious bid to trade on his E.T. cuteness; he’s paired with a tow-headed imp-girl in hopes of channelling a less drunk Drew Barrymore; and Dabney Coleman stretches himself thin in an astonishing (sarcasm) double-role, playing not one, but two men with moustaches. The Spielberg Touch comes at the end when Dabney the Imaginary Hero dies and is replaced by Dabney the Dad.

All in all, the film is no more terrible than one can reasonably expect and it affords a sufficient number of unintentional laughs, as in its fairly bellicose damn-the-Russkies plot, pointless invocation of the Alamo, and a hilarious speech by the villain at the end, detailing how he’s going to blow Henry Thomas’ knee-caps off, then shoot him in the stomach and relish (oh yeah, and ignore) his tortured pleas for a quicker death. That comes just before Elliott puts a cap in his ass.

I should note, finally, that it is astonishing to me that Rumsey has yet to write anything about this movie for this website.

by Leo Goldsmith | Source: Universal Pictures DVD
02 Aug 2007 3:34 PM | Comments (6)

Oepidus Rex / USA/Japan / 2005

Normally I wouldn’t bother to mention a viewing of an opera production on film but this Stravinsky Oratorio (with a running time just under an hour) was directed by the famed director, Julie Taymor, captured live in 1992 during the Saito Kinen Festival in Matsumoto, Japan. The production is one of the most intriguing spectacles I’ve ever seen captured on film. Taymor utilizes masks, sculpture, ballet, and traditional Japanese theater forms to create a powerful, timeless, yet distinctive rendition of the Sophocles tragedy. She positions the singers/main characters upstage while dancers duplicate the drama just behind them and a massive chorus of singers provide accompaniment along the sides. However, all the performers are in relationship as the production is unified through an amazing feat of intricate and enveloping set design and costuming.

Apparently, productions of this Stravinsky work have not been especially successful nor particularly noteworthy, save a mid-eighties production featuring sets by David Hockney, which (among other things) drowned out singer performances.

The great Jessye Norman, who sang Jocasta in the John Dexter/Hockney production, is again cast as the woman who, unknowingly, sleeps with and marries her own son, Oepidus, compellingly played/sung by Philip Langride. Bryn Terfel gives a striking performance as Creon and the dancer, Min Tanaka doubles as Oepidus. The costuming for the singers is particularly effective in that the headpieces/masks and the plastique arms and hands extend and elevate their delivery. They become living, breathing, icons right in front of us. Though unadorned with such accoutrement, Kayoko Shiraishi, the narrator, commands attention right away with her Noh theater style delivery and maintains her fiery approach throughout. Seiji Ozawa conducts an electric Saito Kinen orchestra that rounds out this amzingly kinetic production.

by Marlin Tyree | Source: Phillips DVD
01 Aug 2007 6:44 PM | Submit Comment

Dead Man’s Shoes / UK / 2004

Unremittingly bleak and yet weirdly funny, Meadows’ suburban-pastoral revenge drama is utterly relentless at times, but it coyly denies the audience any sense of righteousness right up to its gut-wrenching conclusion. With its terrifying amorality and increasingly unstable focalization, the film seems at times like an updated version of Get Carter, with a bit less sexploitation and the gnashing of a slightly straighter set of teeth. But Meadows’ film is so wildly erratic and so contextually specific — and his tone so idiosyncratic, yet assured — that any such flimsy comparison inevitably falls short of the mark. Though most certainly not everyone’s cup of tea, it’s nonetheless a film whose singularity of vision is undeniable.

Here’s what Tom had to say about it.

by Leo Goldsmith | Source: Magnolia Pictures DVD
01 Aug 2007 1:51 PM | Submit Comment

Sunshine / USA/UK / 2007

I can’t remember the last time a film took a sharper turn into abysmally awful. I found the first two thirds all right, sleek visuals (the crew watching Mercury’s orbit was rather neat) but then, well…wow. Be warned — even Cillian Murphy’s bright blue eyes couldn’t distract me from the massive trainwreck that occurs.

Funny enough, Danny Boyle was actually at the screening and introduced the film, speaking quite a bit about Alien and its influence on him as a moviegoer. Perhaps the third act was in fact what they had in mind all along, and somewhere along the lines of production they decided to go the “deep” sci-fi route, making a real mess of it? In any case, Boyle did not stick around for any Q&A. Wish I could have witnessed that.
Huddleston’s thoughts
Ian’s thoughts

by Jenny Jediny | Source: Fox Searchlight Theatrical Print
01 Aug 2007 1:10 PM | Submit Comment

This Is England / UK / 2006

A funny, bracing, and bold piece of work from Shane Meadows, and an important corrective to the majority of fusty recent exports from the UK.

Here are Tom’s full review and mine over at Reverse Shot.

by Leo Goldsmith | Source: IFC Films 35mm Print
01 Aug 2007 1:06 PM | Submit Comment

Sweet Smell of Success / USA / 1957

It’s delightful to see how intimidating Burt Lancaster is as slimy New York City columnist J.J. Hunsecker, especially when your best memory of the man is his warm and fuzzy portrayal of “Moonlight” Graham in Field of Dreams. As down and dirty as its reputation, Sweet Smell of Success also features a soulless, blood sucking Tony Curtis, whose desperation to make it big so well embodies the nasty reputation of this town.

by Jenny Jediny | Source: United Artists Theatrical Print
01 Aug 2007 12:51 PM | Comments (1)

Once / Ireland / 2006

Once is the sort of film that elicits a genuine — and deserving — sigh of “aw” from audience members. A little reminiscent of Linklater’s Before Sunrise/Before Sunset series, Carey’s film moves past the romantic chemistry between two strangers into something more universally touching; love and passion for art (in this case, music), and the good things that can happen when we inspire one another. Lovely performances, and more effortlessly constructed than my sentimental description may lead you to believe.

by Jenny Jediny | Source: Fox Searchlight Theatrical Print
01 Aug 2007 12:30 PM | Submit Comment

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