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 2008 activity
Total Log Entries: 53
- Adam (8)
- Chet (0)
- Chiranjit (0)
- Cullen (0)
- David (12)
- Eva (2)
- Evan (0)
- Ian (4)
- Jenny (0)
- Katherine (0)
- Leo (2)
- Megan (0)
- Rumsey (12)
- Teddy (1)
- Thomas (2)
- Victoria (3)
Total Comments: 41
- Land of the Minotaur (0)
- Don’t Go in the Woods (0)
- Road House (0)
- There Will Be Blood (18)
- Vixen! (0)
- Cloverfield (0)
- Prisoners of the Lost Universe (0)
- Firing Line (0)
- Blue Skies (1)
- Monty Python and the Holy Grail (0)
- Wild at Heart (1)
- Gone Baby Gone (1)
- The Shop Around The Corner (0)
- La Vie En Rose (0)
- No Country For Old Men (0)
- Die Hard With A Vengeance (5)
- Coal Miner’s Daughter (0)
- Charlie Wilson’s War (0)
- Tenebre (0)
- Voodoo Black Exorcist (0)
- Death By Dialogue (0)
- WR: Mysteries of the Organism (0)
- Saved! (0)
- Thank You For Smoking (2)
- Wall Street (0)
- Dreamcatcher (1)
- Halloween (2)
- Fearless (0)
- Atonement (1)
- Youth Without Youth (0)
- Dans la Ville de Sylvia (0)
- Offside (3)
- Scoop (0)
- The Man From London (0)
- The 36th Chamber of Shaolin (0)
- RoboCop 3 (0)
- The Devil Wears Prada (0)
- For Your Consideration (0)
- Eraserhead (0)
- Prime Time (0)
- The Manipulator (0)
- Silent Night, Deadly Night (0)
- No Country For Old Men (0)
- Flash Gordon (0)
- I Am Legend (3)
- Week End (0)
- Southland Tales (0)
- No Country For Old Men (0)
- Wild Hogs (0)
- Futurama: Bender’s Big Score (0)
- Charlie Wilson’s War (3)
- Epic Movie (0)
- The Elephant Man (0)
Full Archive
Gone Baby Gone / USA / 2007
2007 was something of a banner year in the Affleck household. Casey finally got the chance to display his (surprisingly considerable) acting chops in Jesse James, and brother Ben bounced back after years in the tabloid wilderness with this, his outstanding directorial debut. Who woulda thought they had it in ‘em?
Between them, Ben Affleck, Matt Damon and Dennis Lehane seem to be intent on creating a cinematic identity for Boston, in much the same way Woody Allen and Spike Lee have done for New York. In films as diverse as Good Will Hunting, Mystic River and The Departed they have managed to depict the city in loving but honest detail, as staunchly working class but doggedly aspirational, tight knit but treacherous, with a hard-grafting criminal underclass working in tandem with a corrupt, devious political system. Gone Baby Gone might just be the best of the bunch, taking a seemingly simple story of child abduction and just piling on the layers and double crosses until no one is innocent. It’s surprisingly hard to depict an authentic, unbiased moral dilemma on film- it’s tricky to show character without creating sympathy, which naturally leads to an audience taking sides. But the dilemma Casey’s character faces at the end of Gone Baby Gone is a genuinely thorny one, his eventual decision debatable up to the final frame. All things considered, this is undoubtedly the best thriller of 2007, and yes, I do mean better than No Country For Old Men, never mind what the awards people say. Gigli is well and truly forgiven.
by Tom Huddleston | Source: 35mm print
17 Jan 2008 11:37 AM | Comments (1)

Chiranjit / 17 January 2008 / 12:30 PM / URL
I really do think the strongest aspect of Affleck’s direction is the fact that the atmosphere of the film feels so authentic, especially the opening moments. I actually didn’t recognize Amy Ryan from her work on The Wire, so for awhile I actually thought she was just another one of the locals that Affleck decided to cast (I clued in a couple days later).
That’s why it’s such a shame that the scenes involving Edi Gathegi’s drug-dealer named Cheese feel so awkward and artificial. Though the filmmakers are smart enough to have Cheese’s mannerisms come off as posturing at times, more often they feel like ineffective and overwrought imitation. These scenes really felt like an unfortunate misstep by Affleck (the older one), within a film that was actually quite solid for the most part.