Brick

Rian Johnson, USA, 2005
3 out of 4 stars

I always thought of noir as a genre, but after watching this film and talking with my friend about it, I’m beginning to see that even (especially?) at its best, it’s really more of a formula. Chinatown seems to be the exception which proves the rule (or at least proves that noir doesn’t just have to be variations on a theme), but then again, some quite good films are made by introducing very unlikely or outrageous variations on said theme, such as The Big Lebowski.

The premise of this film is both fascinating and in danger of becoming old before you even see it. High school noir? Haven’t these people seen Veronica Mars? In fact, Brick tries to fit high school into noir, whereas Mars more successfully fits noir into high school. Certainly, a high school setting shouldn’t define a production, considering the wide varieties of quality and genre among films and shows which such settings. This wide variety, however, does lead one to wonder if setting anything in a high school is something to get that excited about. This is after all an “indie” film rather than a wide-release, mainstream piece, but it nonetheless comes off as a weird cross between a high-concept studio pitch and a film school experiment (you at least seem to need to know a bit about noir in order to get much out of it).

All this said, it’s a good film, if not entirely great or as clever as it’s meant to be. The very-stylized dialogue is nigh-impenetrable at the beginning, and it rubbed me the wrong way at first because I felt like someone was just showing off to me. Eventually I did get sucked in, but I’m not sure I was jolted in quite the way I was supposed to have been at the beginning there. The hero is engaging, if significantly less sympathetic than his predecessors. The plot is, well, formula, but the best feature, aside from the brief, kinetic fight sequences, is the sight of the noir formula transpiring in suburban homes and veritable wastelands. Noir usually takes place in Southern California, but this manages to be the least “glamorous” depiction of the usual noir landscape yet.

Source: Universal DVD
14 August, 10:29 PM

Velvet Goldmine

Todd Haynes, UK / USA, 1998
2 out of 4 stars

I really wanted to like this colorful flick about glam rock, featuring thinly-veiled portrayals of two key figures from the time and an ostensibly-fictionalized intimate relationship between them. Unfortunately, the film is a mess despite the great music, the trippy performances and the compelling recreation of a classic subculture. Todd Haynes tries to slap some faux-Citizen Kane writing-an-article narrative onto what is otherwise a surreal, drug-induced haze of rock and sexual ambiguity, and while the journalist has his own story to tell through flashbacks, this only serves to throw us more off balance as we try to figure out which of the three male leads is supposed to be the protagonist. Haynes’ work is frustrating because he can’t decide whether to go for narrative or non-narrative, surreal or realist, linear or non-linear, and instead, he just goes with “all of the above.” What this leaves us with is a wealth of good content made tiresome by the awkward, fractured structure of the piece.

Source: Buena Vista DVD
12 August, 8:47 PM

The Best of Youth

(La Meglio Gioventú)
Marco Tulio Giordana, Italy, 2003
Three and a half stars

This epic six-hour film (more of a television miniseries actually, but its quality apparently netted it some festival showings and distribution, in two parts) tracks an Italian family from the 1960s to today. While there were clearly references to pieces of historical background that I wasn’t able to pick up on, overall this film does a good job of portraying a “slice of life” for Italy during most of the postwar period. Because Marco Giordana has so much room to breathe due to his running time, he is able to fully develop a wide variety of characters and themes, none of which end up seeming shallow or insubstantial. Although he uses these elements to comment on modern Italian historical and cultural phenomena, he doesn’t make the mistake of boiling his characters down into mere allegories. The result is a very rich, nuanced viewing experience, and while you may find yourself more interested in some plotlines than in others, Giordana has nonetheless created a wonderful tapestry that is well-worth your time (although you may well choose to watch it in multiple installments, as I did and as the original Italian TV audience did).

Source: Buena Vista DVD
9 August, 10:40 PM

Kiss Kiss Bang Bang

Shane Black, USA, 2005
3.5 out of 4 stars

What a shame this film didn’t get a real wide release, because it seems like with some real promotion and distribution, this might really have caught on. Here you have a seemingly worn-out premise, the buddy/romance/detective picture, somehow brought to new life with just the right flavor of wit. Writer-director Shane Black was responsible for writing the Lethal Weapon series (I only saw the fourth one and some of the many imitators), and it seems like this movie is about as revolutionary (from what I’ve heard of the original) in attempting to rejuvenate the genre… too bad nobody is ready for that anymore nowadays.

Robert Downey, Jr. and Michelle Monaghan are quite formidable here (in different ways), while Val Kilmer is more just okay, although his gay detective character is great anyway. Downey narrates the whole film (as his character, but also as a “narrator) and his commentary is mostly hilarious, although there are a few moments of meta that fall flat (and that must be saying something considering how much I love meta). The plot is convoluted, but it sets off the difference between “fantasy” and “reality” in a much more creative and even insightful way than how these films usually present outlandish events while impotently asserting their verité. It’s not perfect, but I do feel vindicated in my constant protests that mainstream film doesn’t have to be the thoughtless swamp of nonsense that it usually is now. The experiment doesn’t always work, but overall this film is meant to entertain and succeeds; are you really telling me that it was “too challenging” for the average moviegoer?

Source: Warner DVD
6 August, 9:32 PM

The Big Lebowski

Joel Coen, USA, 1998
3.5 out of stars

When I first saw this movie on video as a teenager, I didn’t understand what a stoner film it was (I don’t even know if I understood what he was drinking), or what a cult film in general it had become, or even, in a more general sense, the Philip Marlowe tradition that the Coen Brothers were once again subverting here. I personally think it’s pretty clear that they do a lot better job than Robert Altman did with The Long Goodbye, but this is just a much more viscerally entertaining film, bloody hilarious in its absurdity and likeability. The plot actually works, but it doesn’t need to and it doesn’t have that much to do with why the film works… or does it? The truth is, The Big Sleep is not at all affected negatively by the presence of an incident in the plot that could never be suitably explained, even by Raymond Chandler himself. This film, as far as I can tell so far, doesn’t have any such moments (I’m probably wrong) but it just manages to underscore the degree to which the detective plot doesn’t matter and is a mere vehicle for something else; comedy in this film, romance in Big Sleep.

Source: Universal DVD
6 August, 7:37 PM

Ali: Fear Eats the Soul

(Angst essen Seele auf)
Rainer Werner Fassbinder, Germany, 1974
4 out of 4 stars

This film is the starkest thing I’ve ever seen in such bright (if ultimately eery) colors. It’s a “more-than-meets-the-eye” melodrama about intergenerational and interracial love back when such things were even more frowned upon (and even the protagonist is shown, in odd ways, to have Hitler on the brain, despite her love for a younger Arab man). Even before they get together (fairly early on) there is such a weird sense of menace and discomfort, as if you’re being forced to see how strange and “wrong” this is even though you yourself don’t feel it personally. Everyone who thought Crash was somehow insightful should watch this film, because it’s definitely the best film about racism that I’ve ever seen, even though it’s also “more” than that. The first part of the film is not oblique at all; if anything, it’s direct, like a series of punches to the gut. The final third, by contrast, moves inward more as we see the price of compromise (and some other factors that are more difficult to understand). This is one of those film-school classics that actually lives up to its reputation, and I strongly recommend it.

Source: Home Vision DVD
6 August, 8:49 PM

Rebels of the Neon God

(Ch'ing shaonien na cha)
Tsai Ming-liang, Taiwan, 1992
3 out of 4 stars

In his first film, international “arty” director Tsai Ming-liang tells what is apparently, for him, a fairly accessible tale about two fake thugs, the sometimes-girlfriend of one of them, and a younger teenager who has a strange preoccupation with the three of them. He does so largely with long, one-take, unmoving shots (when the action moves into the background, the camera usually doesn’t follow). It’s not always easy to understand the relationship between these various characters, which is just as well, as it is pretty languid and obscure in general; teasing out the nuances of these relationships was my main source of interest while watching this film. Overall, it seems to be worth a try, but not worth a recommendation. I got a generally positive impression from it (meaning that it didn’t just totally irritate me), but it didn’t provoke a strong visceral aesthetic appreciation (that’s a little paradoxical I guess) that I get from my favorite “art films.” I’m tempted to watch one of Tsai’s later, “better-known” (relatively speaking) films, but I’m not sure that I’m that enamored with his visual style or his style of storytelling (as opposed to, say, that of Wong Kar-Wai).

Source: Wellspring DVD
3 August, 8:37 PM

Clerks II

Kevin Smith, USA, 2006
2 out of 4 stars

Kevin Smith is an interesting guy. I was reading something about how his box office has never measured up to his media hype, and I think it’s largely because of Smith as a personality, whether he’s starting feuds with comic writers, dishing about the Superman production process, or prancing around in his own work. Even at his best, his films tend to be missing something, as if Smith mostly seeks to impress you by what he’s willing to bring up, rather than by what he actually says about it. Here, he tries to have it both ways, throwing both the tasteless, apropos-of-nothing comedy and the mawkish sentimentality that we’ve seen in his work before, but he doesn’t fully succeed at either. There are undeniably some hilarious bits, but there is also too much dead air, mostly consisting of unfunny shock attempts by the often-tiresome Randal, and impotent objections from Dante, the protagonist. In the harsh light of color, the actors who portray both characters seem really flat and dull, leaving the luminous Rosario Dawson to practically carry the whole movie (and she does a better job than I would have thought her capable of).

The unfunniness isn’t really caused by the plot or the sappy stuff, but this stuff doesn’t work either. Part of it is that the pathos of something like Chasing Amy is missing here, because the choices are too easy and everyone is so shallow and one-note in the first place. Ultimately, though, the thin-skinned Smith should have known better than to (rightly) mock The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King for its multiple endings, only to commit the same sin. Oh, and Jason Lee was shamefully wasted.

Source: MGM 35mm print
24 July, 10:50 PM

Tristram Shandy: A Cock and Bull Story

(A Cock and Bull Story)
Michael Winterbottom, UK, 2005
3.5 out of 4 stars

As I’ve said before, I’m sucker for meta, so my enjoyment of this film was all but guaranteed. However, aside from a disorienting ending, A Cock and Bull Story is actually quite linear, largely giving us a 24-hour period in the making of an actual Tristram Shandy film (the original British title making the point that this is not that film; presumably it was changed because we Americans genuinely don’t know what a “cock and bull story” is).

Much of it, then, consists of Steve Coogan portraying himself. He’s clearly the protagonist in Michael Winterbottom’s film, but his most of the Coogan character’s efforts are spent making sure that he will in fact be the protagonist and lead in the film that “Mark” is making. Considering that I’d never even heard of Coogan before, I was quite glad that the American DVD distributor included a trailer for the box set of his old mock talk show, which comes up several times throughout the film (and is therefore a must-view for fellow clueless yank viewers; it’s the last one that plays before you get to the menu). Even with this admittedly fuzzy knowledge, I still really enjoyed Coogan’s persona and the unerringly hilarious antics that the film provides. There’s also a lot of good observations and snarky commentary implicit in the how Winterbottom deals with high literature and high film, and the usual cluelessness that the characters, especially Coogan, have regarding both despite the task at hand. Amazingly, there is even a bit of a plot too; it’s just not Shandy’s story, although I did actually wish we’d seen a bit more of that, despite my appreciation of what I did get.

Source: Warner DVD
23 July, 2:37 PM

Collateral

Michael Mann, USA, 2004
4 out of 4 stars

There’s no denying that the flawless style of Michael Mann is the main reason this movie is as remarkable as it is. However, this is also the movie that made me a big Jamie Foxx fan, even though I’ve still never seen Ray. Much like Damon Wayons in Bamboozled, I sensed both times I watched this film that Foxx was basing his role off of one of his comic personas, specifically the passive loser. Spike Lee talks on the Bamboozled DVD about using comic (black) actors in dramatic roles because he believes they’re capable of more (and probably because he hopes to redeem the buffoonish portrayal of blacks in film) and he was right; he just had the wrong guy.

Wayans never managed to rise above the level of preprogrammed comic persona, whereas Foxx, despite my initial skepticism on the first viewing, does a fantastic job at slowly progressing his character through a sometimes-ludicrous series of transformations and epiphanies, mostly revolving around how he both reacts against and is molded by Tom Cruise’s villain character (and Cruise-as-villain seems rather prescient now that people have turned against him; today, Foxx might well have gotten the top-billing he deserved).

I’ve read criticisms about the plot in spite of the style, but honestly, I’m not bothered by any of it, not even the ending that I’ve seen criticized the most frequently. What I love about this movie is that it’s a mainstream film that beats most art films at their own game. It doesn’t actually have to be so polarized. Imagine that.

Source: Universal DVD
20 July, 8:08 PM

Not One Less

(Yi ge dou bu neng shao)
Zhang Yimou, China, 1999
4 out of 4 stars

Surprisingly, I never lost my patience or got bored while watching this, even though it is very slow, understated film in which there is a great deal of repetition and very little character development. Zhang Yimou takes us along with a 13-year-old substitute teacher, played, like the other characters, by a nonprofessional actor (the credits even tell you where each person comes from, and that most of them actually do the jobs in real life that we see them doing here).

It is fascinating to see the bonds develop between the teacher and her students almost without anyone trying. The film barely even seems like it needs a “quest,” but when one develops, the teacher’s plight is even more poignant. I will say that I’m not sure I got any great insights into the problem of “poverty in rural China,” but the mindset of the characters as Zhang shows them – obstinate and determined – was quite captivating.

Source: Sony DVD
18 July, 10 PM

Blazing Saddles

Mel Brooks, USA, 1974
3 out of 4 stars

Maybe I jinxed it by reading about how important it was too many times, but it was unquestionably funnier and a better film than The Producers, which had me beginning to wonder if Mel Brooks was anything like what he was cracked up to be. While there seem to be some lulls, Brooks overall succeeds at depicting outrageous racism, often without much humor to shield the audience or the protagonist from its blunt impact, and then succeeds in depicting an almost cartoonish comedic effort to squash it. It’s a “deconstruction” of the western in that it fills in the blanks, rather than, say, the thoughtless revisionism that leads to casting Will Smith as the lead in Wild, Wild West and hoping we’ll accept that no white character in the film notices.It is, then, interesting to see how positive and forceful the political message of this film is, considering that the most one gets out of Producers is that gays and Germans are allegedly funny. The film isn’t always a laugh-riot, but it earns our patience.

Source: Warner DVD
16 July, 9:36 PM

A Scanner Darkly

Richard Linklater, USA, 2006
4 out of 4 stars

So far, it’s the best movie I’ve seen that came out in 2006. Richard Linklater and his rotoscoping animation staff have greatly improved on the already impressive technique used in his earlier film, Waking Life, and the improvement is only helped by the use of actual characters this time around; there’s still not tons of plot, but it’s less of a patience-testing talkfest than the aforementioned film, which was nonetheless still fairly good.

Although it’s not particularly plot-driven, it’s still a narrative film (being as it is based on a Philip K. Dick novel), and so that means that we get to see this technique used toward “traditional” film towards the purpose of disrupting it. Some effects clearly need this medium to be accomplished effectively, but the nice thing about this medium is that the effects aren’t particularly different from the sight of a ashtray on the table, slightly wobbling in its color distribution. What this means is that every frame of the film is ultimately a joy to look at, which is a rare thing in film.

Surprisingly, the film is also quite hilarious, in addition to the expected morose darkness. Drug addiction is shown to be “funny” without the awful side of it somehow being erased with this depiction. This humor is mostly thanks to Robert Downey, Jr. although the other, more frequently maligned cast members hold their own fairly well. The twists and turns of who’s watching who and who’s responsible for what are politically and dramatically compelling.

Source: Warner 35mm print
11 July, 11 PM

An Inconvenient Truth

Davis Guggenheim, USA, 2006
3.5 out of 4 stars

At first, I figured that a movie based on a PowerPoint presentation didn’t really need to be seen on the big screen, but having finally succumbed to good buzz from friends and media, I found that I was mistaken after all. Surprisingly, the still photos Al Gore offers of the effects of global warming are quite effective – breathtaking and disturbing – on the big screen. There are, of course, some videos too, and even a few quite funny cartoons, but the director chooses to show all of these through Gore’s giant video screen, which means that we are, barring some autobiographical interludes in Tennessee and so on, firmly placed in the seats of Gore’s college audience. This seems like folly, but it is surprisingly effective.

Speaking of those autobiographical bits, Gore narrates some key turning points in his life, but I wish he had explained what epiphany transformed him from a guy that couldn’t carry a CSPAN session to a guy that can carry a major motion picture! I definitely want him for president now, almost in spite of myself. As for the science, I did learn a lot, and I thought he was most effective when he took shots at the characterization of global warming as “theory.” This movie is a force for good and its actually well mad and honest; it’s nice when these things come together for once.

Source: Paramount 35mm print
10 July, 6:57 PM

The Devil Wears Prada

David Frankel, USA, 2006
2.5 out of 4 stars

This is one of those movies that seems solid and entertaining, then starts to crumble a bit when you think about it afterwards; however, it still holds up for the most part, and the main purpose of a movie is to keep you interested while you’re watching, after all. The first problem is the title, which also implies that Meryl Streep is the main role, rather than protagonist Anne Hathaway who is, in fact, effectively plays an interesting character rather than just a sounding board for another virtuoso Streep performance (which isn’t to say that Streep isn’t good, either).

The main problems mostly lie in how Andy, Hathaway’s charcter, deals with her dilemma; should she stay true to herself or fall into the fashion world? This isn’t as lame as it sounds on paper, especially since they managed to convey some sense of the aforementioned fashion world’s glamour to someone like me who by default reviles every aspect of it. This, however, might mean that I sympathized more with her plight than someone who, say, never had any qualms about “fitting in” at all costs. However, the weakness of the detractors seems to sap this film’s moral clarity, as does its eventual mutation from a series of critiques of a whole industry to a mere interpersonal conflict; of course this is inevitable in Hollywood film, but the way this happens in this movie decidedly muddies up and changes the entire issue at hand. Of course, a film like this wants to have it both ways, but one hopes at the very least that when several characters describe a size 4 as “fat,” the filmmaker means to attack that perspective. A lack of clarity on this issue is a lot more unforgivable. All that said, I did find it to be compelling and well-played.

Source: Fox 35mm print
6 July, 7:00 PM

The Mission

(Cheung fo)
Johnnie To, Hong Kong, 1999
2 out of 4 stars

This film does have a reasonable amount of style, but ultimately, it’s not enough to make up for the baffling nature of most of the action, and more importantly, the utter lack of character development. Actually, the film does become fairly compelling in its final sequences, but ultimately this is too small a part of an already short film to make enough of a difference. The action is okay, impressive at times, but the acting is basically not there, even though I’ve at least seen Anthony Wong in other things and know that he can do better when he’s meant to. A bit of a disappointment, to be sure.

Source: Tai Seng DVD
5 July, 7:19 PM

Caché

Michael Haneke, France / Austria / Germany / Italy, 2005
3.5 out of 4 stars

This is a “family under siege” film in which the threat (or menace) increasingly seems insignificant compared to darkness in the protagonist’s own past. Georges’ darkness has political shades to it, but most interestingly, it’s always a little fuzzy just exactly what happened, and this lack of clarity continues into the “present day” of the film. I’m used to ambiguous endings and what not, but this film threw me off a bit in regards to how the director included ambiguity throughout what seemed to be a “realist” rather than impressionist film, and yet managed to do it without leaving the viewer merely irritated. My observations on this count were influenced, to some extent, by my viewing of the director interview found on the DVD.

Source: Sony DVD
3 July, 1:22 PM

Infernal Affairs II

(Mou gaan dou II)
Andrew Lau & Alan Mak, Hong Kong, 2003
3 out of 4 stars

What a tangled web a studio can weave when they realize they desperately need to make some money off of a sequel to a film that didn’t need one. That’s not to say that this is bad, but it would strike me as an ordinary film even if I hadn’t seen the extraordinary film that came before. This “sequel,” despite the number, is actually a prequel, but it doesn’t so much fill in the blanks as muddy up the waters; it’s often confusing, it’s not always clear if some of the new backstory really squares with the depictions we saw in the first one, and some of the more glaring questions are left unanswered (possibly for film number three). The young replacements the mole characters, previously played by Tony Leung and Andy Lau, are certainly not up to the task. Thankfully, the movie works because Anthony Wong and Eric Tsang reprise their roles as the respective cop and mob boss, and it is quite interesting to learn about a relationship between them that, from what I recall, was far from obvious before. I certainly wouldn’t recommend watching this before the first one, despite the chronology, but I imagine it is worth satisfying the likely thirst for more that you will most likely have after watching the previous film.

Source: Mega Star DVD
6 June, 3:15 PM

Crimson Gold

(Talaye sorkh)
Jafar Panahi, Iran, 2003
3.5 out of 4 stars

It’s positively amazing what you can sometimes get with non-professional actors, basically playing themselves, especially compared to the many times that real actors flub things entirely. This film follows the sad trajectory of a disaffected pizza delivery driver in Tehran, but while his journey is rooted in reality and presented, aside from the cuts from one scene to another, in something much like real time including all the boring waiting periods (and without the comforting style of similar scenes in Chinatown), the story itself is almost fantastical, probably in part because the people Hussein meets are, to no small degree, more symbolic than anything. The story is heartbreaking and the visuals held my interest without being flashy in the least. Most interestingly, director Jafar Panahi provides us with a removed, rational view of modern Iranian society even as he shows his considerable skill in unobtrusively guiding us along with one man’s unfortunate journey.

Source: Wellspring DVD
28 June, 9:11 PM

Superman Returns

Bryan Singer, Australia / USA, 2006
3.5 out of 4 stars

I thought that Richard Donner’s 1978 film, which I recently reviewed here, came from the right place, but was largely unsuccessful. You would think, then, that I wouldn’t get much out of a Superman franchise reboot that is nothing more than a rejuiced version of the Donner films, seeing as how I enjoyed Christopher Nolan’s pastiche of all the best Batman elements.

It is perhaps true that Bryan Singer’s choice of adaptation can be limiting in that he wasn't able or willing to drop anything that perhaps didn’t work ideally. Despite this, the film is an incredible, almost miraculous success. I’m really impressed with how well Singer does at creating good riff on something I didn't find that impressive, as I am with his general ability to sustain an un-ironic “earnest” tone without being overly corny (give or take a few minutes) or excessively anachronistic. The best example is Kevin Spacey’s Lex Luthor; he took Gene Hackman’s Luthor, which I was none too fond of, and made it work (with help from the script I presume). Certainly, there are problems; some scenes go on forever despite their lack of suspense (the filmmakers only get a pass on the “will Superman save them” thing for the first time), and the ending is abrupt in all the wrong ways. Finally, I’m not sure if this will convert you to the pro-Superman camp, but it will satisfy both casual and true believers.

Source: Warner 35mm print
28 June, 10 PM

Mulholland Dr.

David Lynch, USA / France, 2001
4 out of 4 stars

This film is usually Exhibit A in my argument that you don’t have to entirely understand a film in order to not just appreciate it, but to enjoy it as well. After I watched it in a French theater, my dad sent me a thorough e-mail explaining his interpretation of the film, and later, I saw various webpages backing him up. My viewing this time was colored by his interpretation, but discussing it with my friend (who has seen it 10 times already), she poked several holes into his reading. When I first saw it, though, I really had no idea what was going on and what the connections between the two sections were. I knew that the film started life as a television show and I figured that some of the discontinuity could be explained with this in mind, but that didn’t actually go too far within the context of the film. Mostly, I was captivated, both times, by the extreme surrealist approach which never started to alienate me as a viewer even on a visceral level (okay, maybe the last music scene). Strongly recommended, just don’t tax your brain too much if, like me, you meet with little success when you try to “figure it out.”

Source: Universal DVD
25 June, 6:22 PM

Paradise Now

Hany Abu-Assad, France / Germany / Netherlands / Israel, 2005
3 out of 4 stars

I expected this film to give me a good look at the experiences of two potential suicide bombers, and at Palestine in general, and it certainly did. However, it’s not exactly some kind of verité piece either. It’s very beautifully shot and contains some rather affecting moments. While the directing is largely unobtrusive, it’s not absent either. I did think that there were some aimless patches and that some of the motivation shifts weren’t quite clear, which is unfortunate considering that this film is almost entirely about motivations. However, the film succeeds because the director takes a clear eye at a very difficult and disturbing issue, and doesn’t choose to preach or condescend to the viewer. It’s meaningful, but unlike, say, Hotel Rwanda, it doesn’t just coast on its meaningfulness.

Source: Warner DVD
20 June, 10:56 PM

The Untouchables

Brian De Palma, USA, 1987
2.5 out of 4 stars

Perhaps I was just frustrated because this film brings up some ideological issues, but then turns out to be largely visual. Or perhaps I don’t respond well to the cloying nostalgic music and acting, even. There was certainly one really strong sequence, taking place in a train station in the final half-hour of the film that actually really bored me at first. I think perhaps that some of what Brian De Palma tried to do for suspense struck me as indicating lack of momentum. Certainly at the beginning of the scene, I found myself largely wondering what I was supposed to think was going on, and I’m not even sure if that was deliberate. It probably contributes to the thrill when the confrontation does ensue, but maybe there’s a smoother way to do that, especially when regarding the particularly lethargic.

Certainly, the colors are very rich, and there are some masterful shots, which all shows a good level of artistry. Maybe I just expect my action to be too fast, or maybe this is really more of the Disney version of cops vs. mafia, ambiguous morals and hardcore violence aside. Of course, Costner’s inevitable woodenness doesn’t help much.

Source: Paramount special edition DVD
19 June, 7:56 PM

Pride & Prejudice

Joe Wright, UK / France, 2005
3 out of 4 stars

Perversely enough, I started to become interested in seeing this film after I heard three of my friends railing against Keira Knightley when she was nominated for the Oscar. Indeed, Knightley is the weakest link in this version, not standing up too well to Jennifer Ehle (1995 BBC version) or even Aishwarya Rai (2004 “Bollywood” version). Thankfully, Matthew Mcfayden, while still no Colin Firth, does us the pleasure of not trying to be Firth, and certainly whups Martin Henderson’s ass (not much of a challenge, admittedly).

Overall, I quite enjoyed this rendition. What it lacks in thoroughness and in acting (compared to the BBC), it makes up for with production values, which are thankfully not put to use. The cinematography is quite beautiful, especially when regarding the English countryside where some key tableaus occur, and the dinginess of the Bennett home is keenly brought into view in a clearer fashion than I’ve seen in most Austen interpretations. Finally, Joe Wright has a strong style, with some signature, abrupt reaction shots and other little flourishes I’m not knowledgeable enough to name, and ultimately, this helps the film be a worthwhile contribution rather than a half-assed cash-in type of remake. Knightley, however, did bug me, especially in the opening part of the film, which made me feel that, despite her age, she might have been better cast as Lydia, someone she probably resembles more closely. Every time she crinkled her nose laughing, she seemed to convey a lack of depth that didn’t fit her character. I imagine marketability was, to put it lightly, the main reason for her inclusion.

Source: Universal DVD
6 June, 9:10 AM

Kings and Queen

(Rois et reine)
Arnaud Desplechin, France, 2004
3.5 out of 4 stars

It starts out with a woman describing her various marriages, then, after a bit, we meet a man right before he is condemned to a mental hospital. The connections and the backstory aren’t clear at the outset, but this is not at all frustrating in this film. Instead, I was captivated from the beginning. The dialogue is all top-notch, very literary but also grounded. The style of the film is quite remarkable; the two plots are expertly intertwined, and the director makes judicious use of a quick-cut technique in which he rapidly shows the viewer two, usually brief, takes of the same action or emotional reaction. The acting is very strong, and the characters are sympathetic but also, well, “complicated.” Finally, the story is very poignant and at times crushing, but it also contains a wealth of little charming moments and amusing quirks. I can’t really do justice to how good this movie is, though, so really, I can only say that I highly recommend it!

Source: Genius DVD
3 June, 8:25 PM

Lady Vengeance

(Chinjeolhan geumjassi)
Park Chan-wook, South Korea, 2005
3 out of 4 stars

This is yet another film that I started to lose faith in as it got nearer to the end, and I kept asking, “and then what?” I think that it suffered unfairly from comparisons to Park Chan-wook’s previous film, Oldboy, so I will probably need to watch it again when it comes out on DVD. I did really enjoy the main character, even though her very personality is hard to pin down thanks to the machinations of the plot. The other characters are interesting, but there are a lot of them, and it’s hard to tell who’s who after a while. In general, there are several confusing aspects of this film that made me feel as if I would need a full plot summary after watching it.

I do think that this film is saying something interesting and important about revenge, and that this is reflected in the somewhat-slow concluding portion of the film. The “message” does strike me as a tad bit obvious, but then there are a lot of different ways to react to the protagonist’s decisions near the end, so there does seem to be a worthwhile amount of ambiguity. I think the best parts of the film are the jail flashbacks and the adoption subplot. Once we get fully into the vengeance, the film becomes more contemplative, but somewhat less interesting.

Source: Tartan 35mm print
1 June, 7:18 PM

The Bourne Supremacy

Paul Greengrass, USA / Germany, 2004
3 out of 4 stars

It can be a little frustrating seeing a “spy plot” unravel to the point where you realize there wasn’t much of anything there at the center of it. It’s especially frustrating when the ending comes with 20 minutes to go, and you don’t even really feel the need to see what happens afterwards. Luckily, this film has a tremendous amount of visual style, and it’s almost surprising to me that this was enough to make me enjoy the film, as I’m not always a big fan of the “handheld camera” thing when it comes to action films. In this case, however, the jolting camera was an important part of the action and of the character, such as it was. I think ultimately, this is a very forced sequel that doesn’t justify its undoing of the last film’s ending (while also relying too much on the audience’s knowledge of its predecessor). Most of all, though, I think it’s a pretty clear case of a good director, Paul Greengrass, having been saddled with a half-assed script.

Source: Universal DVD
31 May, 11:10 PM

Sex Is Comedy

Catherine Breillat, France / Portugal, 2002
4 out of 4 stars

I wasn’t surprised to read a comment by the director to the effect that she made this film as an antidote to all those “making of” DVD featurettes, as that certainly struck me. I also found myself comparing this film to Lost in La Mancha; the difference between the two films is, quite obviously, the difference between reality and scripted television. At some point, you have to show people acting in order to just keep them from posing. Here, we get incredible insight into filmmaking, and specifically, into filming sex scenes, which, save for the History of Violence DVD, don’t generally show up in the “behind the scenes” special features.

Well, I do confess I have a penchant for “meta,” but I found this film to be very accessible and entertaining, and not even in a labored, self-consciously clever way, which is certainly a bit of what you expect in a film about filmmaking. It is very “French” in that there are a great deal of outlandish, yet occasionally compelling theories about how filmmaking (and even sexuality) “works,” but since the director doesn’t quite play herself (using an avatar instead), we’re left with a lot of choices (since I’m pretty sure she’s constantly contradicting herself). Apparently Catherine Breillat specializes in hard-to-watch films, but I’d definitely say this one doesn’t qualify. I really enjoyed the dialogue, the balance between the cinematic and the natural, the relationships between the director character and her assistant and actor, and so on. Highly recommended.

Source: Swank 35mm print
30 May, 7:30 PM

The Da Vinci Code

Ron Howard, USA, 2006
2 out of 4 stars

Although there were protesters for this film in my local theater during its opening weekend, I have also read that some evangelicals are hoping to use it to lure ‘em in and then give them what they consider to be the real story. While watching this film, I realized what a brilliant strategy this is, because, while The Passion of the Christ literally preaches to the choir, this film appears subversive but really buttresses the church’s appeal, because the biggest threat to faith today is not radical reinterpretations, but profound indifference, something you find in greater supply in London and Paris, the settings for the film, than you do here, actually.

The interpretation presented here, which I won’t “spoil” even though the media already did so for me, certainly has its attractions. I wouldn’t mind if it were true, and so I can see why many want it to be true The filmmakers also want to imply that revealing this interpretation would change faith, while hedging their bets a bit in how they present this, but by this they just show that they don’t understand faith, which has not that much to do with kooky historical riddles.

It doesn’t help that said riddles hold far too much resemblance to the kind of deliberately-outlandish puzzle solving found in the Adam West Batman, in which connections and conclusions are drawn out of thin air. I’d just as soon intellectuals were ignored by mainstream film, rather than be portrayed in such a bogus fashion.

Other problems here include the tendency to spent several scenes getting us nowhere and then give us half of the entire mystery in a big monologue, Tom Hanks’ astonishing, mind-numbing flatness, the incoherence of the present-day conspiracies and betrayals, and so on. Come on, this is your blockbuster? You might as well just go to church.

Source: Sony 35mm print
27 May, 8:45 PM

X-Men: The Last Stand

Brett Ratner, USA, 2006
1.5 out of 4 stars

I talk a lot about how my expectations really color my enjoyment of a film, but it’s especially aggravating when I’m still disappointed even after I’ve lowered my expectations. While I’m aware that the previous two films weren’t exactly masterpieces, I especially enjoyed how X2 built on the sometimes-perfunctory setup of its predecessor to fully immerse the viewer in the X-universe.

This movie pretends to be a sequel to X2, but ultimately, this film builds on the bones of what came before, rather than on the solid, already established foundation. Characters are dismissed with perfunctory waves of the hand, or “revealed” to have always been the exact opposite of everything we were told before, specifically in the case of Jean Grey. The treatment of Jean invokes the worst excesses of comic books (namely, retroactive continuity or the “retcon,”) while losing whatever emotional pathos was involved in the source material.

Most egregious, however, is the finale. The X-Men rush into defend something without really explaining why it’s important, and their goals and the stakes they are playing for constantly shift. While you never quite get to the point where the story doesn’t make sense, it’s safe to say that the motivations never make sense, if only because there are no motivations; basically, everything happens for no reason. There are certainly some good action scenes, but overall it’s hard to enjoy this even as mindless action because moronic director Brett Ratner gets so bogged down in the process of pissing on all the plotlines and characters that he inherited from Bryan Singer’s vastly superior work.

Source: Fox 35mm print
26 May, 11 PM

The Panama Deception

Barbara Trent, USA, 1992
3 out of 4 stars

I tend to forget that we even invaded Panama (such is my luxury as an American), so this film was interesting not only for reminding me, but for also showing how horrifically ridiculous and overkill (literally) the whole thing was, and worse, how unjustified. The narrator describes Panama as practice for the first Gulf War, but the parallels are obviously very strong with the Gulf War that occurred after this film was made, complete with a clueless, kneejerk-patriotic media that didn’t even have the lame 9/11 excuse for failing to see through government rhetoric. It is made clear that the government’s control of what media sees was actually a new thing since Vietnam, but of course, they fail to complain about it directly to us when they are denied access (as they were during the initial bombardment).

The story is largely told through footage of the aftermath (disturbing, to say the least) and a certain amount of talking heads. Most of the “experts” seem fairly level-headed, although I think they would’ve improved their credibility by not including the allegation that the US military was testing space-age laser weapons against the Panamanian people (it’s already a massacre, it doesn’t need to be an X-Files massacre). The composition of the film itself does leave something to be desired; the director uses the cheesiest freeze-frame and wipe effects, puts a lame “TV frame” around US media footage, and dubs rather than subtitles most of the Spanish speech. This film, then, is basically good because of what it tells us and the fact that it makes us look at what happened, giving us less room to brush it off. If, say, you already knew everything about the Panama invasion, the film would hold little value for you.

Source: Rhino VHS
25 May, 12:44 PM

Kung Fu Hustle

(Kung fu)
Stephen Chow, Hong Kong / China, 2004
4 out of 4 stars

I wasn’t sure at first, but as I kept going I decided that this film does indeed deserve my very unofficial “best of 2005” title (the 2004 date above is the original Hong Kong release). This film does indeed start slow, like Shaolin Soccer, but not quite as bad, because it’s not so much that the beginning isn’t funny or interesting, as that you don’t know where the hell the plot is trying to go. While the tension I felt near the end of the film was largely eliminated by my knowledge of how the battles would go, I still had to relearn the need to not get hung up by “the plot.”

If anything, I was a little testier with it because this time out, I wasn’t just overwhelmed with glee at the fact that I was actually seeing a Stephen Chow movie in theaters. That said, in retrospect it's clear that the confused plot is part of the humor; the best example being the “epiphany” at the end. I do have to admit that part of this film’s attraction, though, is that someone (Sony Pictures) finally gave Chow a lot of money, so we don’t have any of those dubious attempts at computer graphics seen in Soccer. The movie is quite beautiful, and not just in an “overlook the visual flaws” type of way, either. I would love to say I could recommend this movie to everyone, but a lot of you would probably think I was on crack if you saw it yourself.

Source: Sony DVD
23 May, 11:09 PM

Since Otar Left

(Depuis qu'Otar est parti)
Julie Bertucelli, France / Belgium, 2003
3 out of 4 stars

This film presents a somewhat clichéd plot about concealing something from a family member for her own good, set off by the fact that it takes place in a little-known country, Georgia, is shot with emotional and artistic honesty, and contains a striking performance by a 95-year-old woman! And although I could see the beginning of the “deception” plot coming, there was at least one twist near the end that I did not anticipate, although I wasn’t entirely blown away by it either. The final twist was a lot easier to anticipate, but then, I think that was deliberate. Definitely an interesting depiction of the other side of the disaporic experience, specifically, those who are “left” behind. Not entirely exceptional, but certainly worthwhile.

Source: Zeitgeist 35mm print
23 May, 7:30 PM

Water

Deepa Mehta, Canada / India, 2005
Three stars

This is an often beautiful, sometimes elliptical but mostly somewhat-conventional film about the unsettling ways in which widows – including children – were treated in India, at least in the 1930s (the ending title card leaves it ambiguous as to how much of these practices continue today). Probably the strangest aspect of it was how the film started by focusing on the young child, then switched over to a love story bit that seemed always Disney-esque, and the film shifts focus once again even after that. Although it’s not as if these elements are unrelated, the film isn’t really set up as a multiple-perspective affair, which makes it all somewhat jarring. Overall I liked it, but I was not really blow away either, and I imagine that had the subject matter been slighter and more familiar, I would have been harder on it.

Source: Fox 35mm print
21 May, 7 PM

Mission: Impossible III

J.J. Abrams, USA, 2006
2.5 out of 4 stars

What a funny film. For one thing, when you’ve got Ving Rhames asking Tom Cruise, “so did you sleep with your little sister,” one can’t help but like the filmmakers are playing some weird games with the whole Cruise/Holmes unpleasantness (for the record, Cruise never answers the question). There are a whole host of problems with this film, most of which revolve around the notion that Cruise is primarily motivated by these two women whom we hardly ever see on screen, and in the case of the more clearly romantic relationship, what we do see inspires little more than a feeling that it’d be better if we got back to the action.

And yet… maybe the “motivation” bit worked as well as it was supposed to, because after some long stretches of boredom in the first half, I found myself a bit more caught up the closer we got to the end. I don’t really know if that was because of the story, or just because the setpieces were more exciting. What I did find fascinating was that someone thought you could actually wring some suspense from “will Tom Cruise be successfully resuscitated?” I mean, seriously guys? Of course, one can always hope to be proved wrong!

Source: Paramount 35mm print
19 May, 8 PM

The Intruder

(L'intrus)
Claire Denis, France, 2004
2.5 out of 4 stars

Well shucks, I tried to like it, and at least I succeeded in not hating it and in getting something out of it (whereas several walked out of the theater during this “festival” screening). That said, filmmaker Claire Denis clearly wasn’t willing to meet me halfway. This film is clearly inaccessible by design. Not only do you not quite know what things mean, you don’t even know why things are happening or even what is happening. In fact, you’re not even sure what thematic ballpark we’re supposed to be in. Entire sequences and characters are introduced with no rhyme or reason. And while there are plenty of films I’ve seen lately that have similar obstacles to enjoyment, there is often enough beauty or artfulness that those concerns don’t ruin the experience. Denis, however, prefers to assail the viewer with images that fail to even appeal to the viewer in any aesthetically comprehensible manner. I’m not saying it’s crap. I’m just saying it’s not for me, or for most people, and that there’s nothing wrong with that.

Source: Wellspring 35mm print
9 May, 7:43 PM

Spring, Summer, Fall, Winter... and Spring

(Bom yeoreum gaeul gyeoul geurigo bom)
Kim Ki-duk, South Korea / Germany, 2003
3.5 out of 4 stars

A very beautiful film (especially in the first “spring” segment), clearly loaded with entrancing but elusive Buddhist imagery. As in his subsequent film, 3-Iron, Kim Ki-duk makes very effective use of silence (not always, but for the larger portion of the film), without leading to snores. Compared to the many films I’ve lately been describing as “good, but I didn’t get it,” I generally preferred the segments that I did get here. Even though it is about a very particular set of religious and cultural practices (and who knows if it’s portrayed accurately), I found most of the film to be accessible, which was why it was a bit tiresome when the climax, such as it was, was a largely unexplained hike up a hill. Actually, I suppose it wasn’t that hard to figure out, but it just seemed to lack an impetus, which you couldn’t say for the rest of the film. Overall, however, a strong effort, a movie that has a point but is also very serene, in a good way.

Source: Sony DVD
8 May, 9:16 PM

Ice Age: The Meltdown

Carlos Saldanha, USA, 2006
1 out of 4 stars

At least it wasn’t bad to the point that I was angry I had paid money for it, and if anything, it means that I can now bash non-Pixar CG animated output without admitting that I haven’t seen much of it. In fact, it was interesting to see what the formula for these megablockbusters is nowadays.

Of course there’s celebrities, but some of them are so D-list that you wonder what the possible advantage of hiring them over actual voice actors really is. There’s an attempt at wry humor, but it strikes one as ultimately revealing the failure of the writers to be as clever as they think they are. Sure there are some inspired bits, like the little critter chasing the acorn, but even that bit wears out by the end, and they tend to have no real connection to the rest of the film.

The worst of it is, the animals here are just ugly! When I see something like this, I just think back to The Lion King and wonder how we managed to go so far backwards in terms of representing animated fauna. The plot is nonexistent; there’s supposed to be some impending whatever, but mostly it’s just a backdrop for some drawn-out, seen-it-all-before romance. It’s really odd that this is what passes for entertainment, family or otherwise, nowadays.

Source: Fox 35mm print
7 May, 2:50 PM

Carnage

(Carnages)
Delphine Gleize, France / Spain / Belgium, 2002
3.5 out of 4 stars

It takes some good skill at filmmaking to show a transition between a bullfight and a large Labrador jumping onto the couch, and not make it seem gimmicky in the slightest. Indeed, this film is all about somewhat inexplicable juxtapositions, as well as a peculiar conceit that I wish hadn’t been spoiled for me by the summary I read somewhere (also, the director didn’t seem to follow through on it, for some reason).

To put it simplistically, there is too much going on here, as opposed to the other kind of art film in which there is not enough going on. The threads that connect the different narratives are often slight, but, while confusing here and there, are largely involving. Once again, I find myself not sure what the overall point was, or even sure if there was supposed to be one. Certainly an engaging film experience… and on the big screen, too!

Source: Wellspring 35mm print
2 May, 7:35 PM

The Ice Storm

Ang Lee, USA, 1997
3.5 out of 4 stars

It’s not as if it’s not clear what was happening, but I wasn’t entirely certain what it all meant when the film was done. Nevertheless, it made a very strong, positive impression on me. It sounds dumb, but the “ice storm” was more literal than I expected, and this led to some very beautiful shots. In fact, the imagery in this film does indeed, as at least one critic remarked, make Ang Lee’s work on Brokeback Mountain look lazy. Much of what happens in this film (although eventful, there isn’t a “plot” per se) is unnerving but also rather mundane, but for the most part, James Schamus’ screenplay avoids the obvious and expected. The only exception seems to be the ending, which as I hinted, baffled me a bit; I wasn’t opposed to it per se, but it did seem like I was missing something. In conclusion, this is a good film that went over my head.

Source: Fox DVD
29 April, 9:08 PM

The President's Last Bang

(Geuddae geusaramdeul)
Im Sang-soo, South Korea, 2005
3 out of 4 stars

It didn’t bowl me over, but it was certainly something I’d never seen before and it was very expertly done. This film details the assassination of one of the Republic of Korea’s old authoritarian “presidents,” giving us a good look at all the players involved (although I had trouble figuring out who was who, especially in the beginning). It especially comes alive when the deed is done, and even moreso during the aftermath, when the plot seems to really get going. And to some extent, I must concede that the somewhat elliptical nature of the plotting did help draw me in. I suppose I would’ve liked more clarity as to what the ideological motivations were, but I suspect that the director’s point (and political statement) is that petty, interpersonal strife was ultimately more important and all the ideology involved was shallow at best. Most of all, having studied modern Korean history as an undergrad and then having of course forgotten it all afterwards, it was interesting to get such a good look at the bad-old pre-democracy days, at least for it was (or might have been) at the top level.

Source: Kino DVD
23 April, 10:30 AM

Friends with Money

Nicole Holofcener, USA, 2006
3 out of 4 stars

It’s contemplative and also very slight at the same time. What saves this film is that it is very hilarious for much of the time, and there is a certain, appreciable amount of poignancy (this seems to be the buzzword for me lately) to some of the more serious moments, at least regarding some characters’ plotlines. It is short, so some elements feel underdeveloped, and I’m not sure if the writer/director put the emphasis where it was needed, in some instances, although the subplot regarding the character who seems to be gay was actually much better than one might expect. And at some level, the whole “sorrows of the rich” angle is fundamentally diseased. This film does try to have it both ways by attempting to pose as a critique of the rich, but it doesn’t quite wash.

There is also a rather dubious twist near the end that thrusts this movie closer to “Hollywood” and farther away from the “art-house” that the Sony Pictures Classics opening logo would seem to imply. The ending itself is that classic “fade out from nothing in particular” bit that sent shockwaves through the audience, apparently hoping for a straight-up “chick flick.” I wisecracked to my friend that I could name 10 different films I’d seen this year with more ambiguous non-endings than that; probably an exaggeration, but it did crack me up that they were so aggravated by something that seemed so non-challenging to me.

Source: Sony 35mm print
21 April, 7:30 PM

Keane

Lodge Kerrigan, USA, 2004
Three and a half stars

This film is a very interesting and risky experiment that thankfully works quite well. I suppose it has been done before somewhere by someone, but I myself have not seen very many art films that focus entirely on one man to the extent that, for perhaps the majority of the film, his head and shoulders fill up most of the frame! This character has lost his daughter and, to put it lightly, isn’t dealing with loss very well, and director Lodge Kerrigan creates a really wrenching effect by preventing you from looking away from this guy. Just as importantly, actor Damian Lewis is clearly up to the challenge of having to be the entire movie (although his child co-star is quite good too). Plot developments come as a surprise, but for the most part I wasn’t sitting there waiting for them, I was engrossed in the character’s seemingly aimless trajectory through his own misery. I think there are limits to how far this kind of filmmaking can go (by which I mean, I wouldn’t want to watch too many films like this), but I was generally more receptive to this than I expected, although my mind did wander at times. The end, however, is perfectly calibrated in tone and sentiment, which was almost surprising considering that films like this tend to have very unsatisfying endings (although it would be misleading to say I was “satisfied” in the traditional sense).

Source: Magnolia DVD
19 April, 8:57 PM

La dolce vita

Federico Fellini, Italy, 1960
4 out of 4 stars

I liked the previous Fellini film that I saw, but this one was leagues better Even though it’s one of the two longest movies I’ve watched this year, there were no slow spots whatsoever, especially impressive considering that’s one of my most frequent criticisms of films.

Even more than La strada, this is an extremely episodic film. Fellini fades away from one event to the other without giving any direct hint as to where we’ve gone or how much time has elapsed. Rather than causing needless difficulty for the viewer, this approach somehow seems organic and a fitting way to convey a sense of the protagonist’s progression, or lack thereof, as the case may be. I actually find myself, to a certain extent, at a loss in my attempt to explain why this was so good. It is nice to find yet another much-avowed “classic” that I really enjoyed, especially without having to make any special allowances for its age or something like that. This film really seemed closer to flawless than anything I’ve seen lately.

Source: Koch DVD
17 April, 5:12 PM

Swordsman II

(Xiao ao jian hu zhi dong fang bu bai)
Ching Siu-Tung, Hong Kong, 1991
3.5 out of 4 stars

Wow! Already, from the first scene, it was clear that the sequel was an immense improvement over the original. Even so, it seemed for much of the film that it was mostly an entertaining but jumbled affair. It’s almost shocking, then, to see the whole thing come together at the end with astonishing force and poignancy, as you realize what all the entanglements have been leading up to.

This film would seem like less of a mess at first if they had jettisoned much of the confusing politics involving Japanese forces, which doesn’t really seem to add to the story and makes it more difficult to figure out who’s who. Everything that’s important has to do with the intricate relationships between the hero, played by Jet Li with a level of both comedy and drama that is surprising considering many of his later, somber/bland roles, the two women in his life, and… a hermaphrodite! You really have to see it to believe it. No one comes away clean or completely admirable with regards to this gender-bending plotline, but the results are fascinating, and the filmmakers go farther with it than you would really expect even for most films today.

As for the action, well it’s still very superhero-ish, much as it was in the first one. In that film, I objected to the supernatural foolishness and hoped for some combat where people would actually hit each other. Surprisingly, however, I enjoyed the same kind of outlandish fights here, which seems to suggest that it wasn’t the concept so much as the execution that I objected to in the previous film. When it comes down to it, I’m really surprised that I can recommend this film so heartily (with the caveat that I can’t guarantee you’ll respond to it the same way).

Source: Tai Seng DVD
16 April, 8:23 PM

The White Diamond

Werner Herzog, UK / Germany, 2004
4 out of 4 stars

Fantastic! There is such a great wealth of beautiful imagery in this film, yet there is also an amazing, bizarre artistic vision at work. This comes before Grizzly Man, which I saw earlier, in the oeuvre of Werner Herzog, and you can see some of the same motifs at play; a tragic background of a quest for capturing nature that is both admirable and foolish, shameless intrusions by the director/narrator, and uncomfortable, lingering shots that wrench unwanted sentiments out of the subjects Herzog is scrutinizing. The last one is weird because Herzog was working from the amazing treasure trove of found footage that Timothy Treadwell left behind for him, whereas here, he’s always at the helm (I suppose Herzog did the film on Treadwell because Treadwell captured himself in the same way that Herzog would have sought to capture Treadwell).

Of course, Herzog’s perspective on the whole thing is amazingly skewed and there’s no real pretense of objectivity, but this element really works in his films, for some reason. Meanwhile, I find it especially fascinating that there are so many shots in this film that are more beautiful than anything I’ve seen in a narrative, fictional film this year. See it for the swifts, the waterfall, the airship, or the whacked-out maestro himself.

Source: Genius DVD
14 April, 10:04 PM

Inside Man

Spike Lee, USA, 2006
3 out of 4 stars

A very engaging, dynamic film that ultimately doesn’t turn out to be about that much. Spike Lee always brings up a lot of interesting things, and this is not one of those films like Bamboozled that just ends up preaching ideas that, while compelling, don’t really add up to a working film. Instead, I would say that this film, if anything, has the opposite problem, which is that the ideas aren’t big enough. There’s a bit with an ultra-violent video game that is spot-on, but does it really have anything to do with the rest of the film? Not exactly. Lee does do a good job at conveying a strong impression of New York as an imperfect but nonetheless promising rainbow; not exactly new for him or his many fellow NYC-boosting directors, but at least in this instance I was sucked in by it instead of rolling my eyes… although that may just be the big screen.

The main problem here is the ending. This is where you find out what everything was all about, and you realize you’ve been holding out hope not so much that it will all tie together, but that it will tie together in a way that will matter, and I think it falls short in that regard. Also, some of the gimmicks in this part are a bit much… dare I say, too Hollywood? Mainly, the ending just drags. It’s not that anything happened that was so stupid or poorly executed that it made me really turn against the film, but it’s also not like it entirely lived up to its promise either. This makes me sound more down on it than I was, when in fact, I would actually recommend this film. It might also reward a repeat viewing, but it was more than two hours! Maybe he should have cut down the ending part.

Source: Universal 35mm print
13 April, 4:50 PM

A Bug's Life

John Lasseter, USA, 1998
3.5 out of 4 stars

This film definitely starts out slow. Much of the opening seems to be overly clichéd and not as inspired as other Pixar efforts. This isn’t to say it was bad per se, just that it wasn’t the greatness I expect from Pixar right from the beginning.

This came later. Indeed, by the time I got to the end of the film I myself felt inspired and thoroughly entertained. Unlike DreamWorks or even Disney proper, Pixar generally gets it right when they try to convey a theme like individualism and innovation over conformity and tradition, because they personify these values to some extent. I think part of the problem here is that the ants aren’t much to look at, so you really need the color you get from the circus bugs, but that may actually be the point, as the ants’ world really changes from that point on. There are certainly some great images, but my favorite would have to be the killer bird. And while the humor (or the characterization, for that matter) isn’t exactly perfect, it works for the story.

Source: Buena Vista DVD
12 April, 9:45 PM

La strada

Federico Fellini, Italy, 1954
3.5 out of 4 stars

This film, my introduction to Federico Fellini, made a strong positive impression on me early on, which is good because it really tried my patience as it dragged on near the end. I actually don’t exactly know what to say about this film. I found the characters strangely compelling, an interesting balance between nuance and vapid emptiness. Everything was, fittingly, very stark but there was still a lot of dynamic camera work to say the least. The ideological contradictions were fascinating although this is probably unintentional to some extent. I do worry that his subsequent films, which like this one I will see in my role as “projectionist” for this Fellini class screening, are going to be much more self-indulgent than this one (partly from the little I’ve read). But this one mostly got on my good side.

Source: Home Vision DVD
10 April 5:10 PM

The World

(Shijie)
Jia Zhangke, China / Japan / France, 2004
3 out of 4 stars

This rather arty film depicts the lives of workers at an internationally-themed park in Beijing. It’s actually more focused on two main characters than the chaotic opening might lead one to believe, and the very brief diversions into the lives of others seem mostly to be thematic red herrings, but I don’t know if that’s a fair assessment. There isn’t tons of narrative here, but there is nonetheless a plot and a more sincere attempt to engage the viewer than what I’ve seen recently in other arty, uneventful films like Millennium Mambo and Forty Shades of Blue.

Jia Zhangke does some very interesting things with recurring visual motifs, and he hints (sometimes agonizingly) at things like broader social significance and the most basic of character motivations. Even with some surface plot points, it took me a few seconds to digest what had happened. While I enjoyed it, I couldn’t recommend it because I feel that films like these are even more “in the eye of the beholder” than regular films, because when the director doesn’t guide your experience of the film as much, your reaction is going to be all the more personal.

Source: Zeitgeist DVD
4 April, 8:29

Lost in La Mancha

Keith Fulton & Louis Pepe, UK / USA, 2002
**1/2 stars

Definitely a letdown. I’ve seen and enjoyed a few films by Terry Gilliam and I know he has something of a bad reputation (he released yet another dog this year in the form of The Brothers Grimm, apparently) so I thought I would get some interesting insight into the creative but troubled mind of an auteur.

Instead, perhaps out of an unwillingness to indict the maestro they set out to chronicle, the faceless filmmakers show us a series of unfortunate coincidences and have us wondering, “okay, and so what?” There are a lot of suggestions and implications but none are really realized.

The interesting thing about documentaries is that no one watches them, yet they can sometimes seem like prototypes of intellectual reality shows. This one, I think, goes too far into that realm. Many encounters feel staged, although you do see some interesting glimpses of Gilliam’s frustration on set.

Mostly though, there isn’t enough here to hold my interest, and certainly not enough for a feature film. I’m tempted to say a 30-minute TV special would have been better, but in fact, I think a decent-sized article would have sufficed! It’s really enough to say in conversation, “did you hear Gilliam tried to make Cervantes but failed?” (in fact I had this exact conversation with my parents on Tuesday) The fact that a film came about by documenting this failure adds an interesting layer to your conversational tidbit, but the film itself doesn’t really add to it. Maybe with a stronger authorial (directorial) voice or a better selection of footage, this could have been something, but I’m not entirely certain about that. The "flair" they do use is downright awful, like the constant slow motion they use when they want to cut away in the middle of a sentence. Yuck.

The worst thing is, this wasn't even as good as the one-hour "making of" feature on the History of Violence DVD, entitled "Acts of Violence." Since there is actually a story to tell here, I find that really inexcusable (and since this "film" started life as a similar project, I find the comparison to be fair as well).

Source: Newvideo DVD
1 April, 9:02 PM