Children of Men

Alfonso Cuarón, UK / USA, 2006
4 out of 4 stars

Luckily, this film is just as strong on a repeat viewing, although I suppose it didn’t hurt that I had forgotten many of the major plot points (this is the upside to not watching your favorite films too often). One thing that really struck me was how directly Cuarón chose to visually quote from the Abu Gharib photos when the heroes enter the detention center. Of course, the parallel would have been obvious in any case. I tried to point this out to my students, but of course they didn’t even know what Abu Gharib was! I suppose they were around 13 years old at the time, but I still find that unacceptable. It makes me wonder if there is any real need for the pervasive propagandizing that this film portrays; even when the press openly and extensively reports on a heinous offense, the average person still remains blissfully ignorant of it.

The other interesting element is that Cuarón is combining the “terrorist detention” crisis with the “illegal immigration” crisis. Perhaps I’m being naïve to even view them as separate “issues,” but in any case, I do find the conflation of the two problems (and by problem, of course, I am referring to how the West and particularly the US has dealt with things) somewhat illuminating, as if Cuarón is sketching out for us the whole continuum of heinous treatment of the other, and perhaps reminding those of us who may be only, or more, concerned with one problem than the other, that these things can bleed into each other after a while.

Source: Universal DVD
30 May, 2:28 PM

The Maltese Falcon

John Huston, USA, 1941
4 out of 4 stars

I first saw this film before graduate school, and I have now shown it three times for the last class in the composition series. The last time, I went out for a sandwich at one point, so I don't consider that a "full" viewing.

The time before that, I registered some displeasure at the one time that my students laughed. Well, if that's truly a bad thing, then I should have been out of my mind this time, as a big chunk of my students laughed numerous times throughout the movie. Actually, one student later explained in office hours that one of her peers in that corner of the room had a very contagious laugh, which makes a lot of sense, if only because I found myself laughing quite a bit as well!

So, did it take the serendipity of a giggly 19-year-old woman to reveal that The Maltese Falcon was actually a comedy after all? I think that's going a bit far, but it did make me think more carefully about the obvious fact of how ridiculous many elements are - deliberately, mind you. Joel Cairo (Peter Lorre), the walking gay/foreign stereotype is always throwing these absurd fits, while Sam Spade (Humphrey Bogart) at one point throws his own fit, just to get his foes into the right mindset (why this works is unclear, but it certianly does, and he calms down as soon as he leaves the room, to let us know he was just kidding - he doesn't really have that much emotion!).

I'm not sure I have much more to add than that for this viewing. I did raise the rating by a half star, if only because I'm not sure that I can find a whole half-star worth of flaws in this movie (does it really matter that much that Mary Astor is not that convincing? Maybe she's not supposed to be).

Source: Warner special edition DVD
24 July, 11:30 AM

Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid

George Roy Hill, USA, 1969
3.5 out of 4 stars

My parents showed me this film on videotape when I was a teenager, and then, on DVD, I’ve seen it in a composition class and now again as a projectionist for a lower-division film class. Each time, it holds up as an effective, entertaining deconstruction of the Western ethos, even in an era in which deconstruction is a dime a dozen. To be honest, I don’t think I knew much at all about what was being deconstructed the first time I saw this film, as, much like the neo-noir of the 1970s, it all ends up being “the past” for today’s generation, or even mine, so some level of genre awareness is required to understand what is transpiring (for this class, it was provided by an episode of Bonanza that I was unable to sit through due to its, well, suckiness).

That said, this kind of awareness is not necessary in order to be entertained by the film, which was evidenced by the significant amount of laughter I heard from the undergrads throughout the screening. Of course, wisecracks are that eternal, postmodern form of humor that resontates throughout the ages, but the actors clearly have good chemistry and really sell the material. I do think some parts are more uneven than others, and perhaps we have ended up with a lot of bad formula films as a result, but this film overall reminds one of how the formula can work.

Source: Fox DVD
7 May, 5:09 PM

Dark City

Alex Proyas, Australia / USA, 1998
4 out of 4 stars

I suppose it’s silly to try to talk about this film without giving away the twist, but I fondly recall being all but blown away by the multiple reveals that really brought the film together, so I can’t help but stick to my usual “no-spoiler” policy, even though I could see this time that the twists might be fairly obvious to many people. It’s true that there were a few films that drew upon similar ideas (although with much different styles) that came out not long after this one and met with much greater success (this was a critical and commercial failure), but that isn’t as surprising to me upon this viewing. This is, after all, more of a great vision than a perfectly-executed film.

What’s interesting is that, at the outset, the film seems to be some kind of neo-noir, but the opening shot and the narration clues you in that there is a mysterious sci-fi element, which becomes more apparent once you meet the villains. These villains, I have to say, do get lamer as the film goes along, although I think the giggles of the students I was watching the film with say more about their unwillingness to go along with the film than the film itself (the next-door drilling, and the failure of one of the speakers, didn’t really help). There is a lot to overlook; I felt like of the main cast, only William Hurt and Jennifer Connelly give really good performances. But nevermind that, as this is really about the art direction and the obvious, yet brilliantly conceived conceptual mind-trips. It struck me this time, as I’m sure it has others, that this is an especially interesting form of metacinema, making interesting comments on the act of filmmaking itself (and that doesn’t give as much away as you think it might). It’s definitely something that everyone should take a look at, although it probably isn’t for everyone.

Source: Warner DVD
22 February, 5:10 PM

The Maltese Falcon

John Huston, USA, 1941
3.5 out of 4 stars

Having done a unit on Walter Mosely’s novel Devil in a Blue Dress, I showed my composition students this film so that they could get a handle on the more “archetypal” noir drama and therefore have something to compare the novel to. I knew I was in for some trouble, though, when Miles Archer was shot very early into the film, and most of the class started cackling at the slight whiff of cheese. I understand that sometimes it’s hard to relate to “old” film, but I was frustrated because I knew that they were consciously distancing themselves, rather than trying to bridge the gap and appreciate the film.

As for me, well this was my second time watching it, and I think it’s been more colored by the articles I’ve read in between (and right after this viewing). Mary Astor really does suck, this is even more apparent after watching Lauren Bacall in The Big Sleep; granted, that’s an unfair comparison considering that Bacall’s character has agency and is likeable, but the gap between them is apparent enough even so. Astor just doesn’t seem like she would inspire any real passion, and she just doesn’t seem capable of leading all these men to their demise. The movie mostly survives on Bogart’s attitude, as well as the unique fact that you can actually follow the plot (Dashiell Hammett, unlike Raymond Chandler, has clearly accounted for the deaths of each of his characters). The sex is oblique thanks to the Hays Code, but this doesn’t detract too much. The best part, finally, is the ending; my reading of it may be unique (and that’s sort of the point), but I see it as a tragedy of morals, which (at least when I read the book, before even seeing the film) surprised me greatly.

Source: Warner special edition DVD
4 December, 9:13 AM

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

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

A History of Violence

David Cronenberg, USA / Germany, 2005
3.5 out of 4 stars

I appreciated it a little better this time, perhaps because I wasn’t expecting to be unsettled by the violence rather than the emotional clashes. David Cronenberg says in one of the special features that you’re supposed to be “implicated” by the violence, which indeed does happen. You do still need to sort of be prepared for what you’re gonna see ahead of time, as my friends showed me when they talked about how laughable they found the whole thing to be. Subversiveness is the eye of the beholder, perhaps?

Source: Warner DVD
18 March, 10 PM

Batman Begins

Christopher Nolan, USA, 2005
3.5 out of 4 stars

This worked a lot better for me the second time, in that it was easier for me to see and appreciate the nuance in this interpretation of Batman and his origin. The first time, I recognized it but wasn't entirely taken in with it. I was certainly impressed with how they had achieved an adaptation that was faithful and unfaithful to every version of Batman in one way or another. But I think watching it again, I saw how all the thematic elements worked so well together. A great film, I can say with confidence that I look forward to the sequel (despite having been proven wrong a few times with that).

Source: Warner DVD
5 January, 10:30 PM