The Red Lantern

The Departed/Infernal Affairs

2006-10-29T18:44:00.000-08:00

2006/2002
Warner Bros./Media Asia Films
Directors: Martin Scorsese/Andrew Lau & Alan Mak
Length: 151 min./101 min.
Country: USA/Hong Kong
Format: 35mm/DVD

[MAJOR SPOILERS INSIDE - you've been warned]

We have here, with Martin Scorsese's The Departed and Andrew Lau and Andy Mak's Infernal Affairs, a shining example of how to remake a film (there are far too many similarities between the two for the new version to be considered a mere "inspiration" as Scorsese claims). Take a lackluster movie with a good premise and plenty of potential and work to create a new film that improves upon the source. And in almost every way, The Departed certainly does improve on Infernal Affairs.

Infernal Affairs is a big cult favorite, the result of lowered expectations on the part of both execs and audiences. The film can rightfully boast of a fun dual rat story, two genuinely thrilling and exciting set-pieces (the very long opening coke deal and SP Wong's demise), and two knockout performances by Eric Tsang (as mob boss Sam) and especially Anthony Wong (as SP Wong). Otherwise, the film is an exercise in mediocrity, suffering from pacing that alternates between rushed and overlong, half-assed lead performances by blandly charismatic Andy Lau (who also serves as director/producer) and the typically outstanding Tony Leung (perhaps my favorite actor of our time and one who could even make Zhang Yimou's Hero somewhat watchable - no small feat), ridiculous overstylization in the key of Bruckheimer (a character looking through a file is shown with 20 cuts and whip-pans), and a typically terrible and cheap-sounding HK score (with synths replacing orchestras, well, you get what you pay for).

The biggest crime of the film, though (no pun intended), is a all-too-often corny yet humorless script that affords no real characterizations or motivations whatsoever (though Tsang and Wong somehow manage to bring their respective characters up to two-dimensional). True, some characterization is given, but it never once helps us understand or sympathize with either of our leads or their utterly useless relationships (Lau's girlfriend is writing a novel about a man with multiple personalities! Get it? I guess mainstream American filmmakers aren't that only ones that think their audiences are stupid). Leung's Yan has a kid he doesn't know about developed only in a casually tossed-off reference. Lau's Inspector Lau has a girlfriend that he is nice to, and his coworkers don't trust him once he joins the Internal Affairs division. I'm not barely exaggerating when I say this is how deep the lead of the film is developed. How exactly did Lau and Mak expect us to care for any of these people? I think they cared only as much as they made a paycheck (further evidenced in Lau's performance).

Character motivation fares just as bad. Why does Inspector Lau decide to shoot his true boss, and why does he try and go straight at the end of film? Because he was caught? Because he felt remorse over what he had done? Because his criminality made his girlfriend cry? Why does Yan threaten to kill Lau only after it's established that only Lau can really help him? With no character laid out before this, there's no way for us to know and even less reason for us to care. This is not simply a case of extremely subtly motivation, or leaving it open-ended for the audience to figure (watching the film leaves no doubt that the filmmakers have zero faith in our intelligence). The writers (Mak and Felix Chong) didn't write any for us. It's rare to see a script this lazy. Any assertion of motivation given by an audience member would be giving the script too much credit.

The Departed is not without its flaws, but it almost entirely corrects those of its predecessor. It's easy to see Nicholson shooting for King Lear with his Irish crime boss Costello, but he shoots way too far, typically (these days, at any rate) taking his performance over the top while the rest of the film remains generally restrained. Eric Tsang played his Sam as a model of the ego-mad and flamboyant kingpin, a little crazed by his own success, perhaps, but never becoming embarrassing in his wild gesticulations as Nicholson does by the end of the film. The other major flaw of Scorsese's version is the combining of girlfriends into one character who goes between Damon's Sullivan and DiCaprio's Costigan. This subplot is overly contrived, but admittedly, having her turn out to be pregnant with Costigan's child is a nice touch, and deepens Farmiga's Madolyn to an excellent degree (in comparison with IA's woefully anemic girlfriend subplots).

Aside from these complaints, however, the film works wonderfully as a 40's or 50's film noir (of which Scorsese is a tireless champion) updated for our modern sensibilities and stamped with Scorsese's auteurist markings. The entire cast does a first rate job (though it took me a few scenes to get used to Wahlberg's Dignam), and Scorsese once again does a perfect job of matching rock music to his imagery - even accomplishing the very difficult task of making The Dropkick Murphys listenable. The film has an incredible amount of energy and stays tense throughout its 151 minute runtime, which go by much faster than IA's 101 minutes.

But where IA's script is so ridiculously weak, The Departed's is remarkably strong. The script uses a number of subtly but wonderfully developed fluid dualities, examining the distinctions between law and criminality, undercover cop and undercover criminal, father and son, impotence and virility, upper class and lower class, Italian and Irish (Boston seems the best American city for this film due in part to its notorious, continued racism as well as its heavy mob presence). On top of this, the characters are well fleshed-out with history and motivation, which help increase the tension between shifting allegiances and allow us to sympathize with all of the characters, even the asshole Dignam. When the dominoes fall at the end of the picture for damn near every character introduced, it's always truly surprising and thrilling (and bloody). Though the surprise of the second dirty cop in the unit may be a bit unearned, it's still damned effective. I can't think of a better ending of the film (and the rat past the gold dome is pitch-perfect), and can only imagine that the old film noirs would have been much like this if it weren't for that damned Production Code.

Infernal Affairs will most likely be remembered only as another bland Hong Kong actioneer made past the HK renaissance of the 80's and early 90's (well, I hope so, at least), but The Departed should stand as one of Martin Scorsese's masterpieces, and one of the better films on this decade.

Blue Velvet

2006-08-06T21:41:00.000-07:00

1986
DeLaurentiis Entertainment Group
Director: David Lynch
Length: 121 min.
Country: USA
Format: DVD

Like any American small town or suburb, Lumberton seems perfect. Everybody is super-friendly with big smiles to prove it, high school girls have blonde hair, wear dresses and date football players, the red roses are bright, the white picket fences even brighter.

But, also like any American small town or suburb, something dark and chaotic exists under the brightness and order. Lynch reveals this thesis in the bravura prologue to his Blue Velvet. From there on, the film never lets up, moving systematically through Lynch's story like it were an expertly-written treatise on the disturbing underbelly of small town/suburban life.

Jeffrey Beaumont (Kyle MacLachlin playing a character remarkably similar to Lynch himself) returns home from college to visit his ailing father and by pure chance happens upon a severed ear that leads him and the viewer on an odyssey through voyeurism, domestic violence, ritualistic rape, kidnapping, drugs, corruption and murder. Unlike conventional wisdom (when people even admit there are dark sides to their towns), however, this filth happens immediately under the surface and often right on it. It's no coincidence that Jeffrey's literal descent into the pitch-black "underworld" goes down only one flight of stairs and ends on the ground floor (subtly digging at your typical townie/suburbanite's naive belief that they live above indecency - generally only by virtue of not living in a major city).

This odyssey doesn't just show us what we (should already) know about towns like Lumberton, it also functions as Jeffrey's coming-of-age and as a romance (between Jeffrey and Laura Dern's Sandy - the force of good and light in Lynch's vision) that begins as innocent as the "chicken walk" that sparks it and becomes an adult relationship that came out of Jeffrey's need for an emotional anchor amidst the storm, and out of Sandy's need to be dragged through the darkness without dirtying her off-white dresses.

We watch Jeffrey become a man as the film unspools, but we can't help but wonder how much of sick fuck antagonist Frank (a perfect and particularly terrifying Dennis Hopper) rubbed off on him, and for how long - will he hit Sandy, desperate for filth, like he hit Isabella Rosselini's Dorothy during sex? That seed is clearly inside him, but will it take root? We can only hope that Jeffrey, once such a nice boy, has risen above the darkness and become a nice man, aware of the "disease" inside him but rejecting it wholeheartedly.

This is one of Lynch's best films, and aside from his "Hollywood" films, one of his most straightforward. It serves as a fantastic antidote to pap like the similarly themed American Beauty, and if you can handle the violence and intensity, is highly recommended.

Seven Samurai

2006-07-08T02:47:00.000-07:00

Shichinin no Samurai
1954
Toho Studios
Director: Akira Kurosawa
Length: 208 min.
Country: Japan
Format: 35mm
Date Viewed: 6 July 06

Kurosawa's Seven Samurai is the grandaddy of the modern action film and remains one of the best examples of how to do the genre right. This near-perfect epic is a full 3 1/2 hours in length, yet it feels shorter than most contemporary two hour Hollywood films. Kurosawa keeps the pace at top speed, while occasionally slowing down just enough to efficiently build a high amount of character and drama, allowing us to easily invest in the many memorable characters at the film's core. The action scenes are intense and exciting, but the examination of the Japanese sense of inter-caste relations and fulfilling one's duty regardless of the cost, as well as the more universal themes of processing loss and sacrifice, and wartime fear and paranoia are what make the film so compelling. If you skip this one because of length, black-and-white photography or subtitles (I have a real hard time respecting film opinions of anyone who expresses a preference against "having to read a film" - my least favorite phrase in the English language), then you're making a big mistake; it may or not be Kurosawa's best (Yojimbo gives it a run for its money), but regardless, this one is essential viewing.

Matewan

2006-05-07T13:34:00.000-07:00

1987
Cinecom Entertainment Group
Director: John Sayles
Length: 133 min.
Country: USA
Format: DVD
Date Viewed: 1 May, 2006

John Sayles' Matewan is a film that relies far too heavily on exaggerated distinctions between good and evil.

The story concerns a real-life mining strike in Matewan, West Virginia in 1920, in which miners attempted to become unionized to protect themselves from their ridiculously greedy and criminally negligent employers. Performances are outstanding across the board, and Haskell Wexler's cinematography is remarkable. The film is long and talky, but always tense and tightly edited, and when it was all over I wished the film was longer.

The story is a fascinating one, but the characters, though largely likable, are cartoonish to the point where the film can't be taken as seriously as it should be. The "good" miners and townspeople are given some character flaws and a somewhat balanced portrayal, but we can never for one second doubt that they are precious lambs who need Cooper's Union-man Kenehan and Strathairn's Police Chief Hatfield's sheep-herder like protection.

More cartoonish are the Baldwin-Felt detectives, Hickey and Griggs (Kevin Tighe and Gordon Clapp, respectively), caricatured so heavily that they may as well be twirling handle-bar mustaches after tying Nell Fenwick to railroad tracks. Tighe and Clapp give good performances to be sure, but they are so over-the-top in their evil that we can scarcely believe that the detectives of the Baldwin-Felts Agency could have been so monstrous, even though in real-life they were little more than murderers and thieves. The strong good/evil divide would have been much easier to digest had Sayles given them a more balanced portrayal along the lines of the miners/townspeople.

Sayles has made a good film here, but one can't help but thinking that with a little more work, it could have been great.

Touch of Evil

2006-05-07T12:54:00.000-07:00

1958
Universal Pictures
Director: Orson Welles
Length: 112 min.
Country: USA
Format: 35mm
Date Viewed: 21 April, 2006

Orson Welles' achilles heel was his storytelling ability. His visual capabilities were undeniably brilliant, but when it came to the story, Citizen Kane was cold and uninviting, The Trial was too hazy for its own good, and The Lady From Shanghai was not terribly interesting (though I will be reevaluating this film in the coming months). Even in his Shakespeare adaptations, the stories feel secondary and all but cast aside in favor of their (eye-popping) cinematography and editing.

This inspires a feeling that his films are beautiful but somewhat empty. Touch of Evil, however, is the one film of Welles' I've seen where his story rose to match his visual prowess. It's a complex and well-written B Noir, reveling in the pulp that made the genre so satisfying. The film delivers memorable characters (Welles' Quinlan, guest-star Dietrich's Tanya, Weaver's Motel Manager) and many important societal themes that still apply today (police corruption, racial tension, drug abuse, and questions of loyalty, to name a few).

Without having seen The Magnificent Ambersons or F For Fake, I say that Touch of Evil is Welles' masterpiece, a film much more solid than his generally overrated Citizen Kane. This one is very highly recommended.

The Three Burials of Melquiades Estrada

2006-04-30T02:54:00.000-07:00

2005
Europa Corp.
Director: Tommy Lee Jones
Length: 121 min.
Country: USA
Format: 35mm
Date Viewed: 20 April, 2006

Is it coincidence that the acting is only major strongpoint of The Three Burials of Melquiades Estrada, the new film directed by Tommy Lee Jones, a very good long-time actor here making his theatrical feature debut? I think not. With the exception of the Barry Pepper and his limited range (he spends the film alternating between shouting and looking incredibly serious), the ensemble, headed by Jones, is uniformly excellent, and it perhaps also not a coincidence that this is Jones' best performance in years.

Otherwise, the film has many flaws, least of which is its unfunny attempts at black comedy. A more significant flaw is the cinematography. Chris Menges is a capable cinematographer, and yet his Scope compositions here are remarkably flat and bland, unfortunate as the sheer beauty of the desert locations in south Texas deserve to be photographed accordingly. A few of the landscape shots work, but few enough that they can probably be credited more to the fact that one can't film desert scenery without getting at least one great shot. The problem may be that the compositions appear to have been framed for an aspect ratio of 1.85:1 - which Menges usually shoots in - as opposed to the film's ratio of 2.35:1 (take a look if you rent it on DVD).

A bigger problem with the film is the inconsistent editing style. The origin of this flaw is actually in the script by Guillermo Arriaga. He sticks to his standard personal convention of the broken narrative, but strangely this time, only in the first half of the film. In the first half the film jumps back and forth in time extremely quickly and with almost no visual cues to help us figure out easily where we are and as such we spend more time trying to figure out what point in time we're at as opposed to concentrating on the narrative. Once the film hits the half-way mark, however, it becomes almost entirely linear. It seems that Arriaga was more concerned with maintaining his reputation as the "broken narrative guy" instead of creating a narrative throughline that is more than a useless gimmick.

The film's poor use of ambiguity is the biggest problem in the film, however. Pete Perkins' (Jones) relationship with the titular character (Julio Cedillo) is left purposefully vague, but it's not successful in being enjoyably ambiguous (like, say, a mid-to-late period Kubrick picture). Perkins and Estrada's relationship is established in four scenes/sequences that don't effectively reveal how little to their relationship there really is, nor do they properly convey Perkins' extreme loneliness - the catalyst for the film's events after Estrada's first burial - so much as just feel underwritten and poor at expressing what we think should be a deeper and closer relationship, an error in storytelling by Jones the director. Indeed, the only way we can be sure that the two men's relationship was not a deep one and that sad irony propels the narrative is in the addition of a pathetic relationship between Perkins and Rachel (Melissa Leo), a waitress cheating on her husband with both Perkins and Sheriff Belmont (Dwight Yokam). Perkins' overwhelming need to attach himself to somebody only becomes clear in this well-scripted and directed subplot. At some point, though, it feels that this subplot could have been omitted and the somewhat bulky story more streamlined if the main relationship was developed enough to not need thematically related sequences to bring it into focus.

Overall, The Three Burials of Melquiades Estrada isn't a bad film, but it's not a particularly good one, either. If only Arriaga and Jones had paid more attention to developing the central relationship than to cutting up the narrative, and Menges had tried a little harder with the camera, this film might even have been a great one.

Miyazaki Blogathon

2006-04-30T00:28:00.000-07:00

So, for all of you that have websites or blogs out there, a new phenomenon has hit amongst online film critics with blogs: blogathons. One of these sites calls out a topic and a day, and anyone who wants to posts an essay on the subject, fans of the subject as well as people who dislike them.

So far, there have been blogathons for Showgirls, Robert Altman, Code Unknown, Abel Ferrera, Angie Dickinson (meow!), and just today, Michelle Pfeiffer (http://filmexperience.blogspot.com/2006/04/pfeiffer-forever.html).

Next up is a blogathon for Hayao Miyazaki, the anime director for those of us who don't like anime (myself included), coordinated by Quiet Bubble between 12 and 14 May. The introduction for this can be found here: http://quietbubble.typepad.com/quiet_bubble/2006/04/announcing_the_.html

So, whatever you may feel about Miyazaki or his work, if you have a blog or a full-on site, pull together an essay and post it sometime during the blogathon. If you decide to do one, send me a link to it; I am interested in checking out what others think about the man and his career.

kyle

Notorious

2006-04-27T23:53:00.000-07:00

1946
RKO Radio Pictures
Director: Alfred Hitchcock
Length: 101 min.
Country: USA
Format: DVD
Date Viewed: 16 April, 2006

Francois Truffaut considered Notorious to be "the single work that provides the fullest representation of Hitchcock’s art" (http://www.criterionco.com/asp/release.asp?id=137&eid=152§ion=essay). I concur in full.

All of the standard Hitchcockian devices appear in this film: the beautiful blonde leading lady, the dashing male lead, the dark comedy, the MacGuffin, the inventive cinematography, the careful building of suspense with little or no action, his cameo quietly tucked into the film. It's all very well done, especially the flashy (by today's standards, even) and fun photography by Ted Tetzlaff - his last and best known film as cinematographer.

And yet, Notorious feels a bit underwhelming by the time it's over. Everything we've come to know and love about Hitch's body of work is present and accounted for, but the story doesn't strike a terribly strong chord. The biggest issue is the highly mechanical feeling to the chain of events in the film's narrative through-line. Instead of feeling brief and shorn of fat (and it is on the whole), Ben Hecht's script ends up feeling like it was hurriedly written with little care outside of plugging controversial topics (Nazis on the run and uranium) into a formulaic structure. As a result, the film is an especially light slice of Hitch's proverbial cake. A delicious slice of cake, but a very light one nonetheless.

L'Enfant

2006-04-24T00:45:00.000-07:00

2005
Les Film du Fleuve
Directed by: Jean-Pierre and Luc Dardienne
Length: 100 min.
Country: Belgium/France
Format: 35mm
Date Viewed: 13 April, 2006

Seattle can be a frustrating town when it comes to foreign films. Mediocre or bad movies like Kung Fu Hustle or A Tale of Two Sisters can get mutli-week runs, but real films, like This Charming Girl, The Best of Youth or the recent L'Enfant, either can't get distribution or get a quiet, blink-and-you-miss-it one week run at one of our wildly overpriced Landmark cinemas.

L'Enfant follows the Dardienne brothers' mind-blowing work, The Son, and is a strong film, if not as instantly satisfying as its predecessor. L'Enfant takes a little time to unfold, and is slow, though not to the point of being boring. The cinematography sticks to the same style as The Son, and is used to great effect in both (though it works better in the earlier film because the intensity of the camera work matches the intensity inside Olivier).

The story is a fascinating one, and the main character, Bruno (Jeremie Renier), is one of the most interesting characters in recent memory. The child referred to in the title every bit as much as his son, Bruno is an amoral man-child living hand-to-mouth in a bleak, harsh Belgian industrial town, eschewing any job ("only fuckers work," he retorts) or responsibility that might come his way, and all too ready to sell his new son in the same manner that he sells his hat early in the film. He does this thinking, with all seriousness and innocence, that him and his girlfriend will have another baby, but now they have a lot of money to spend (most likely within the next couple of days on new jackets and convertible rentals). It's hard to think of another film with a main character who commits this many shocking acts and yet is not a "bad" person. It's harder to think of a film that could pull of this main character as skillfully as the Dardiennes do.

Apparently, the film serves largely as a religious parable, but any religious references were lost on this young atheistically leaning reviewer. The main theme, which was thankfully easier to pick up on, is the first spark of responsibility in young men (making this a good double feature with You Can Count on Me); the time when a man realizes that his actions can affect others in negative ways (notice his confusion when his girlfriend, Sonia, faints after learning the fate of their baby) and that he must be held accountable for said actions. This spark comes to Bruno in the last shot of the film. [Minor Spoiler] Before this, he acts so selfishly so often, that when the spark hits him and Sonia forgives him, we still think that she is making a huge mistake on this guy even though he has made an important step towards redemption. We can't help but question whether he will take this spark and build on it to become a more responsible man, or if he will reject it and commit more stupid acts that Sonia will have to pay for (shades of Kenji Mizoguchi's works). The amazing ending is simultaneously and strangely depressing, frustrating and hopeful.

Do the Right Thing

2006-04-23T18:57:00.000-07:00

1989
Universal City Studios
Director: Spike Lee
Length: 120 min.
Country: USA
Format: DVD
Date Viewed: 13 April, 2006

The people who confused Paul Haggis' Crash for a thought-provoking treatise on racism are in dire need of seeing Do the Right Thing, a serious and deep look at the continually important topic.

Hearing others' viewpoints on the film, ambiguous almost to a fault, is telling of how off the mark some audiences are to the film's message. Most (white) people who see the film, and this goes for myself the first time I saw Do the Right Thing years ago, seem to not notice that white/Latino cops murder a young black man, but certainly do notice that a black man throws a trash can through the window of a white-owned business leading to the destruction of said business. Most white audiences seem to lament the destruction of (white) property, but not the loss of (black) life.

[Spoiler Alert]
Interesting, too, that most white audiences seem to instinctively side with Sal above anyone else, including Mookie. They can accept that Sal would destroy Radio Raheem's stereo with a baseball bat after calling him a Nigger, but they cannot at all accept that Mookie, a close friend of the now murdered Raheem and the still living Sal, would throw a trash can into Sal's pizzeria as a direct response to the racist murder.

But all of these acts are the direct result of poor communication set up early in the film, and of subsequent venting of suppressed racist views and of miscommunications on all sides on the neighborhood throughout the second act. In the end, nobody save Da Mayor, played by the excellent as always Ossie Davis, did the right thing. In fact, Da Mayor is the perhaps only reason that Sal and his sons remained alive through the ordeal, giving the film one of its glimmers of hope in the promotion of level-headed, colorblind and non-violent persons who will work to save others about to be affected in times of violence.
[Spoiler Alert Over]

The heavy ambiguity of the film mainly comes in the contrast of violent and non-violent methods of self-defense. Lee, in the Cannes press conference supplement on the film's outstanding 2-disc Criterion DVD, says that he believes the violent self-defense of Malcolm X's teachings, but doesn't necessarily discount the non-violence preached by Martin Luther King, Jr. The two quotes at the end of the film that serve to put this conflict into words, whose purpose seemed fairly evident in explaining that there are multiple answers to all situations and that perhaps both are necessary for true change, seemed to confuse even the intellectual critics at Cannes, not to mention the American public. A couple of critics during the press conference made reference to the quotes, and seem to think that they gave an explicit call-to-arms, especially towards the black youth one critic was sure would terrorize New York with racially-charged violence later that summer as a result of Do the Right Thing's theatrical release.

But this heavy ambiguity, originally considered by me to be a flaw, actually seems like a positive aspect upon further reflection. Any mainstream white audience member who sees this film needs to see the realities of lower-class urban life, and that violence is sometimes the only recourse that an oppressed people have. We can see this in the Watts riots of the 60s, for instance, or more recently in the Paris riots last fall, for two examples. White suburban audiences (of which I belonged until a couple years ago) will no doubt be unable to comprehend urban unrest and the necessity of violence where non-violence quite simply doesn't work. This audience can use this film to begin to understand the reality of violence in times of social unrest. It is frustrating that this audience seems to have completely missed the lesson. So long as people really work to think deep about the reasons why everyone in the film acts as they do (and use the supplements of the Criterion DVD for further analysis), the ambiguity should not be as huge an issue as it has become.

Aside from this, the film on the whole is a outstanding achievement of acting, cinematography, editing and screenwriting. Lee was in complete control of his location shoot, and the film's beautiful woven tapestry reveals this truth in its fluid movement around the diverse neighborhood, always hinting at the inevitable third act conflict and at the economic and social realities of low-income urban neighborhoods.

The film stands in stark contrast with Crash's remarkably incompetent technical aspect and its contrived and mechanical character interactions that many people mistook for realism. Do the Right Thing fits Chikimatsu's definition of art as fitting between the real and the unreal, though its high stylization paradoxically allows the real-world situations at its core to stand-out more vividly than if Lee went for cinema verite; Crash spiraled far into the unreal for it to be anything but useless. It's nice that we have at least one film that adequately looks beyond the non-revelation that we (and the cops!) are all racist to some degree.

Update 2

2006-04-20T23:21:00.000-07:00

OK, so the new website did not pan out as expected. I am still planning on changing to a new site, but this will be a more long term change. If you or someone you know is interested in creating from scratch a new film review website for me, please contact me so we can discuss particulars.

k

Dark City

2006-04-18T23:19:00.000-07:00

1998
Dark City Productions
Director: Alex Proyas
Length: 100 min.
Country: Australia/USA
Format: DVD
Date Viewed; 10 April, 2006

Alex Proyas owes a huge debt to European sci-fi of the 90s, and the films of Jeunet and Caro in particular, for his Dark City, which in turn is owed a huge debt by the Wachowski's for their The Matrix, which took so much from Proyas' sci-fi noir that it's almost surprising Proyas didn't sic attack lawyers on the brothers.

The world that Proyas creates is breathtakingly beautiful in its bleak, near-Dystopian look, and indeed the film's style is its main strongpoint. The timeless look of the film and the costumes help bolster the visuals, and reinforces my view that men wearing suits and fedoras all the time, like William Hurt's character, always looks incredibly cool (just you wait until I can afford a suit). The use of miniatures and CGI are almost always perfectly blended, and Dark City is, until the climactic showdown when the effects overpower the characters and drama and become laughably poor, one of the best examples of heavy CGI done right.

And yet, the film is only mediocre at best. The film looks very cool and plays with some interesting ideas, but the film completely fails to create an emotional connection with us, the only way the film could have truly succeeded. Proyas tries to have us buy into the burgeoning love between John (Rufus Sewell) and Emma (Jennifer Connelly), but between lackluster performances by Sewell and Connelly and only a couple of scenes between them anyways, it is hard for us to really care much. As a minor sideplot it might not matter as much, but Proyas tries to make this a major storyline and the emotional center of the story. It is surprising, then, that it is so underwritten and poorly cast (the other actors in the film do a great job, however).

The main storyline suffers from a similar problem of being underwritten. The ideas come through long, breathless monologues - dull to listen to and a little overwhelming in their very high info-per-minute rates. You can tell that Proyas cared about the themes, but paradoxically wanted them rushed through so he could get back to the (stunning) visuals. As a result, the film is beautiful but empty. There's nothing for us to really latch onto except the style, and that's simply not enough for a film that wants us to feel something.

Apparently, an early cut of the film slowed the pace down quite a bit, developed the story and themes less hurriedly, and omitted the opening voice-over that tells a little too much about the set-up. This may have improved the film, and will hopefully be a part of the director's cut which is slated to have a DVD release later this year.

In it's current form, I can only recommend it for the pretty pictures, but don't expect any sort of emotional depth or well-developed story.

Our Daily Bread

2006-04-13T22:20:00.000-07:00

1934
Viking Productions
Director: King Vidor
Length: 75 min.
Country: USA
Format: VHS
Date Viewed: 10 April, 2006

Inspired by the hardships of the Great Depression and the new collective farms that were growing in the Heartland as a result, King Vidor revisited the characters John and Mary Sims from his brilliant film, The Crowd, and puts them to work on one of these farms in his independently produced pseudo-sequel, Our Daily Bread. This powerful film must have been quite inspirational upon its release, and would probably be an inspiration if we found ourselves in another Great Depression today.

It's power comes from a couple of factors. First, the film is very brief. It starts, makes its points very quickly and precisely, and ends; no point is hammed to death and there is no fat on the film. Second, the ideas and themes are incredibly clear, so clear that the movie could be watched with the sound off and we would still be able to understand them. This is helped by the fact that Vidor was an amazing visualist (see also: The Crowd). Vidor's style here is a little more subdued, but the sequence of the men digging the canal to save the farm is a masterpiece in its combination of story, picture, editing and sound.

[Minor Spoiler Alert] There is one flaw to the film, though, a storyline that should have been fleshed out. Sally, the very symbol of boorish Capitalism, makes a play for John and wins his affection; indeed he begins to run off with her at the end of the second act. This whole sequence is incredibly rushed and terribly undernourished, betraying it's importance to the story as a whole. It's importance comes in that it tests John's resolve towards staying with the Collective lifestyle as opposed to reentering the Capitalist system which impoverished him in the first place. And yet, in one scene, they take a walk together, and the next, he's running off with her. It's a hurried plot device that needed a little bit more to make his character's transition much clearer (why is he so eager to leave his wife for this obnoxious shrew?), but of course, not so much that the film would have been bogged down in the subplot. [Spoiler Alert Over]

The rest of the film overcomes this flaw, however, and on the whole, Our Daily Bread is a rather solid film, one that would make a good double-feature with its predecessor, The Crowd.

Animal House

2006-04-13T12:33:00.000-07:00

1978
Universal City Studios
Director: John Landis
Length: 109 min.
Country: USA
Format: Video
Date Viewed: 6 April, 2006

Animal House is another example of mysteriously overrated '70s cinema. Sure the film has some funny jokes in it, and it can be appreciated for, if not inventing, than certainly popularizing and setting the trend an entire subgenre of comedy - the slobs versus the snobs picture. But when it's all boiled down, it's just another half-baked gross-out comedy that can only succeed with rather low expectations from the audience along with the eager anticipation of lots of bare breasts.

Director John Landis would be much more successful later, following up Animal House with a great one-two punch of The Blues Brothers and An American Werewolf in London. And when it comes to dumb, zany comedies, Landis didn't get better than with Spies Like Us, a great guilty pleasure and a comedy much more satisfying than Animal House.

For low-brow entertainment, you could do worse than Animal House, but you could do quite a bit better, too.

Brick

2006-04-12T13:23:00.000-07:00

2006
Brick Productions
Director: Rian Johnson
Length: 110 min.
Country: USA
Format: 35mm
Date Viewed: 7 April, 2006

Rian Johnson, with his debut film, Brick, joins Darren Aronofsky and Shane Carruth in a group that, over the last few years, has been bringing back the spirit of '70s cinema by making low-budget, inventive and intelligent films with a visual style reminiscent of their predecessors - Scorsese, Carpenter, Romero, to name a few. With, Brick, the visuals owe a huge debt to the '70s, but the structure and dialogue, of course, come straight from the '40s and '50s, transplanting this era's film noir trappings onto a modern day Southern California high school.

The experiment had so many ways to go wrong, and in a couple small areas it does, but on the whole it's a huge success. As for its flaws, they include inconsistent cinematography, with a handful of shots out of step with the rest of the film which call too much attention to the framing, though these aren't necessarily jarring enough to be more than a quibble.

The other and much bigger flaw is in the sound mix, presenting the dialogue in a very muddy and muted fashion - strange in light of the fact that the rest of the soundtrack is quite clear. This is more of a problem than usual for three reasons: the dialogue is spoken extremely quickly, the plot is extremely complex and we learn the majority of it through the dialogue, and third, the dialogue is peppered with made-up slang to sound like a '40s or '50s film noir but is often vague enough to be unclear as to its meaning (at some point, I wanted a glossary). All of these are heavily hampered by the terrible dialogue tracks on the sound mix. If this is not fixed for the eventual DVD release, it is the hope that it will at least come with English captions. Luckily, it is still quite possible to understand the main plot, but the details are what makes the film especially fascinating, and many of the interesting details are found in this somewhat unclear dialogue.

Aside from these two issues, the film is very well made, and is one of the better modern noirs (for the best of them, see the original Insomnia, and not the Pacino crapfest). The performances are by and large outstanding, the look of the film is dark and intoxicating and the film-noir transition from crooks and cops to students and vice principals is perfect.

But the film mainly works so well because it avoids the pitfall of campiness. Johnson and his actors made the perfect choice in playing the story and characters straight. Had they included a sense of jokiness to the proceedings, even the slightest wink to the audience that they were just having some fun with some quaint dialogue, the entire film would have been a lesser work - another tedious update of older source materials created with smarm instead of a true love for said sources. Film noir is a tricky sell these days; revival screening audiences generally end up laughing at how cheap the productions were, or how "cutely antiquated" the style is. It seems like there aren't many people out there anymore who truly love the genre, and it's refreshing to see that Johnson and his cast and crew treated the genre with the respect it deserves.

Rian Johnson has created a very strong film his first time out, and it will be exciting to see what comes next from the young director.

Sansho the Bailiff

2006-04-11T17:29:00.000-07:00

Sansho Dayu
1954
Daiei
Director: Kenji Mizoguchi
Length: 125 min.
Country: Japan
Format: VHS
Date Viewed: 5 April, 2006

Sansho the Bailiff is another outstanding personal film by Kenji Mizoguchi. His standard theme of the sins of the father being suffered by his wife and children is readily apparent here, as well as his other recurring theme of citizens being consumed and destroyed or driven to apathy by warfare.

The first theme appears time and again in the director's films as he was (understandably) never able to get over the sale of his sister by their father when they were children. Adding this element to his films was not only cathartic, but also an attempt to warn other men not to commit similar unconscionable acts against the family.

The second theme appeared often as a comment on his own anti-war feelings during the Pacific War. By the mid-fifties when Sansho the Bailiff was released, this point was seemingly moot in the wake of Japan's new constitution neutering any militaristic ability and the "awakening" of its citizens from the pro-war hysteria whipped up the country's military leaders during the war, but it was still a necessary and effective theme.

Both themes are masterfully inserted into a script of high tragedy, encapsulating situations that were still largely fresh in the Japanese post-war experience. More importantly, it mirrored most accurately the situations of Japan's Pacific War victims, most notably China and Korea, where the largest numbers of slave laborers and forced-prostitutes came from - a connection most likely unnoticed then and now by the majority of the Japanese audience, but really, audiences anywhere outside of China and Korea. Knowing his strong anti-war sentiment (he even "sabotaged" his own The Loyal 47 Ronin to deny his military backers' satisfaction), it can be guessed that Mizoguchi created Sansho the Bailiff with this connection on purpose.

But the film is all too eerily similar to current wars around the world, especially in the various Africa conflicts, and in the war in Iraq as well, revealing our own continued ignorance or apathy towards the film's timeless message against the horrors of war. There are a handful of world leaders that need to have this film screened for them. You should watch it, too, though, for no other reason than it being an extremely well-made film. Sansho the Bailiff is highly recommended.

Minbo

2006-04-10T18:01:00.000-07:00

Minbo no Onna
1992
Izumi Films
Director: Juzo Itami
Length: 123 min.
Country: Japan
Format: VHS
Date Viewed: 2 April, 2006

Juzo Itami's Minbo is the classic underdog story, this time set in an upscale Tokyo hotel. The underdogs are two employees picked largely at random by hotel executives to push out the yakuza (Japanese mafia), who have moved in and are bilking the hotel and its employees for millions. The underdogs' add to their corner Mahiru (the fabulous Nobuko Miyamoto), a feisty extortion attorney with plenty of anti-yakuza experience under her belt, as the trainer/mentor character. This comedy breaks no new ground, but is a pleasant and often very funny take on the archetypal story.

The only thing that puts a damper on the proceedings is that it runs too long by twenty or thirty minutes, hammering home its point again and again and again, first in a comedic manner and eventually turning to dramatic and suspenseful examples of extortionary measures and how to stop them. Though it is successfully tense in the final showdown, the movie works best when it stays with its funny side, and is hilarious when it does so.

The film never suffers too terribly from flaw, but it is enough to keep the director's Tampopo in its spot at the pinnacle of the director's filmography. Still, Minbo is worth a rental. It's a little harder to find, but worth the trouble.

Bad News Bears

2006-04-10T17:38:00.000-07:00

2005
Paramount Pictures
Director: Richard Linklater
Length: 113 min.
Country: USA
Format: DVD
Date Viewed: 1 April, 2006

Essentially a companion piece to Linklater's own School of Rock, Bad News Bears remakes the well-known kiddie baseball movie of the same name with a fair amount of success. The jokes are piled on thick and fast and with a slant towards poop jokes, but truly funny lines find their way into the proceedings surprisingly often (the "German chick" line nearly had me on the floor). Thornton ambles through the role, seemingly enjoying himself and delivering the endless onslaught of jokes in a casual and naturalistic manner. The Bears are played by child actors with very little acting experience - some have not been in a movie before or since - and it shows. But they do decent enough work for the movie, and indeed it helps in giving a rather genuine feeling of outsidership and uneasiness to their characters. The movie isn't infused with much flair or excitement and the story is nothing new, but it's competently made and moves along at a brisk pace while thankfully avoiding MTV-style editing. Bad News Bears certainly isn't an award winner, but you can find many worse ways to spend two hours on a rainy day.

Sherlock, Jr.

2006-04-09T22:56:00.000-07:00

1924
Metro Pictures Corp.
Director: Buster Keaton
Length: 44 min.
Country: USA
Format: 35mm
Date Viewed: 30 March, 2006

Though I recognize Buster Keaton and Clyde Bruckman's The General as Keaton's best film, Sherlock, Jr. has become my new favorite of his works.

The General has a simple yet effective story and a strong elliptical two-act screenplay with a bevy of excellent gags working for the story as opposed to existing for their own sake, and is easily one of the grand masterpieces of cinema.

Sherlock, Jr. largely eschews a story (two men's fight over a girl and a stolen watch seems to come up as most important, though it disappears for the majority of the film), and is by and large a collection of generally unconnected stunts and gags. Don't misunderstand, though; these stunts and gags are brilliant. The film is consistently and simultaneously hilarious and white-knuckle inducing, most notably during the ride on the motorcycle handlebars. At least one of the stunts is so perfect that it seems completely inexplicable in its execution - none of my friends and I who watched the film together can figure out exactly how he did the jump through the "woman." The sequence when Keaton jumps into the theater screen is another example of surprising technical perfection; the film is already 82 years old and yet I can't think of another film that pulls off such convincing fakery.

It may lack a story that holds this short film together, but it matters little when its so damn genius in all other respects. If you haven't seen this or The General, do yourself a favor and have a Buster Keaton night; these films are essential.

Bride of Frankenstein

2006-04-09T22:27:00.000-07:00

1935
Universal Pictures
Director: James Whale
Length: 75 min.
Country: USA
Format: DVD
Date Viewed: 26 March, 2006

James Whale, for the follow-up to his 1931 Frankenstein decided to go for dark comedy as opposed to straight, serious drama and scares. It turned out just as poorly as the original.

The storyline is just as silly as its predecessor's and begins to feel overlong at 75 minutes. The monster somehow remained alive after being trapped under a wooden beam on the top floor of a windmill set ablaze and collapsed, and begins to wander the countryside, being misunderstood as always.

Meanwhile, Dr. Frankenstein gets an offer to help another fellow mad scientist out on a similar project (they were working together but separately all along, it turns out), and jumps on it, once again leaving his bride-to-be in the dust. [Spoiler Alert] By the end, the young doctor is able to escape responsibility the second time 'round in another forced and inappropriate happy ending, weakening this film in the exact same way the first one was weakened (you can actually see that the downer ending was filmed and initially included - that's Dr. Frankenstein against the wall in the exploding bell tower). [End Spoiler Alert]

The film also fails at its attempts at comedy, which in this film is either unfunny in its extreme over-the-top nature, or off-putting (sure do love those necrophilia jokes, or wait, no, I don't). The film adds the nails-on-chalkboard character of Minnie, servant to the Frankensteins, played by Una O'Connor to a volume of 11 but given no actually funny lines to work with. I caught my eyes rolling involuntarily whenever she would reappear throughout the film (she's in many scenes - far too many). The scene in which Dr. Pretorious reveals his miniature humans is another particularly eye-rolling and very overlong (it went even longer in an early cut) exercise in unfunny "comedy," though the special effects were quite good, which leads us to ways in which the film works.

Karloff again gives a great performance as the monster - though the decision to have him talk was a giant mistake - and his sweetly homoerotic relationship with the blind hermit is perhaps the only sequence that can be considered an overall success, though it veers a little too far into camp at times. The special effects are top-notch throughout, and the production design (they finally figured out how to smooth out the backdrops) and cinematography are as great as they were in the first film and once again create a wonderfully creepy atmosphere.

But again, as strong as these aspects are, they can't overcome the many weaknesses, and, like its predecessor, I cannot recommend Bride of Frankenstein.

Spirit of the Beehive

2006-04-09T16:22:00.000-07:00

El Esparitu de la Colmena
1973
Elias Querejeta Producciones Cinematograficas S.L.
Director: Victor Erice
Length: 97 min.
Country: Spain
Format: 35mm
Date Viewed: 26 March, 2006

James Whale's Frankenstein comes to a rural Spanish farming community and changes the life of seven year-old Ana in Victor Erice's debut film, Spirit of the Beehive. The screening of the famous horror film leads to a series of events that culminate in the ending of the young girl's innocence: she learns that the adult world is a scary place, filled with people who lie and people who are not what they seem, that death is inevitable and perhaps most importantly, that monsters do not exist.

This is all slowly revealed throughout the course of the film, which takes its time with very long yet beautiful shots of nature, the father's beehives and the large and eerily empty house that Ana and her family live in. But these shots don't quite reach the level of poetry or include the level of meaning that comes with similar shots in, say, a Terrence Malick film. After a while, and though they look pretty, these shots seem to function more as padding than meaningful atmosphere.

Spirit of the Beehive is a very good film, though, if for nothing more than the terrific performance by Ana Torrent, the greatest performance by a child actor I have seen to date. But the story and the beauty of the film developed through the cinematography and editing, aside from the latter's eventual narrative unimportance, are also good reasons to see it. The film's complex symbolism makes the story very difficult to understand (I'm sure there are deeper meanings I've missed), but it is somewhat easy to pick out the main ideas, and it is very refreshing that Erice chose not to insult our intelligence in the creation of his debut.

Frankenstein

2006-04-07T01:55:00.001-07:00

1931
Universal Pictures
Director: James Whale
Length: 69 min.
Country: USA
Format: DVD
Date Viewed: 26 March, 2006

Here is an opening disclaimer to potential annoybots. I know what movies were like 1931, and I know full well how the techniques, standards and technology differed in this era from what we have now. I know that I shouldn't expect car chases in Gone With the Wind (thanks for the heads up, man in video store!), and that All Quiet on the Western Front will not feature Saving Private Ryan-style battle realism (as well as knowing the former war film is superior on all counts to the latter dummy moneymaker). So, before I get yet another lecture on how I "don't understand that movies were different in the past," please understand that I don't dislike James Whale's Frankenstein because I'm some dumb 25 year-old expecting a horror film like The Thing; I dislike Frankenstein because it's not a very good film for any time period.

One of my major complaints revolves around the script. The film works far too often on credibility-destroying coincidences and plot holes, such as the monster just happening to enter Elizabeth's room through the window, the villagers somehow finding Dr. Waldman's body in the bell tower, and Maria's father somehow knowing how his daughter died, to name a couple. These are especially distracting and help weaken the film more than they would in most other horror films because Whale takes everything so incredibly seriously and yet is poorly written at the same time. In a film that's a little more fun, plot holes are somewhat inconsequential, but here, with a pretentious introduction and a sense that the filmmakers were dealing with an important moral lesson, the writing must be taut to back it all up. Francis Edward Faragoh and Garrett Fort's script, on this point, does not deliver.

[Spoiler Alert]
The tacked-on ending is another major flaw despite its brief length. My problem with it is two-fold, the first being the fact that the film's ego-mad producer and then-President of Universal Pictures, Carl Laemmle, Jr. (not only is his name dropped in the aforementioned introduction, it appears three times on the film's title card alone!), added the intro to the film to warn of us how dark and scary the film will be, but then cops out and gives us hastily created (apparently after principal photography) and poorly written happy ending in which the mad doctor somehow survives his fall off the windmill and will soon be married as initially planned. Looking through the lens of a film that claims to bring up dark subject matter and discuss it in an adult-like fashion, the ending is insulting to the audience. My second issue with ending is how weak it is in a storytelling sense. For such a moralistic tale, it only makes sense that the doctor should die in the end, be as one character says, "destroyed by his creation." Sure, bad guys get away with crimes all the time in real life, but this type of story demands a certain type of resolution, and it's simply bad storytelling to end Frankenstein with a "happily-ever after" conclusion.
[End Spoiler Alert]

My other problem with the film is how sloppy the production was. For as much effort as the crew put into art design, you think they'd make sure the set backdrop during the climactic chase across the mountain would be smoothed out, so major, distracting wrinkles wouldn't appear all the way down it. Further, the crew's complete disregard for continuity was astounding. From cut to cut the actors are standing and looking in completely different places and directions throughout the film. This gives a feeling that the production was rushed and that little overall care was put into its creation. No other film from this period that I've seen suffers nearly as bad or at all from this sloppiness, so I know it's not symptomatic of this era, just an inferior crew - strange for a major studio picture.

The film does some things right, though. Karloff's performance as the monster is amazing, and though all his movements consist of shuffling and his dialogue of grunting, he expresses emotion better than any of the other actors in the film. He is deft at making the monster likeable and sympathetic, and is one of two reasons that the monster is so memorable.

The other major reason is the outstanding make-up design by Jack Pierce, beautiful in its grotesque nature. Pierce's work on the monster far outdoes make-up work on most modern horror films.

The film is also rightfully well-known for its sinister yet gorgeous atmosphere, the result of overall strong cinematography and production design (wrinkled backdrops notwithstanding), notably in the opening cemetery sequence and the scenes in the mad doctor's laboratory.

The mood of the film is fantastic, as is the monster. But the story and script, the ending, and the rushed feel to the film bring Frankenstein down just too much. This is by and large considered a horror classic, but I can't recommend it. If you want to see a good, older horror film, save your time and check out The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari, the 1925 The Phantom of the Opera, or Vampyr instead.

The Final Countdown

2006-04-05T01:14:00.000-07:00

1980
Polyc International B.V.
Director: Don Taylor
Length: 105 min.
Country: USA
Format: DVD
Date Viewed: 24 March, 2006

How Don Taylor's The Final Countdown gained a sizable cult following is completely beyond me. The film has a great idea and a good cast and does everything possible to hinder both. Having a modern (for 1980) aircraft carrier loaded with top-of-the-line fighter jets get transported back to Hawaii on 6 December, 1941, with the ability to stop the attack on Pearl Harbor is a fantastic idea centered around a hugely provocative ethical quandary.

The ship also comes in contact with very important players in 1941, a downed Japanese pilot and a Senator who apparently in real life disappeared off the coast of Hawaii on that day, and has to decide how best to deal with these alterations to the space-time continuum. But the film's central idea and these characters, all with outstanding potential for great drama, are lost in the script by four(!) hack writers who apparently just didn't care about exploring any of the ethical implications they bring up; they are quickly written out of the film so that we can spend more time with endless masturbatory shots of fighter jets flying around the blue skies and of flight deck crews in action. It's nice that Taylor and the writers tried to insert Naval realism into the film, but someone forgot to tell him that it should not be the main focus of the film as opposed to mere detail.

Even the leads, Martin Sheen and Kirk Douglas, are woefully underwritten and given little overall screentime. Both men seem to know it, and give lackluster performances that betray their talent, clearly hoping the production will be over soon so they can collect their checks.

The cinematography is similarly poor, shot in Scope but framed like it was amateur night behind the camera, with every composition looking horribly rushed and all the actors placed in the middle of the frame.

All the makings for a great science-fiction drama are there, it just needed to be done right. Let's stop remaking foreign films that were fine the first time around and remake The Final Countdown, which is desperately begging to become a good film.

Vertigo

2006-04-04T23:17:00.000-07:00

1958
Alfred J. Hitchcock Productions
Director: Alfred Hitchcock
Length: 129 min.
Country: USA
Format: 35mm
Date Viewed: 23 March, 2006

The obvious theme of Alfred Hitchcock's Vertigo is obsession. But what is perhaps less clear is where this obsession stems from.

Scottie Ferguson's (Jimmy Stewart) obsession with Madeleine/Judy (Kim Novak) is a reflection of Hitch's own obsession with Novak, and his other blonde leading ladies by extension. Scottie cruelly remolded Judy into Madeleine ("It can't matter to you!") to fit his intense and uncompromisable desires because of his overwhelming fixation on a specific female type, much in the way that Hitch did with his lead actresses throughout his career. It is here that Hitch breaks from creating films as "slices of cake" to revealing himself in what may be the only personal film in his oeuvre.

In this light, it may begin to make some sense that Stewart is often shown with a hazy gloss when he shares the screen, or at least a scene, with the blonde Novak, but not, it should be noted, her brunette incarnation. Here, Hitchcock is making explicit Ferguson's moral ambiguity and his uncertain intentions towards Madeleine and Judy; but perhaps the director is also blurring the distinction between Ferguson and himself, a strong reminder that the two have a major characteristic in common.

Of course, Novak is most always photographed with a high amount of gloss as well. But this was for purposes of glamour as opposed to the reasons for Stewart's glossing, whose actions are not being, and should not be, glamorized. These glossy shots, especially during the first time Ferguson shadows Madeleine, stand in sharp contrast with perfectly in-focus and crisp shots of buildings and trees, emphasizing that the world around these two rather destructive people is still in order.

That Hitchcock shoots Stewart using traditional glamorization technique for purposes entirely antithetical to their standard use, while putting it in contrast with its standard use for Novak as well as carefully inserting the jarringly clear and non-glossy shots of the real world in between the two, is fascinating, and is one of the reasons why the film is still bold and daring to this day.

Another reason, of course, is the beautiful-in-its-perfection elliptical story, written by Samuel A. Taylor, with almost perfect mirroring between the two halves.

The film's only real flaw is the dream sequence, which must have blown heads in '58, but now seems pretty silly (though Stewart's head falling down the empty grave admittedly still looks cool) and more than a little unnecessary.

But this is a minor quibble, and the film undoubtedly deserves its place as a film classic. Vertigo is essential viewing.

Every Man For Himself

2006-04-04T02:02:00.000-07:00

Sauve qui peut (la vie)
1980
MK2 Productions
Director: Jean-Luc Godard
Length: 87 min.
Format: 35mm
Date Viewed: 22 March, 2006

A note to directors: if you are going to include a character in your film that is obviously a stand-in for you, it's not a good idea for you to write him, and in turn reveal yourself, as a man who is keen on having sex with his teenage daughter. I guess this was supposed to be joke in reality, but I must have missed why it's funny, then. And the point of the entire film as well, for that matter. All I really got out of Every Man For Himself is that all people are stupid and mean. The prostitute is supposed to the sole redeeming character of the piece, and yet, it's not exactly clear why we are supposed to care for her. Nothing happens in the film, and the climax comes when one of the characters rents out an apartment - and is as exciting as it sounds. 90 minutes of shitty characters doing largely unexplained shitty things does not a good movie make. Here again, another pretentious waste of time courtesy of Jean-Luc Godard.

Stranger Than Paradise

2006-04-03T20:32:00.000-07:00

1984
Cinesthesia Productions
Director: Jim Jarmusch
Length: 89 min.
Country: USA
Format: DVD
Date Viewed: 20 March, 2006

Stranger Than Paradise is one of the best debut films I've seen (I, as Cannes before me, count Permanent Vacation as a student film). Consisting entirely of single long-take shots bookended by three seconds of black frame, the film is a genius exercise in inaction. Precious little happens and little is said by any of the three leads, and yet, the film is never dull. The minimalist performances of the leads are well done while non-actor Cecillia Stark (Aunt Lotte) steals the show whenever she appears. Some may be put off by the black-and white photography and slow pace, but it only adds to the film's marvelous realism. Jarmusch would top himself with Down By Law two years later, but this remains one of the jewels in the director's crown. Highly recommended.

Escape From New York

2006-04-03T20:05:00.000-07:00

1981
Avco-Embassy Productions
Director: John Carpenter
Length: 99 min.
Country: USA
Format: DVD
Date Viewed: 20 March, 2006

Kurt Russell's Snake Plissken is another one of the great anti-heroes in cinema history. Russell and director Carpenter (near the height of his peak in 1981) both believe that some men truly are islands, and this shared notion led to creation and perfection of the Plissken character. He wanders around a gorgeously dystopian New York (which looks amazing, even on a $5-6 million budget), not giving a fuck about anyone or anything unless it helps him find the President and get the microscopic explosives neutralized (even to the point of allowing-through-inaction a rape to happen in a controversial but altogether necessary scene).

This keeps Plissken and the film moving at all costs, which leads to the film's one major flaw of not fully developing the fascinating world that was created. We only get fragments of life inside the prison which leave us begging for more, but not necessarily in the good sense of the phrase.

But regardless, there's much here to like: the fine performances, the interesting politics of the script, the amazing Joe Alves production design, the typically outstanding cinematography from Dean Cundy, the perfect-for-the-film Carpenter score, and the excellent analog special effects.

If you're a fan of dystopian nightmares like I am, this film is definitely for you.

Band of Outsiders

2006-04-03T03:46:00.000-07:00

Bande a Part
1964
Anouchka Films
Director: Jean-Luc Godard
Length: 97 min.
Country: France
Format: 35mm
Date Viewed: 19 March, 2006

Band of Outsiders is not as good as Godard's brilliant Masculine, Feminine, but it is the only other Godard film I think is any good (I have seen six, and part of a seventh, for the record).

There are many reasons to love this film: its playful attitude, Anna Karina, the muted yet beautiful cinematography by Raoul Coutard, the entire cafe/dance sequence, Anna Karina, the Louvre scene, the hilarious gags, the offbeat narration (provided by the director himself), and of course, Anna Karina.

But the reason the film is not as good as Masculine, Feminine is because Godard and company apparently had to pad the film out to a contractually obligatory 90 minute run-time, and these scenes are not hard to pick out. These various scenes (such as Anna Karina running from her house to the factory, and the guys reading the newspaper) are dull and go nowhere, detracting from the overall quality of the film.

The film as a whole is still incredibly enjoyable, though, and is strongly recommended.

Week End

2006-04-03T03:14:00.000-07:00

1967
Cinecidi
Director: Jean-Luc Godard
Length: 105 min.
Country: France
Format: 35mm
Date Viewed: 18 March, 2006

Some critics point to Week End as the turning point in Jean-Luc Godard's career: the film where he turned his back on making "Hollywood-esque" films and delved deep into art and theory. I say he did this one-year earlier with his brilliant Masculine, Feminine (one of only two Godard films I like - the other being Band of Outsiders), but that's a judgement call.

It is interesting that Masculine, Feminine works so well in its lack of form and heavy politicalization while being paradoxically made purposefully uninteresting and yet being endlessly fascinating. It is more interesting in contrast with Weekend, which shares its predecessor's lack of form and heavy politicization, but works hard to make the events contained within exciting and entertaining. It largely fails.

There are some funny moments (especially Jean-Pierre Leaud's cameo), and some interesting ideas, but overall, the film is complete mess of pretension and dull diatribes that go nowhere. Godard has much to say, but, much like Michael Moore, can't focus his ideas and gives us a uselessly fractured film. By the end, it's hard to know what's happening, but by then, it's near impossible to care. All we know is we've gotten an onslaught of theories and politics over 105 dreadfully long minutes, dressed up whore-like with its garish outfit consisting of automobile accidents, guns, immolation, rape and cannibalism (it's the apocalypse, you see), every bit as off-putting as it sounds.

The film is critically acclaimed (there are no negative reviews for it on Rotten Tomatoes), but I can't for the life of me figure out why.

Histoire(s) du Cinema (Chapters 1a, b and 2a, b)

2006-04-02T19:37:00.000-07:00

1989-1997
Gaumont
Director: Jean-Luc Godard
Length: 270 minutes (for all eight parts)
Country: France
Format: DV
Date Viewed: 17 March, 2006

Jean-Luc Godard's experimental four-and-a-half hour Histoire(s) du Cinema is an eight part series made by the New Wave director for French television. Hated by the studio execs and rarely shown due to headache-inducing copyright issues, the film recently got a rare, full-length screening at the Northwest Film Forum.

As it turns out, though, I could only make it through 150 minutes (minus some for a little snooze), or four of eight parts, before I could handle no more (and the high number of walk-outs during the screening shows that I was not the only one). I must here admit a strong aversion to experimental cinema. I applaud that people are trying something new and working to expand the possibilities of the medium, but the experimental films I've seen all tend to be overwhelmingly pretentious and artistic for the sake of being artistic, which is incredibly off-putting. Histoire(s) du Cinema was no exception. Repeating pictures, film clips, banal narration and strange sound effects over and over and over again (for some 270 minutes) to create a form of formlessness does precious little to excite me.

Supposedly heavy on film theory, Godard parses out approximately one idea per chapter (but admittedly there may have been more in the unsubtitled text)- though sometimes he uses the same idea for multiple pieces - and is usually completely baseless and seemingly designed only to make Godard sound like a poetic intellect (see: Godard's theory on why films were largely black and white upon their invention). The only interesting idea I found during the 150 minutes I made it through was when Godard interspersed clips of hardcore pornography and clips of violence, especially from the Holocaust, in the background throughout the series - an unfortunately not explicitly discussed pairing commenting on the sexualized violence casually inserted into an uncomfortably large number of modern films.

Most critics heap a huge amount of praise for Histoire(s) du Cinema, raving about the style of the piece and the interesting ideas. I found the style and ideas to be little more than components of an egotistical exercise in creating "capital-A" Art.

Forbidden Games

2006-03-25T16:43:00.001-08:00

Jeux Interdits
1952
Robert Dorfmann
Director: Rene Clement
Length: 85 min.
Country: France
Format: DVD
Date Viewed: 15 March, 2006

Master director Samuel Fuller, who served in WWII, once discussed that when moving through towns in a war zone, the only human life left is typically the elderly and children, the latter being either abandoned in the confusion or orphaned by bombs and artillery. French director Rene Clement, his country still recovering from the war, seemed to also understand this truth, and in 1952, used it to good effect in his adaptation of Forbidden Games. There are two children in the spot-light of the film, Paulette and Michel (played by the exquisite Brigitte Fossey and Georges Poujouly), the former orphaned in the tense opening sequence, the latter belonging to a farming family who takes in the five year-old girl. Michel falls under Paulette's spell immediately, and begins to wait on her hand-and-foot. Paulette rather quickly becomes his Lady Macbeth as the two begin stealing crosses for their own pet cemetery, put together in an abandoned windmill as a way for Paulette to try and come to terms with her own parents' demise. The film as a whole is very well done and is incredibly moving, especially in the final act. The contempt for country folk shown in the film is a little off-putting, but is the film's only real flaw. Some might see the ending as too bleak, but its realism is part of the film's power - there are very few happy endings in war - as is its elliptical nature. It's the perfect ending for a fine film.

You Can Count on Me

2006-03-25T02:15:00.000-08:00

2000
Shooting Gallery
Director: Kenneth Lonergan
Length: 111 min.
Country: USA
Format: DVD
Date Viewed: 13 March, 2006

Responsibility is the key word in Kenneth Lonergan's excellent You Can Count on Me. Responsibility informs every decision made in Lonergan's solid and tidy script - avoiding it, taking too much of it, and most importantly, trying to find the right balance for it. The performances are all outstanding (especially Linney, who was robbed at the Oscars), the characters interesting, the script moving and inspiring, and the cinematography and editing tasteful and elegant. There are no weak elements here, and You Can Count on Me stands as one of the best films of the decade.

Arsenic and Old Lace

2006-03-24T05:04:00.000-08:00

1944
Warner Bros.
Director: Frank Capra
Length: 117 min.
Country: USA
Format: DVD
Date Viewed: 12 March, 2006

Capra's Arsenic and Old Lace is a flawed film that is still pretty enjoyable, but could have been so much better. Peter Lorre is outstanding as per usual, and the dialogue is hilarious, as are many of the pitch black ideas in the screenplay.

The script does not get off the hook that easy, though. It is way too long, and should have been no more than 90 minutes in length - the film runs out of steam at about that point, and we begin looking at our watches for the last half-hour.

Grant's performance also hurts the movie, though it appears that Capra may have been to blame for this. Apparently, Capra felt that an America entering WWII (keep in mind this was filmed in 1941 but not released for three years) needed something zany to liven up the very dark core of the film and national war-time climate, and instructed Grant to wildly overact. Grant, later admitting that he disliked the decision and indeed considered this to be the worst performance of his career, went along with it and goes so over-the-top that it can only inspire plenty of eye-rolling in all but the youngest viewer.

The question then is why Capra made this decision? If he wanted to make a black comedy, why not go for the gold? Otherwise, why not just direct a light and zany comedy? His foolish decision decidedly kept Arsenic and Old Lace from being a great example of dark comedy done right; I guess we'll just have to settle for pretty good.

Repo Man

2006-03-24T04:18:00.000-08:00

1984
Universal Studios
Director: Alex Cox
Length: 92 min.
Country: USA
Format: DVD
Date Viewed: 12 March, 2006

Who knew that punks and aliens would mix so well? This is one of the great cult films; a down and dirty picture that's endlessly hilarious and includes a treasure trove of quotable lines. Cox keeps Repo Man extremely politicized, but never allows this to overwhelm the film as a whole as the political messages plays out mostly in the background of shots and in the quiet throwaway lines. The big flaws of the piece are the giant plot holes and changing character alliances that make no sense and are left completely unexplained. This confusion doesn't leave us feeling like it was intended, but more like there was a ton of explanatory material deleted to keep the pace at its breakneck speed. This does little to lessen the enjoyment, however, of watching two hardcore criminal punks threatening to eat sushi and not pay.

The Breakfast Club

2006-03-23T18:10:00.000-08:00

1985
Universal Studios
Director: John Hughes
Length: 97 min.
Country: USA
Format: 35mm
Date Viewed: 12 March, 2006

The Breakfast Club takes the notion that most stereotypes are based on truths and mostly runs with this, but also tweaks these stereotypes here and there to create more interesting characters that don't always match our expectations. Take, for instance, the pot smoking sequence. The prissy nerd eagerly takes part even though we are sure he will not, and the girl who looks already perma-fried at 17 is the only one who steadfastly refuses, looking shocked at what the others are doing.

The movie also bucks certain trends that were popular in the day. Though it's an '80s teen comedy preoccupied (as teens from any era are) with sex, the movie takes the typical Hughes stance that being a virgin throughout your teen years is a-OK, something most of Hughes' contemporaries rarely agreed with.

Many of the situations and much of the dialogue is very reminiscent of my school years, and, judging by its cult status especially amongst those in my age group, reminiscent of the social realities of most kids who grew up in the '80s and '90s.

The films works overall, but it does hit a major misstep at the end, with the "improvement" of Allison. For some reason, Hughes felt it was important for her entire style to be eradicated and replaced by the get-up of your standard zombie-like teen princess in order for the jock to want to date her. Though this is pretty true to what would happen in real life (can you imagine a jock dating Allison before the make-over?), but it would have been a much stronger statement to let her style alone and have the Andrew go for her anyways, bucking one more trend that desperately needs bucking. As it is, this ending, combined with Bender's relationship with Claire, reinforces the ugly American idea that only girls who primp and preen and follow contemporary fashion can get a guy's attention.

Avanti!

2006-03-23T02:50:00.000-08:00

1972
Phalanx-Jalem Productions
Director: Billy Wilder
Length: 142 min.
Country: USA/Italy
Format: DVD
Date Viewed: 8 March, 2006

Billy Wilder's Avanti! is a film that is 100% dated - clearly a product of the "swingin'" '70s. The film's ultimate message is an unsurprising one for its era - having an affair is good for you, but only so long as it's meaningful and based on love. Yet another genius idea given to us by the Baby Boomers (thanks again, Boomers - because you slept with everybody, we now can't sleep with anybody). This ridiculous free-love message is here wrapped up in a mediocre and extremely predictable film. It's genuinely funny quite often, and the performances are generally good (Clive Revill being a standout as the string-pulling concierge), but the film needed a large part of its 142 minutes cut down and Lemmon's Ugly American abroad is so grating that we don't really care for him even when he inevitably softens. Avanti! isn't a bad film, like Wilder's Sunset Blvd., but it certainly won't be mistaken for one of his better works, either.

The Trouble With Harry

2006-03-23T00:03:00.000-08:00

1955
Alfred J. Hitchcock Productions
Director: Alfred Hitchcock
Length: 99 min.
Country: USA
Format: DVD
Date Viewed: 5 March, 2006

Hitchcock's The Trouble With Harry is an unfortunately underrated work by the legendary director, and indeed it was one of the infamous five lost Hitchcocks, thankfully given back to us by his daughter, Patricia. This is the first film of Hitchcock's I've seen that could truly be considered a comedy, though North by Northwest has a heavy element of comedy to it (and the director himself considered Psycho to fit that genre), and all I can say is that now I want to see more. Hitchcock has a special gift for comedy.

The witty dialogue, of course, was provided by somebody else (for this film, John Michael Hayes), but Hitchcock deftly enhances the script with his natural flair for mise en scene, and his interesting and altogether appropriate juxtaposition of the gorgeous Vermont locations with the script's pitch black humor, lending an extra depth to the comedy, pointing fun at our notions of the tranquility of small-town life and the upstanding nature of our nation's senior citizens. Though it is primarily a comedy, the tension over the fate of the body builds as much as it does in his better suspense films.

The Trouble With Harry is not the best Hitchcock film, but it is very good and should be required viewing for any restrospective of the director's work.

Jackass: The Movie

2006-03-22T18:24:00.000-08:00

2002
Paramount
Director: Jeff Tremaine
Length: 87 min.
Country: USA
Format: DVD
Date Viewed: 4 March, 2006

Overall, Jackass: The Movie, is a rather funny movie. Comprised entirely of episodic stunts, the feature-length version of the infamous TV show follows a handful of twenty-somethings around the US, Europe and Japan as they realize their incredibly dangerous and dumb, yet often perversely hilarious ideas on how to best destroy themselves or property (or better yet, both at the same time).

Some of the stunts (notably the rental car demolition derby and the golf cart bit) are much better than others (the insane amount of bodily fluids expelled from body gets old fast, as does any stunt with Bam Margera). But the filmmakers seem to know this, and thankfully kept the run-time to a scant 87 minutes - including an extended closing credits section - while keeping the stunts flying by like jokes in a Zucker movie.

Other reviewers are right in that this film gives you no insight into the performers or the youth culture as a whole, but it does reflect our generation's penchant for self-destruction, though quite mild in real life and obviously taken to the extreme in Jackass. Luckily, most young people seem content to only go as far as pierce and tattoo themselves endlessly in rather awkward places, not tightrope-walk over alligator pits with raw chicken in their underwear for a little bit of money and a lot of respect from their peers.

Vacation is Over

2006-03-22T01:56:00.000-08:00

I have just posted my review for Cache below, and will get caught up as fast as I possibly can. Sorry for the delay, folks!

Cache

2006-03-22T00:38:00.000-08:00

2005
Wega Films
Director: Michael Haneke
Length: 117 min.
Country: France
Format: 35mm
Date Viewed: 27 February

[I stress that you do not read this review until you have seen Cache. If you haven't seen the film, I'm not sure what you are waiting for. Hurry up and see it; it's an outstanding film with excellent performances and strong directing. This review is essentially nothing but spoilers; you have been warned.]

Most people who have seen Cache seem to be hung up on which person is sending the videotapes, and choose their most likely candidate. Many other people seem to think the tapes are a McGuffin, and that it isn't important who is sending them, only that they are sent. I argue, though, that both camps are wrong. No person is sending the tapes, but the sender is important. The sender is white, middle-class fear - a silent, undefined threat that's looming over suburban houses and families, threatening to tear white "civilized" society apart. The threat is face-to-face confrontation with minorities (specifically Algerian Muslims, as this is France, but it can easily apply to blacks or all Muslims for Americans). These minority groups seem to drive the racist white middle-class crazy with extreme anxiety, maddening them with naive questions of '"what do they want," "why don't they leave us alone."

This feeling is shown explicitly in the scenes with the black cyclist and the entire Majid plot. Notice also the elevator scene; the rightfully agitated Arab gets in and everyone else (all lily white) stiffens and faces forward, afraid of what he might do. The news reports that Georges watches implicitly provides the embattled whites with a plan of action by explicitly telling the white coalition forces fighting in the Middle-East to stand together in order to conquer the Muslim enemy combatants.

But what to make of the end? It's clearly left up to the viewer to decide, and I of course have my own interpretation. When Georges tells Anne about the lies he told to keep Majid from entering his family, keep in mind that he refuses to allow the light to be turned on. Doing so would allow us to scrutinize his face and destroy his chance for an anonymous confession. He confesses his sins in an unused backroom, quietly and with as little fanfare as possible, much like many political leaders do when discussing their imperialistic mistakes (how many of us know of Churchill expressing regret over not creating Kurdistan when carving up the Middle East after WWI?).

The subtext in the second-to-last shot reveals Georges' generation (the currently aged middle and political class) going to sleep, naked and vulnerable behind darkened curtains. Doing this will keep him hidden from the outside world. He is becoming isolationist, much like we can see France becoming, especially when it comes to imperialism in the Middle-East (perhaps they have not forgotten Algeria while we have already forgotten Vietnam). Note that he also demands that his son (generations X and Y) not be too noisy so as to wake the older generation from their head-in-the-sand slumber. Haneke here seems to think that our current middle and political class will soon try to pass the buck onto my generation, allowing us to inherit their messes, and the messes of their fathers and grandfathers before them, but to clean them up without needing to rope our elders back in.

As for the hotly contested and mysterious final shot, I take the view that it is an optimistic ending. The conversation between Majid's son and Pierrot appears to be nothing but friendly - the sons are mending the fences smashed by their fathers. The film thus shows us that we must move past the current racist climate in America and in Europe, or we will reenter the same cycle as Georges and Majid in the film, and our current War on Islam in the real world. Haneke appears to be optimistic, but how will the new generation (i.e. people my age) act in our highly racist climate? Will we act as our fathers or will we move on? We, of course, must immediately take a cue from the sons.

[If you have seen the film, leave some comments. I'd love to hear your interpretations on the ending.]

Tristram Shandy: A Cock and Bull Story

2006-03-09T19:18:00.000-08:00

A Cock and Bull Story
2005
Scion Films Ltd.
Director: Michael Winterbottom
Length: 94 min.
Country: UK
Format: 35mm
Date Viewed: 27 February

A sort of fraternal twin to Winterbottom's 24 Hour Party People, Tristram Shandy is a self-referential look behind the scenes of a major entertainment industry. Whereas the former was about Factory Records and the Manchester New Wave scene of the '70s, '80s and early '90s, the latter takes aim at the film industry, poking fun at weak directors, overbearing producers and ego-mad actors trying to make an adaptation of the unfilmable titular book (that actually exists, and is supposedly rather good).

The film is consistently hilarious and the performances great across the board, but is also incredibly and quite unnecessarily complex. It's rather difficult to figure out the film's rhythm and its many, many layers of reality, and as a result, it's easy to get lost for the entirety of the first act (if not longer). It's refreshing that Winterbottom trusts our intelligence, but the film ends up being one for active movie-watchers only. I can't imagine any passive movie-goer enjoying this film in the slightest, regardless of how extremely funny it is. It's definitely worth seeing, but don't expect an easy ride.

The Edukators

2006-03-09T18:44:00.000-08:00

2004
Y3 Films
Director: Hans Weingartner
Length: 127 min.
Country: Germany
Format: DVD
Date Viewed: 26 February

The Edukators is a poor film already growing a sizable cult following amongst angry leftist youths who are unable to see past the laughable sloganeering and "edgy" technique that director foolishly believes adds urgency to his tribute to young revolutionaries (Weingartner himself having been just such a kid).

The acting is rather good, but is the only thing the film has going for it.

Lucky for the director, most young lefties are adamantly against criticism of the left of any kind, so The Edukators' fan-base refuses to see just how superficial the entire enterprise is. Even to this young (but highly critical) lefty reviewer, the opening succeeded in stirring up class-conscious anger. Once you begin to think about what the characters are doing and especially what they are saying, though, you will soon realize that the dialogue is essentially the stuff of bumper stickers, and yet we are expected to take it as serious political discourse; it is here that the movie falls apart, to say nothing of the dumbed-down MTV-style editing and typically soft DV cinematography. None of it can be taken very seriously, and none of it is especially thought-provoking - it's all just preaching to the choir, but using only sound-bites to do so.

The movies' climax sees the three titular kids opening their eyes a bit, but the conclusion reveals their eyes as firmly shut once more and continuing on with their ridiculous pranks, driven solely by their anger towards their own lower-class situation (notice two of three don't have jobs), like most revolutionaries. No lesson is learned, and the film ends asking us to support the Edukators' acts because of a "surprise" and cynical (but incredibly common-sense) turn by their kidnapping victim, which apparently shows us that anyone with money is someone who can never be trusted.

Not only is it incredibly naive, the movie is also a good thirty minutes too long (or by my count, 127 minutes too long), and has Jeff Buckley's song "Hallelujah" playing for some 15-20 minutes out of the final thirty, just to kick you in the kidneys after making you suffer from the film's stupidity for the first seventy-five percent of the runtime. Avoid this movie like the plague.

Floating Clouds

2006-03-09T02:11:00.000-08:00

Ukigumo
1955
Toho
Director: Mikio Naruse
Length: 122 min.
Country: Japan
Format: 35mm
Date Viewed: 26 February

Floating Clouds is widely considered to be Naruse's masterpiece. It's a good film, to be sure, but I think it is easily bested by the excellent When a Woman Ascends the Stairs. Floating Clouds begins with a flawless first act; the cinematography, editing, sound, music and acting all work together flawlessly, jumping between present and some four years earlier with match cuts every bit as awe-inspiring and revealing as the infamous bone-to-spaceship edit in Kubrick's 2001. Some twenty minutes in I began to think that perhaps this was Naruse's masterpiece, but after the first act, the film becomes disappointingly standard in its technical side, betraying the first act and revealing it as a hook that does nothing more than perfectly comply with Sam Fuller's rule that films need openings so technically and emotionally perfect that they induce erections.

The acting remains strong throughout (another knockout performance by the fantastic Hideko Takamine) and the story and script are generally solid, but as the style mellows, the film becomes - dare I say - a little bit boring. It's a full two hours and every minute after minute thirty is felt, and by the end it becomes clear that some twenty minutes could have been easily removed from Yukiko's (Takamine) ping-pong like flights to and from the men in her life.

Still, it is a good movie, and is filled throughout with small shots that initially seem throwaway until looked at more closely when deep or witty symbolism is revealed. Take, for instance, a wonderful shot that occurs at about the end of the third act after the murder of a certain young woman. After Yukiko leaves Kengo's (Masayuki Mori) apartment, we see three children playing in the foreground. We've seen these kids before but the camera lingers on them with Yukiko in the background, looking emotionally lost. The kids begin playing house. As the shot is curiously held, it hits us that they represent the characters of the film as essentially children in adult bodies, playing adult roles, but not getting it quite right. The adults in the film are every bit as emotionally immature and confused about the world as children are; a result, perhaps, of the famously repressed society they were born into, and certainly a result from the recent and vicious loss of a World War.

Sunset Blvd.

2006-02-26T15:39:00.000-08:00

1950
Paramount Pictures
Director: Billy Wilder
Length: 110 min.
Country: USA
Format: DVD
Date Viewed: 25 February

If most people see Sunset Blvd. as being enjoyably entertaining, but deride Wilder's next film, Ace in the Hole as being overwhelmingly cynical, then I can't imagine the depths of the latter's cynicism. Sunset Blvd. is a downright bitter and nasty film featuring two hours of pathetic people doing pathetic things.

The only character that can be liked is Betty Scaefer (Nancy Olson), the young talent trying to make it as a screenwriter, and we watch in horror as Joe Gillis (William Holden) proceeds to destroy her optimism because of his own failed dreams. Indeed, the film ends with no hope for anybody, and all lose either their dreams or their lives, or both. Obviously, the film is a hard one to become invested in, and the two hours tick by very slowly.

The film is not without some merit, though. The acting is good all around, especially in the case of Erich von Stroheim, nearly playing himself which is interesting as he quickly shrugged off this performance (perhaps it hit a little too close to home?). The dialogue is another bright spot - and characteristic of Wilder's scripts - sounding precisely like that of a '50s pulp novel. This includes many funny little barbs aimed at Hollywood which were good for a chuckle. Outside of this, however, there's not much to attach to. It's not interesting enough to overcome its vicious cynicism and the characters are too unsympathetic for us to care about. This is definitely one of Wilder's weaker efforts.

The Crowd

2006-02-25T22:12:00.000-08:00

1928
MGM
Director: King Vidor
Length: 104 min.
Country: USA
Format: VHS
Date Viewed: 25 February

"If you take a boring job to give your family a high standard of living, as so many people do, you risk infecting your kids with the idea that work is boring. Maybe it would be better for kids in this one case if parents were not so unselfish. A parent who set an example of loving their work might help their kids more than an expensive house."
-Paul Graham, http://www.paulgraham.com/love.html

The above quote is a perfect match for King Vidor's The Crowd, a silent masterpiece which features some truly amazing cinematography. The protagonist, John Sims (James Murray), spends all day at his mindless job in a nightmare insurance office (the expressionistic production design is fantastic) dreaming of something better and knowing that one day he will fulfill his father's vague proclamation that John will be a big, important person. Most everyone around him thinks it mostly or only has to do with obtaining a high-level position or high salary regardless of personal satisfaction or happiness (which is sadly true in real life as well).

John begins the film generally accepting this view, and thus in an early scene he belittles "the crowd," the teeming masses of everymen who do not meet this definition. Eventually, he brings his hatred from his soulless job home and takes it out on his wife (see also: real life), an inexcusable behavior from which he develops a new understanding: a successful career is one that will allow great happiness through the use of his endless creativity, individuality and love of entertaining, all of which are cruelly denied him by the insurance company. He sets out to try and conform to this definition, which first (and realistically) leads to financial hardships and a serious rift in the marriage.

He is later able to prove the truth in the "happiness definition" of success, but becomes another face in the crowd as a result. We are now able to see the crowd under a new lens, though, which reveals John and his family - and indeed many others in the crowd - as important, successful people because they have to means to survive while also being happy. This is cleverly represented in a powerful final shot.

Many people saw this film as a downer and the ending a sad one. This, however, depends on what lens you look through. If you, like most Americans, see success as being wealthy regardless of the personal or familial cost, then of course this film will be a downer and most likely strike you as naive. But for those of us who find this definition to be revolting, the film serves as an inspiration. This film is highly recommended if you fit into the latter camp.

Force of Evil

2006-02-25T15:27:00.000-08:00

1948
Roberts Productions
Director: Abraham Polonsky
Length: 84 min.
Country: USA
Format: VHS
Date Viewed: 23 February

If it weren't for the striking photography, interesting stylization and good pulpy acting, Force of Evil would be a complete failure. As it is, the good points raise the film as a whole only to about middling territory at best. If the film's anti-capitalist message had not been so weak and naive, this may have been a great film.

Instead, its supposedly pro-humanist message sits at uncomfortable odds with its cynical contempt of women and also strangely asks us to feel sorry for those poor honest small-time criminals. You know the ones - they'll steal your money but are fair about taking it, they pay their employees well, and are just trying to get by; big crime syndicates and the police are horrible for trying to stop them. And how could you be mad at these small-time crooks? Look at the mechanics and real-estate agents, the film explicitly says (using these two examples), they are also crooks because their owners make a profit on their services and products, so why is operating a numbers racket be illegal?

Yes, naivete is the rule of the day in Polonsky's film. If the little guys were truly honest businessmen being squeezed by bigger companies and corrupt police, and had the filmmakers not seen women as being either nagging biddies, strumpets or self-destructive ingenues, the film's message would have been much more convincing. As it is, the film is too off-putting to work. You can safely skip this one.

The Getaway

2006-02-23T19:55:00.000-08:00

1972
Solar Productions
Director: Sam Peckinpah
Length: 122 min.
Country: USA
Format: DVD
Date Viewed: 23 February

It's fairly clear throughout The Getaway that Peckinpah was a gun-for-hire on this production. Certain Peckinpah elements exist - the slow motion shots, the heavy blood-letting, the near-overwhelming machismo - and he does a competent job, but it never feels like he cared about the material very much. The script is rather standard and the film only really picks up between the 55 and 90 minute marks with some outstanding set pieces, including a tense chase through a train. McQueen is cool throughout, as expected, and the constant but subtle exposure of children to violence is a powerful reminder of its effect on young psyches (and yet, this very violent film inexplicably received only a PG rating, which still stands today and reveals once again the uselessness of the current MPAA's system). Otherwise, it's a somewhat tedious affair, made worse by McGraw showing her complete inability to act and by another terrible score by Quincy Jones (a poor man's Lalo Schiffrin) - who was brought aboard by McQueen himself. Better rent The Wild Bunch or Straw Dogs instead.

The New World

2006-02-23T15:18:00.000-08:00

2005
New Line Cinema
Director: Terrence Malick
Length: 135 min.
Country: USA
Format: 35mm (but mostly shot on 65mm, baby! How about a 70 print, New Line?)
Date Viewed: 22 February

The New World stands as one of the best recent examples of film poetry. Eschewing traditional narrative structures, Malick and cinematographer Emmanuel Lubezki capture the actors not so much acting as participating in a stirring and gorgeous dance performance. Intercut with this is remarkable footage of Virginia's flora and fauna, taking a cue from Malick's The Thin Red Line. The editing is mostly strong, though the overly jumpy sequences of Smith's rescue by Pocahontas, Smith's lashing, and the battle scenes are rather off-putting and destroy the rhythms of the rest of the film - this was the intention, but consider it mission accomplished too well.

Aside from this, the film succeeds masterfully. But like The Thin Red Line, it only does so for active viewers. More passive cinema-goers will most likely be incredibly bored and wonder where the story went. For the rest of us, we will be led into a magical world where the lack of story matters none and the images and sounds (and amazing score by James Horner) will astound and delight us endlessly.

The Mistress

2006-02-23T01:29:00.000-08:00

Gan
1953
Daiei Films
Director: Shiro Toyoda
Country: Japan
Length: 106 min.
Format: VHS
Date Viewed: 22 February

If there was ever a Japanese actress with as much talent, grace and extraordinary beauty as Hideko Takamine, I have not seen her (and I've seen a fair share of Japanese films, and from all decades starting with the 1910s). She shines again in The Mistress (Gan), an adaptation of the fantastic, though occasionally misogynistic, novel by Ogai Mori, Wild Geese (also Gan).

This excellent melodrama also showcases the talents of cinematographer Mitsuo Miura, whose work here may have inspired Kubrick on his The Killing, in that both use the camera as an especially voyeuristic extension of us, the viewer - following the characters from a safe distance, or partially hiding behind various objects or pieces of furniture to get a better look at the unfolding events.

Though glacially paced, the film is never boring, and in fact, it's an incredibly heartbreaking piece. More than once I found myself feeling the emotions of the characters, most notably when Otama, played by Takamine, is snubbed by the young student after she cooks him a dinner. It's rare when a film can invest us to the point of vicariousness. This is a wonderful, though hard-to-find film, but it will be worth your while to find yourself a copy.

Secrets & Lies

2006-02-23T00:15:00.000-08:00

1996
CIBY 2000
Director: Mike Leigh
Length: 142 min.
Format: DVD
Date Viewed: 21 February

Secrets & Lies is an incredibly powerful film with a perfectly chosen cast. There are no weak links here, and the 142-minute run-time flies by due to the ease in which we can invest ourselves in the events portrayed. This is allowed mainly by the fact that most of us will be able to relate in some way to the universal theme of keeping and telling, well, secrets and lies and the destruction they wreak on our relationships with loved ones (the film allowed me to gain some insight on my extended families' varying levels of dysfunction). Some critics have felt that certain loose ends and somewhat simplistic character motives detract from the film, but in fact these are major strengths; both make the film more realistic and thus more relatable. Highly recommended.

Ruggles of Red Gap

2006-02-22T20:49:00.000-08:00

1935
Paramount Pictures
Director: Leo McCarey
Length: 90 min.
Format: 35mm
Date Viewed: 21 February

It's always difficult to fathom why certain films go on to become classics and others are left in the dust. Why, for instance, are the mediocre films Bringing Up Baby and The Philadelphia Story considered comedy classics while the outstanding Ruggles of Red Gap is now largely forgotten? Directed by Leo McCarey, this film is consistently hilarious, moving and sweetly romantic.

Ruggles of Red Gap serves as a passionate criticism of the unnecessarily rigid British class system and makes a very good case against it (but naturally forgets that America, too, has a class system, though granted it's much less restrictive than that of the UK). The cast is uniformly great, and all show impeccable comedic timing. The romance between Ruggles (Charles Laughton, perfect in the role) and Prunella Judson (Zasu Pitts) provides maybe the cutest screen couples ever seen, and Ruggles' recitation of the Gettysburg Address is as inspirational and powerful now as it must have been 71 years ago.

This film is exceptionally rare (the only known film print in existence is playing in Seattle this week), but is very highly recommended. This is most certainly one of the best American comedies.

Cube

2006-02-20T19:44:00.000-08:00

1997
The Feature Film Project
Director: Vincenzo Natali
Length: 90 min.
Format: DVD
Date Viewed: 19 February

In the hands of a competent director and screenwriter, Cube might have been a big success. As it is, the film is a rather frustrating example of a great idea squandered by a pathetic script, worse dialogue and some of the most awful acting these eyes have ever seen. The production design, cinematography and story are good, though, and the film is tense and effective at building suspense.

But Natali is a writer who appears to have not read anything other than a discount screenwriting 101 book, explaining things that should be left unsaid (the mind-numbingly stupid explanation of the cube's origin), jerking back and forth between fluid action and scenes of stagey and cliched character development/confrontation, and inserting unnecessarily graphic violence into the proceedings (less would have been so much more).

The whole idea of the film is fascinating, and so much gold could have been mined from it, but when it ends, all you can do is wish that the project had been given to a better filmmaker.

The Decalogue (TV)

2006-02-20T18:32:00.000-08:00

Dekalog
1989
Telewizja Polska
Director: Krzysztof Kieslowski
Length: 460 min.
Format: DVD
Dates Viewed: 16-19 February

As a single conceptual piece, Kieslowski's The Decalogue is a towering achievement. But looking at each of the ten one-hour parts, the results are mixed. Each of the ten generally unconnected pieces are based on one of the Ten Commandments, sometimes very explicitly and sometimes in an incredibly oblique way (the episode based on "Thou Shalt Not Commit Adultery" features no married characters amongst its leads).

They are all interesting in their relations to their respective Commandments and each is thought-provoking and can lead to interesting debates and discussions between viewers. But their quality as short film varies. Only six are truly well-made and easily sustain interest (1, 2, 4, 5, 7, and my favorite, 10), and the rest are either mediocre (6 and 9) or poor (3 and my least favorite, 8 - though it seems to be a favorite of older critics).

The beauty of the series is that you can watch only the pieces you want and in any order and you are not necessarily missing out by skipping a few. Of course, as it is a conceptual piece, it is best to see the entire series, and in order, and along with the two spin-off films, A Short Film About Killing, based on episode five, and A Short Film About Love, based on episode six (both are reviewed on this site).

On the whole, it's easy to respect and admire The Decalogue, but watching 460 minutes (525 minutes if you add the two spin-offs) of fairly bleak Polish cinema is daunting task, especially when only six of the episodes and one of the films are truly solid material.

A Short Film About Love

2006-02-20T17:36:00.000-08:00

Krótki Film O Milosci
1988
Zepoly Polskich Producentow Filmowych
Director: Krzysztof Kieslowski
Length: 84 min.
Format: DVD
Date Viewed: 18 February

An extension of one of The Decalogue's mediocre episodes, A Short Film About Love adds little to its shorter version, but does give it a more satisfying ending. The acting is pretty good and the story is not bad as a whole, but the film is never terribly engrossing outside of the last twenty or so minutes, when the tables are turned on the two leads. This reversal is surprising and wonderfully ironic; too bad the first three-quarters are so dull.

A Short Film About Killing

2006-02-18T19:44:00.000-08:00

Krótki film o zabijaniu
1988
Film Polski
Director: Krzysztof Kieslowski
Length: 81 min.
Format: DVD
Date Viewed: 17 February

A hard film to watch, Kieslowski's A Short Film about Killing is a rather good essay railing against Poland's abhorrent but now-defunct (as a result of this film) capital punishment system. It shows that the State has no justification for murdering its criminals in the same way that ordinary citizens have none for killing other citizens.

This is shown very simply and concisely through two killings: one of a taxi cab driver by a young drifter and the other of the young drifter by the State. Both murders are long and horrifying in their brutality and complete ruthlessness.

Though the film offers a good dialogue-based argument against capital punishment from the young lawyer who tries to defend the drifter, the overall argument becomes a little manipulative when it tries to partially justify the drifter's actions through the story of his dead sister. Through this tactic, co-writers Kieslowski and Krzysztof Piesiewicz try to humanize the drifter, who is the victim of the State, but elsewhere, the writers does not humanize the cabbie, who is the victim of the drifter, or the State, the arbiter of legalized execution. They do this to subtly suggest that the execution by the the State was worse than that by the drifter, when in fact, they are both equal. The film would have been much stronger if either all three of the major entities had been humanized, or if none had been.

As stated, the film is quite good and undoubtedly thought-provoking, but the subtle manipulation throws A Short Film About Killing slightly off and keeps it from being a truly great film.

In the Heat of the Night

2006-02-15T15:57:00.000-08:00

1967
The Mirisch Corporation
Director: Norman Jewison
Length: 100 min.
Format: DVD
Date Viewed: 14 February

It's hard to say exactly why In the Heat of the Night works as a whole. Certainly with this film, the sum is greater than it's parts.

The acting is pretty good overall, with Poitier dominating the screen through his rich performance as Virgil Tibbs. Steiger is good as redneck Sheriff Gillespie, but is sometimes a little prone to using stereotypes. The supporting cast is generally pretty good, but, outside of the reliable Warren Oates, hardly noteworthy.

The script is decent, but important themes of class division are brought up and then quickly forgotten, and the entire murder-mystery plot is so underwritten as to be unnecessary to the film; by the end, it's still unclear how exactly the mystery was solved. The editing also feels a little choppy. Throughout we get the feeling that certain parts have been removed to tighten up the picture, but it feels over-tightened as a result.

The only really solid attributes of the film are the cinematography by Haskell Wexler and the perfect production design, making a farm town in Illinois look like a dilapidated Southern town.

When all the parts are put together, though, they work rather well. It's easy to become immersed in the film, and like it once it's over. Perhaps it works so well because of its lack of pretentiousness. The film never claims to be destroying racism in a small town or even presenting us with something new (though it may have been an eye-opener for some Northerners, I imagine the racial elements were routine evening news fare by 1967). We understand that the town will not change after Tibbs leaves. Endicott will not get rid of his slave-like servants, the police will still be ineffectual, and racism will still prevail. This is the true realism of the film.

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

2006-02-15T15:55:00.000-08:00

Bom yeoreum gaeul gyeoul geurigo bom
2003
Korea Pictures
Director: Kim Ki-duk
Length: 102 min.
Format: DVD
Date Viewed: 14 February

A cyclical tale of self-redemption, Spring, Summer, Fall, Winter…and Spring is a stunning film. The acting, with the sole exception of Young-min Kim as the young adult monk who wildly overacts, is excellent, the cinematography is outstanding (the incredible locations help in this regard), and the script is great with it's heavily reduced dialogue and simple, but powerful lessons. The film was unjustly neglected in the US, but is readily available at Hollywood and Blockbuster, so now you have no excuse for avoiding this lush, meditative film.

Greed (Extended Version)

2006-02-14T00:59:00.000-08:00

1924
Metro Goldwyn Pictures
Director: Erich von Stroheim
Length: 239 min.
Format: VHS
Date Viewed: 13 February

In 1999, Rick Schmidlin oversaw the addition of 99 minutes to the 1924 release print of Erich von Stroheim's "holy grail of cinema," Greed. These 99 minutes come in the form of still pictures of deleted material and new intertitles based on a continuity script he found in a private library, and this version will likely be the closest we ever come to seeing the full version of the film. Not only was all of the six or seven hours of excised footage completely burned, the original shooting script is long-gone.

What's interesting about using the still photographs is that it allows us to see exactly what was cut and about where it fit in the original cut. It's tough to judge a film missing over half of it's content, and this proves true here as well. Extended subplots have been partially restored here, but go mostly nowhere aside from providing point/counterpoint to the action of the main storyline. In their current form, they probably were better left on the cutting room floor, but perhaps in their full length they were of prime necessity to the film as a whole. Though some parts are redundant, tedious, and/or unclear in this extended version, some new scenes are incredibly rich in their character insight and in filling out what must have been confusing and choppy scenes.

Regardless of the fact we are only watching half a film, it is still quite good. This is an tragic and ironic morality tale showing us what happens to people who develop an obsessive love of money. The theme is of course universal, and we can still learn lessons from the movie today. None of the characters are all good or all bad, but everyone who lets money and greed overtake their lives slowly become inhuman and swing far to their dark sides, which seems to parallel real life rather well. This parallel is helped by the excellent performances of the leads and of the sheer length of the film, which allows for fuller characterizations to emerge slowly and more naturally than a more rushed film would have time for.

The film is not perfect, but von Stroheim's butchered vision is a timeless work that earns its high reputation.

Welcome to Dongmakgol

2006-02-13T03:18:00.000-08:00

2005
Film It Suda
Director: Kwang-hyun Park
Length: 133 min.
Format: DVD
Date Viewed: 13 February

It seems that when it comes to mainstream Korean cinema (with notable exceptions), Jerry Bruckheimer has become the key influence. Style reminiscent of credit card commercials is heavily favored over substance, shaky-cam syndrome is widespread, violence is disturbing and gratuitous regardless of how light a film appears to be (see Marrying the Mafia), run-times are easily 30 minutes too long, and any potentially interesting ideas and avenues for profound political statements are quickly removed and replaced with empty Hallmark moments.

This is the case with first-timer Kwang-Hyun Park's cliche-fest, Welcome to Dongmakgol, a film that could have said many important things on North-South antagonism and the need for peace and reunification. Instead, all the screenplay decides to tell us over the course of 133 long minutes is that if Northerners and Southerners put down their guns, they could all be good friends. Thankfully, the movie doesn't otherwise choose sides between North and South on any issue, but that's about as strong as the movie gets.

Other major problems abound: the score sounds like it was lifted from a 20-year old direct-to-video feature and tries desperately to tell us what emotions to feel, the acting is generally horrible (even dinner theater may be above the American "actors"), and well, the less said about the giant warthog scene, the better.

Indeed, the director seems thoroughly incapable of presenting the material without a maximum of cheese at all times, as in the warthog scene and the final fireball, or without requiring us to not notice an unbelievably incorrect portrayal of army protocol (strange for a country with compulsory service) and also accept the obvious anachronisms and clunkily manufactured change in Moon Sang-sang's disposition towards the villagers so as to build "tension" and "drama."

Nothing about this shamelessly predictable film rings true in any way, and since it doesn't have anything to say regardless, this movie is a complete waste of time.

Midnight Run

2006-02-12T23:52:00.000-08:00

1988
City Lights
Director: Martin Brest
Length: 123 min.
Format: DVD
Date Viewed: 12 February

Midnight Run is proof that having a rock-solid cast can elevate a terrible script into an enjoyable film. It stars Robert De Niro, Charles Grodin, Yaphet Kotto, Joe Pantoliano, Dennis Farina and John Ashton, and all, as expected, do great work here, creating nice little touches (like De Niro tucking the handcuffed Grodon's coat into the car before closing the door) and character tics (Kotto's continual exasperation towards his subordinates; Farina's hilarious threats) that work so well. Apparently, large parts of the movie were improvised by the cast which is the main reason the film works so well - and is so consistently funny - considering the rigid formula and dull buddy-road-movie cliches that exist in George Gallo's screenplay. Brest keeps the film moving through its two hours, though it does drag a little in the middle. He may not have the talent to improve upon weak material, but at least he can choose a cast who is readily able to do so.

The Phenix City Story

2006-02-12T18:23:00.000-08:00

1955
Bischoff Enterprises
Director: Phil Karlson
Length: 87 min.
Format: VHS
Date Viewed: 12 February

It seemed for a while that no film from the '50s was more intense than Robert Aldrich's Kiss Me Deadly, but then I happened upon Phil Karlson's The Phenix City Story, based on true events in the titular city. This is one hardcore film, in which no child or woman is safe from vicious attacks in broad daylight or even murder. How this film got past the Production Code is curious, but it did, and its unflinching look at organized crime in the deep South is the film's biggest strength and perhaps the reason it works so well in riling the audience up against the real-life thugs.

It works despite bad acting (though James Edwards, as usual, brings strong acting skills and class to his role as Zeke, and Edward Andrews is good as the town's criminal kingpin), a preachy script, and an incredibly amateurish workmanship and style. The film as a whole is so unsubtle, worked-up and easily convincing (would you want child-murders running your town and have the police and courts in their pockets?) that it becomes a piece of propaganda, and even became a key advertising component in the campaign of the real-life Albert Patterson, who was running for Governor of Alabama as the film was released. As propaganda, the film is wildly effective, the anger I felt towards the criminals grew as the film went on and I was admittedly somewhat stirred by remarkably hokey mob scene. Seeing the people take power from a corrupt ruling class is a rousing image, and this is what The Phenix City Story such a great film.

The Docks of New York

2006-02-10T01:08:00.000-08:00

1928
Paramount
Director: Josef von Sternberg
Length: 76 min.
Format: VHS
Date Viewed: 9 February

Josef von Sternberg's The Docks of New York is an exercise in simplicity and in outstandingly stylized cinematography and editing. The story is very brief and straightforward. Not much time is wasted as the film hurtles from A to B. The wedding scene and some of the sequences in the bar probably could have used a little trimming, but their length doesn't hurt the film much.

The most impressive thing about this film is how ahead of the time it feels. While talkies were beginning to enter theaters, some directors kept with silent films, and The Docks of New York comes in the late period of silents. Most all films through this era, silent or otherwise, suffered from copious overacting and a flat style with long, static shots and simplistic edits, but these are usually associated with silent films rather than with their talking counterparts.

von Sternberg's film, however, showcases dynamic and fluid cinematography highlighted by breathtaking lighting that serves as an obvious precursor to the film noir style, though here the lighting surpasses many of the film noirs that would follow. The shots inside the boat and the night exteriors of the first half of the film use streams of light pouring from obscured lights pointed towards the camera and tons of fog to create a perfectly dark and creepy atmosphere. This film may be the jewel in noted cinematographer Harold Rosson's crown.

von Sternberg once said that "shadow is mystery and light is clarity. Shadow conceals - light reveals. To know what to reveal and what to conceal and in what degrees to do this is all there is to art." After watching this film, it would be an understatement to say that von Sternberg and Rosson knew their art.

In Cold Blood

2006-02-09T01:20:00.000-08:00

1967
Columbia Pictures
Director: Richard Brooks
Length: 134 min.
Format: 35mm
Date Viewed: 8 February

Richard Brooks' In Cold Blood is a masterpiece of cinematography and editing. How Conrad Hall and Peter Zinner didn't walk away with awards for their work on this film is beyond me. The shots are framed perfectly and the editing is an display case of fantastic match cuts and of tight cutting. Both men must have been telepathically linked during the making of the film in how well their work complimented each other. The acting in the film is also first-rate, with outstanding performances from Robert Blake and Scott Wilson.

The film is not without its flaws, however. The score occasionally goes over-the-top and becomes a little distracting, and in perhaps the most ridiculous musical cue in cinema history, a female voice sings the word "memories" before the film segues into a flashback. Also, the ending's narration and preachy anti-capitol punishment speech is far too heavy-handed for the film. These flaws do little to hurt In Cold Blood as a whole and it succeeds amazingly well in spite of them.

One more note: It is rare to see a film whose ending is as sobering as this one's. When the slowing heartbeat faded out on the soundtrack, and the title faded in as the sole closing credit, not a person stirred or grabbed their coats. Everyone stayed in their seats until the lights came up. Then, we all walked out of the screening room without uttering a word, into the night as if we really did witness a Federal execution. Even the usually lively Capitol Hill neighborhood seemed incredibly quiet and somber as I walked home in the cold air.

Reminiscences of a Journey to Lithuania

2006-02-09T00:04:00.000-08:00

1972
Jonas Mekas
Director: Jonas Mekas
Length: 83 min.
Format: VHS
Date Viewed: 8 February

Imagine watching 83 minutes of some stranger's home movies. This stranger shot some film in the 50s of fellow Lithuanian displaced peoples that settled in New York after WWII. Twenty years later, he goes on a trip to his old home to see his mother who he hadn't seen since he fled the Nazis during the war, all the while shooting film, and adds it to his 50s footage. The footage is all hand-held, and is so shaky it looks like your average Michael Bay film.

Now imagine that the "director" edits the film as if he was a jackrabbit on uppers, and almost always keeps this film sped up to a minimum of 2x (this is done presumably because 166 minutes of his footage would lead most of us to emptying the nearest bottle of sleeping pills down our gullet). Sometimes he'll provide his own poorly dubbed voice-overs, almost always telling us exceedingly banal trivia and reflections about his trip - though admittedly a couple things he says are of interest. Other times, he'll put music over the footage at odd times, and stop it dead at other odd times (and you can always hear the start/stop click of the tape player it came from). Finally, he throws in a shot of a white box on a black screen occasionally throughout the whole film for no reason. Now guess what. You don't have to imagine this any longer, you can simply watch Jonas Mekas' Reminiscences of a Journey to Lithuania, the most amateuristic "documentary" by a professional filmmaker I have ever seen. Or better yet, don't watch it. Run very far away from it.

Some people are fantastic at making stories of the mundane come alive through the proper use of detail at the right moment and by having a natural storytelling ability. Mekas posseses neither or these traits, and so, it can only be assumed that he was simply lucky that the first three minutes of the film, a discussion of when he realized America was his new home, is so good. From there, the film goes downhill fast and never gets any better. There is no point, there is no conclusion, there is no ending (the film simply stops and the copyright comes up).

The only thing the film really has going for it is that it inspires a debate on what can be counted as a documentary. Can splicing together your home movies with no purpose, no storyline and no ending really be called a documentary? Many critics say yes, at least when it comes to this film, and some have even gone so far as to call Mekas' work "film poetry" (Rosenbaum, Chicago Reader). Personally, I say no. I don't think this can be called a documentary. If it is, then anybody who has ever filmed a family event with a camcorder should be able to slap a copyright on it and throw it into theaters. Mekas shoots, narrates, and records audio with all the skill of your average suburban father, so why not put the video of our family's Christmas, 1985, into a local cinema? Maybe we can fool prominent critics into thinking it's "film poetry."

The Sun Shines Bright

2006-02-08T14:28:00.000-08:00

1953
Republic Pictures
Director: John Ford
Length: 93 min.
Format: VHS
Date Viewed: 7 February

Of all 146 films John Ford directed, The Sun Shines Bright is his personal favorite and the favorite of many of his fans. Admittedly, I've never cared much for John Ford's films, aside from The Grapes of Wrath and, to a lesser degree, The Searchers and Judge Priest. After having watched The Sun Shines Bright, Judge Priest's half-remake, half-sequel, I see no reason to change my stance on the man's work.

A film much weaker than it's predecessor, The Sun Shines Bright changes the character of Judge Priest from a wise, calm, good-natured and good-humored older man as played by the terrific Will Rogers into an angry, preachy, eccentric with occasional patches of kindness, this time played by Charles Winninger (Rogers died in 1935, thus ruling out his desperately needed return to the role). Perhaps Winninger's performance is closer to the books the films were based on, perhaps not. Either way, Rogers was perfect in the role, and it was a disappointment to see Winninger's changes.

His introduction comes when he wakes up and begins screaming in anger and then bugling for his servant (this being around 1900 is not slavery, but not that different from it, either), Jeff, to come and get the jug of whiskey out from under the Judge's bed (taking approximately seventeen times the effort needed to pull the jug out himself). Immediately, we know we are in for disappointment in this film's choice of lead.

The first third of the movie is shockingly poor. Its inept attempts at balancing multiple story-lines ends up being confusing (the weak editing has been attributed to studio interference, so perhaps this can be excused) and the situations the characters find themselves in are apparently supposed to be funny, but are really just awkward and absurd. The film eventually gets better, and indeed, some of the scenes towards the end are very well done. The funeral procession is a stirring piece of cinema, marred only by the fact that as it goes on, it does becomes a little preposterous. The final shot of the Judge entering his house is incredibly well-shot and lit. Though the last two-thirds are better than the first, it still is not free from poor scenes, like the ridiculously lame chase scene through town, and over-the-top cheesiness that just doesn't work as decent melodrama, like the mystery around Lucy Lee's lineage, which was handled much better in the original.

Then we get to the question of racial stereotypes. Not much has changed since the first film, and in fact, it's may be worse than the 1934 version. Stepin Fetchit reprises not only his role as Jeff, the Judge's servant, but also his awful embodiment of grotesque stereotypes. Most of the African-American woman in this film are presented as "Mammy" types, and the men are presented as slow, childlike adults. For a film that makes quite a bit of lip service about the equality of men regardless of their skin color, the actual portrayal of African-Americans is incredibly offensive.

Save your 93 minutes and skip this shabby film.

Judge Priest

2006-02-07T01:38:00.000-08:00

1934
Fox Film Corp.
Director: John Ford
Length: 82 min
Format: DVD
Date Viewed: 6 January

John Ford's Judge Priest, set in 1890 Kentucky, is a comedy that generally coasts by amicably on its down home Southern charm and humor. The title character is played by Will Rogers, who plays the part (that would soon be a Hollywood cliche) perfectly. Rogers does a nice job with little touches, such as his conversations with his long-deceased wife. The story is also good, balancing the Judge's courtroom life as well as his neighborhood life, meddling in the affairs of his newphew's love life and preparing for an all-important croquet match, and showing his carefully constructed mask of gentle apathy as he navigates both worlds.

Everything goes rather well until the film begins to fall apart at the end. Strong Confederate pride still plays a huge role in the lives of these Kentuckians, and this explodes to absurd proportions at the climax and carries through to the end, destroying some of the good will the movie generated in its first three-quarters. Further, being a film about the South made in 1934, there is of course some inexcusably horrible racist stereotyping that is hard to watch.

It's hard to shake the fact that the ending is so weak, but the film still works despite this. Overall, Judge Priest is a good film with plenty of good laughs.

Love Streams (Home Video Version)

2006-02-06T02:43:00.000-08:00

1984
Cannon Films
Director: John Cassavetes
Length: 122 min.
Format: VHS
Date Viewed: 5 January

When Love Streams was released onto video in 1984, the film was cut down by eighteen minutes. It is unclear who did the cutting and why, but the feeling that one gets from this shortened version is that the longer one needs to be seen. Perhaps a DVD of the uncut version will be released in the near future, or perhaps a 35mm print will come to Seattle (a new print was created sometime late last year and played in New York), but until then, the only available version feels like it is missing some important material that may better flesh out some of the supporting characters and help explain some situations.

This is a very tough film to get into, and the ending's lapse into surrealism is frustrating and feels more than a little pretentious. It's a film that, as a whole, gets better while thinking about it after the fact as opposed to while it's actually playing.

However, the performances by director/co-writer star, John Cassavetes, and his real-life wife, Gena Rowlands, are flawless and incredibly moving, and Seymour Cassel, as always, turns in a strong supporting performance. The Vegas sequence and its violent conclusion is remarkably effective, as is the tragic dream scene where Rowlands tries desperately to win her husband and daughter's love by playing around with gag gifts.

Overall, the film is admirable, but is not a lot of fun to watch. Perhaps this film will turn out like Cassavetes' The Killing of a Chinese Bookie in that the original cut is far superior, and gets much, much better on a second viewing. The hope is that the theatrical cut will come this way soon.

The Best and Worst of 2005

2006-02-05T16:48:00.000-08:00

For 13 months, from 1 January, 2005 to 1 February, 2006, I saw 287 films (my girlfriend doesn't live in this country, so I have a lot of free time). Of these, I only saw 51 films from 2005. Yes, the masses were somewhat correct in that 2005 had a lot of just bad, bad films, but there were also many films of very high quality. In fact, finding ten films to create my least favorite film list was a little difficult, but trying to make an initial cut of really good films down to 20 was a little tough.

The criteria I have established for 2005 films is that (1), it is a film that was released in Seattle theatrically for the first time during the calendar year of 2005 (1 January to 31 December), (2) it is a film that has not been released theatrically in Seattle but available to me on video during the year, and (3) it is a film that has been recut and rereleased theatrically. Number one is the reason why films like The New World and Cache will have to wait until next year's list. Because of the second rule, I did not add Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance, Oldboy and Pulse (too bad about the latter as I hated it the first time I saw in Japan in 2004, and loved it when I saw it again late last year in its Seattle release, and would've added it to my top ten), and number three is the reason that The Passenger made it and why Major Dundee was "in competition," so to speak.

Before we get to the best and worst films, here is a list, in alphabetical order, of the films that were not bad enough to make the ten worst, but not quite good enough to make it to the honorable mention category.

The 40-Year-Old Virgin (USA)
The Aristocrats (USA)
The Bad News Bears (USA)
Batman Begins (USA)
Bright Future (Japan)
Broken Flowers (USA)
Capote (USA)
Days of Being Wild (Hong Kong)
Good Night, And Good Luck. (USA)
Grizzly Man (USA)
Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire (USA/UK)
A History of Violence (USA/Canada)
Kekexili (China)
Kung Fu Hustle (Hong Kong)
Land of the Dead (USA)
Major Dundee (USA)
Me and You and Everyone We Know (USA)
Oseam (South Korea)
Oyster Farmer (Australia)
The President's Last Bang (South Korea)
Pucker Up (USA)
The Squid and the Whale (USA)
Tropical Malady (Thailand)
Wallace and Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit (UK)
War of the Worlds (USA)
The White Diamond (Germany/UK)

The Best Films of 2005

HONORABLE MENTION

15. 2046 (Hong Kong) - The final part of Wai's trilogy on Hong Kong of the 1960's, the film has a great style and is thought-provoking. It would have been stronger had it not been a direct sequel to In the Mood For Love, but it's still a very good conclusion to the series.

14. Downfall (Germany) - A fascinating look at the last days of Nazi Germany. Well shot and acted, but it's lack of context keeps it from being in the top ten.

13. Mysterious Skin (USA) - A great script and good performances. The story about the hustler is not nearly as strong as the one about the teen who believes he was abducted by aliens, but it's still good enough to not weaken the film.

12. Layer Cake (UK) - Matthew Vaughn gives a perfect amount of style onto this gangster film. The fun of the film is in the characters. Daniel Craig is outstanding in his role.

11. Junebug (USA) - A film about the red-state/blue-state division that doesn't shit all over the red-staters. This film boasts fantastic performances and a very good script.

TOP TEN

10. Or (My Treasure) (Israel) - A sad film that is brutal on the emotions, but really strong. Great performances and excellent cinematography highlight this great work of cinema verite.

9. Munich (USA) - Steven Spielberg is back in good form with his best film in at least 23 years. The ideas are interesting, and all sides are given fair weight to the film's central issue. The performances are good across the board and the ties to today's political climate were very poigniant. It is a little cheesy in a couple places, but hey, it's Spielberg. What can you expect?

8. Nobody Knows (Japan) - I saw no other film that was so scary, and yet it's not at all a horror film or a thriller. The director reveals slowly but surely the full horror of the kids' situation as it goes from bad to worse over a year. Yuya Yagira, at 12 years old, gave what was probably the best performance of the year, and the Academy Awards show their continued uselessness but refusing to acknowledge it.

7. The Beat That My Heart Skipped (France) - The film is filled with intriguing moral quandaries and a thought-provoking ending. The film is not without its weaknesses, but it more than overcomes them with strong acting and a good story.

6. Memories of Murder (South Korea) - A strong dark comedy with another great performance by Song Kang-ho. This film gives a really good recreation of South Korea during the 80's, and gives the outsider a pretty good look at the political climate during this era.

5. The Best of Youth (Italy) - Over the course of six hours with one Italian family, you almost feel like you've been made an honorary sibling of the two brothers at the center. The film is so good, that after six hours, you just want more.

4. The Passenger (USA/Italy) - Jack Nicholson's gives his best performance in this great existential anti-thriller. The film was originally released in a studio cut in 1975, and was finally restored to the director's intended version late last year. I don't know how they pulled-off the last shot in an era before CGI, but it is incredibly choreographed and perfectly executed.

3. 3-Iron (South Korea) - An amazing film centering on a relationship between a man and a woman who don't say a single word to each other. The film is both hilarious and sad, sometimes simultaneously. The third act is incredibly brilliant.

2. Brokeback Mountain (USA) - One of the best romances I've ever seen. Heath Ledger and Michelle Williams turn in outstanding performances and Larry McMurtray writes a tragic and moving script.

1. This Charming Girl (South Korea) - This is a truly wonderful film experience, perfectly structured and acted, all the more impressive as it's the debut film for its director and lead actress. The story comes together like a puzzle, and follows the rule of "show, don't tell" to the point of only having around 100 words spoken during its 99 minute runtime. Seattlites can find this at Scarecrow, but only on Region 3 DVD. Please find this film and see it.

And of course, the Worst Films of 2005

BOTTOM 10

10. A Tale of Two Sisters (South Korea) - Asian horror continues its nosedive. Note to the director: a film only needs one ending. Clue: The Movie had three, and that worked pretty well. Having more than three is a painful way for your audience to realize the extent of your indecisiveness.

9. Sin City (USA) - The first film made entirely for the fanboys at Aint It Cool News. If it wasn't for the Marv story, this film would be a whole lot higher on this list.

8. Star Wars, Episode III: Revenge of the Sith (USA) - The surprise with this film's addition to the worst film list is that it was only the 8th worst film of the year.

7. Charlie and the Chocolate Factory (USA) - Johnny Depp misunderstanding the character of Willy Wonka is bad enough; worse is John August somehow thinking the story could be improved by making it into a film about a guy with daddy issues. The terms Tim Burton and poor judgment are really beginning to become intrinsically linked.

6. R Point (South Korea) - This film had a cool idea and the director thoroughly squandered it by seemingly not caring enough to actually try and take advantage of it. Lazy, careless filmmaking.

5. After the Day Before (Hungary) - A pointlessly bleak and cruel film directed by the world's most cynical person (as observed during his post-screening Q&A). No, sir, you are nothing like David Lynch. Even the worst David Lynch film at least has a point to it.

4. The Constant Gardener (UK) - Dumb, dumb, dumb. And then dumb some more.

3. Save the Green Planet (South Korea) - This film wasn't necessarily bad, and in fact had many great scenes and one of the best ideas I've heard in years. The problem is that, like R-Point, the shameless hack of a director threw this good idea away and in this case decided that ninety minutes of disturbing torture scenes would be a fine substitute. Controversial statement: this film needs to be remade by someone who can adequately mine the film's potential.

2. Crash (USA) - Hey, white liberals! Watching this film does not mean you are fighting or understanding racism. It's funny in a cynical way when people say how powerful and enlightening this film is and then in separate conversations use the term "black people" in a lowered and drawn out tone, or refer to any Latino as a Mexican. This film was piss-poor on every aspect of its production, except for where Don Cheadle was concerned (but that should go without saying).

1. King Kong (USA/New Zealand) - Over the course of three loooooooooooooooooong hours and seven painful minutes, Peter Jackson morphed into a racist George Lucas circa 1999. You fanboys can pretend it's good, but you're only lying to yourselves.

I want to hear your comments on the lists, so go ahead and leave them below. And better yet, post your best/worst of list to the comments page.

Flic Story

2006-02-03T00:33:00.000-08:00

1975
Adel Productions
Director: Jacques Deray
Length: 107 min.
Format: DVD
Date Viewed: 2 February

Even though it is based on a true story, Jacques Deray's Flic Story employs most of the usual crime film cliches. Nothing really new is presented, and yet, the film is still enjoyable, mostly because the performances by the leads, the always super-cool Alain Delon and Jean-Louis Trintignant, are in top-form.

Delon plays his "super-cop" as a quiet and good-natured man. He loves his wife and his job, and deplores cops who work above the law (he gets after his men for roughing up suspects. Though usually Delon plays tough-as-nails characters in films of this genre, here we see another side of him and he pulls it off very well. Trintignant plays the villain, Buisson, a stone-faced psycho-killer. Trintignant's performance is truly chilling; his stare is enough to make us nervous for anyone else in the frame with him. Their scenes together towards the end where they meet and begin to understand each other are nicely handled by Deray and the script which he co-wrote with Alphonse Boudard.

Though it's nothing we haven't seen before, Flic Story is still a solid French crime film, and worth seeing for the cat-and-mouse between Delon and Trintignant.

Me and You and Everyone We Know

2006-02-02T02:30:00.000-08:00

2005
IFC Films
Director: Miranda July
Length: 92 min.
Format: DVD
Date Viewed: 1 February

It's always a disappointment when you finish a film and simply don't care about it. It's very hard to care about Miranda July's debut feature, Me and You and Everyone We Know. The characters aren't really interesting, and as a result, the blossoming romance of the two leads fails to register because we can't really see why they like each other so much. The highly sexualized scenes between the many children in the film quickly become either disturbing (why again is it funny that a man leaves dirty notes for two underage teen girls?) or simply dull (the online sex - although the "are you touching yourself" bit was pretty funny). The film is supposed to be quirky and whimsical, and though the quirks and whimsy never feel forced, they never feel natural, either and thus the film doesn't work from that angle, either.

Granted, this film does have some funny parts (I'm guessing no one alive can utter "shitlords" half as funny as John Hawkes does here) and some cute bits (the walk/life-long romance down the street is rather sweet and charming), and the theme of isolation in the digital world is a good one. It's unfortunate that July couldn't make more of these elements and give us a film that was easier to care about.

Capote

2006-02-01T21:28:00.000-08:00

2005
United Artists
Director: Bennett Miller
Length: 114 min.
Format: 35mm
Date Viewed: 1 February

If this film's representation of the title character is even a little true, then Truman Capote must have been a pretty terrible man. For two hours, we see his extreme narcissism fuel him towards manipulating, lying to and bribing everyone around him to get what he wants. What he wanted was to write the book to end all books, and he got what he wanted with In Cold Blood.

But the price he paid was too great. As history tells us, he never finished another book, got trapped in his public persona and died of alcoholism. In a sense, the movie serves as a piece of moralism. Narcissism, no matter what it may bring you if anything at all, will end up destroying you. Yes, the film is as depressing as it sounds.

And it's hard to argue with Dan Callahan who, in his review of this film for Slant Magazine, says that the film would have been much better and the title character more interesting "if Capote himself were treated with just an ounce more sympathy." True, but still, Hoffman does a tremendous job of playing Capote, and indeed, the entire cast is first-rate, Catherine Keener and Clifton Collins also each give one of their best performances here.

The script is also well structured and does a good job of showing the beginning of Capote's downward spiral. Miller, in his second feature and first narrative, shows himself a capable director, and is a director who shows violence in the most appropriately blunt and horrifying ways I've seen in some time. It was so effective, I had to look away a couple times, and I was incredibly glad that there was only a very small amount of this in the film.

I can recommend Capote, but don't expect to come out of the cinema happier and more "up with people" than when you went it.

The Aristocrats

2006-02-01T01:03:00.000-08:00

2005
Mighty Cheese Productions
Director: Paul Provenza
Length: 86 min.
Format: DVD
Date Viewed: 31 January

As most comedians in this literally one-joke documentary will tell you, the joke, The Aristocrats, is just not funny. And yet, when told by some of the greatest working comedians over and over for 86 minutes, it often becomes hilarious. The trick, like all good jokes, is in the telling. Adding colorful little details and punctuating every line with the perfect tone of voice can make a dumb joke funny as is proven here. Somewhere around 100 comedians give versions of the joke, and also offer insight into what makes jokes work, comedic censorship, and what a joke told can reveal about the teller. The documentary generally succeeds, but it could have used some less spastic editing. The film is heavily cut, trying to get as much in as possible by as many different people as possible while constantly cross-cutting back and forth between comedians, to the point that the film feels geared more towards people with severe ADD. Otherwise, if you like (unfathomably) dirty jokes, this film is for you.

Tropical Malady

2006-01-31T19:08:00.000-08:00

Sud Pralad
2004
Anna Sanders Films
Director: Apichatpong Weerasethakul
Length: 118 min.
Format: DVD
Date Viewed: 31 January

This is a film that I liked upon reflection much more than while actually watching it. Tropical Malady is essentially two short films (both have opening credits) that tell the same story with the same two main characters and corresponding actors, except the first is told literally and the second metaphorically. The metaphorical half, as expected is difficult to understand and, on little more than 4 hours of sleep as was my case, hard to get through. Precious little happens, and the concept of a standard timeline is meaningless. The second half is well-crafted and creative in its execution, but I preferred the the first half. The leads are both good in their roles and they have a natural charisma together. Their scene in the movie house is extremely erotic and their scene in the long-house when Keng lays his head on Tong's leg is incredibly romantic. The film is good overall and the cinematography is often breathtaking, but it didn't spark with me as much as I wish it had. If you are a passive viewer of films, don't bother; this is for active viewers only.

Shoot the Piano Player

2006-01-30T20:52:00.000-08:00

Tirez sur le pianiste
1960
Les Films de la Pléiade
Director: Francois Truffaut
Length: 81 min.
Format: DVD
Date Viewed: 29 January

Dull even at 81 minutes, Francois Truffaut's Shoot the Piano Player tries way too hard to blend various genres and to be inventive, and it shows painfully throughout. The film does have some truly funny scenes and a couple of clever moments, but it's generally forced and flat as a result. The characters are all one-dimensional and bland, with the only exception to the one-dimensionality being the lead, Charles Aznavour, but his character is certainly not interesting. He is played as a straight-man but is strangely given no comedic yin to his yang. The French New Wave certainly had its successes, but this film sure isn't one of them.

The Best of Youth

2006-01-30T20:35:00.000-08:00

La Meglio Gioventù
2003 (US Release: 2005)
Rai CinemaFiction
Director: Marco Tullio Giordana
Length: 360 min.
Format: DVD
Date Viewed: 29 January

Yes, the film is six hours long. This will probably deter you from watching the film, but it would be silly to let this happen. After all, most people watch twice that in shitty TV shows every week. Those who give this film a chance will get to the end of the six hours and still want more. Tight, focused and economical even at six hours, the story of two Italian brothers living through a tough era of Italian political turmoil, 1966-2003 is completely engrossing and the six hours fly by faster than standard megaplex dreck (King Kong is half the length of The Best of Youth but feels five times as long). The beauty of the film comes in a bright yet realistic optimism that perseveres through death, separation and a country engaged in an battle of ideologies. Tenderly acted, gorgeously photographed, tightly edited, Giordana's film is easily one of the best films of 2005, and Nicola and Mirella's walk near Carlo's estate near the end of the film is one of the most romantic and touching scenes I've seen in years. Do yourself a favor and give this film a chance.

Back to the Future

2006-01-30T20:13:00.000-08:00

1985
Amblin Entertainment
Director: Robert Zemeckis
Length: 111 min.
Format: 35mm
Date Viewed: 28 January

Fun Film Experiment!

Watching this fun and inventive film at the Egyptian theater this weekend for the first time since I was a young lad, I noticed that the great Dean Cundey (Escape From New York, The Fog) was the director of photography. I was disappointed for most of the film at what I initially perceived as somewhat standard framing. Then it hit me: he shot it like a film from 1955! This renewed my faith in Cundey and led me to devise an as-of-yet untested theory that I want you to try with me. During the 1985 sequences of the film, keep everything as usual on your TV, but the second Marty goes back to 1955, turn off the TV's color, and watch it in black-and-white. My hypothesis is that the film will look like it was produced in 1955, just with really good special effects, and will perhaps enhance the fun of the film. Give it a try. What have you got to lose?

Serenity

2006-01-30T20:01:00.000-08:00

2005
Mutant Enemy
Director: Joss Whedon
Length: 119 min.
Format: DVD
Date Viewed: 27 January

Serenity is another in a long line of film based on TV shows that feels like a two-parter that somehow got a theatrical release. The sets, lighting and framing has a distinct television quality to it (strange, then, that cinematographer Jack Green has only one TV episode to sizable filmography), the story doesn't amount to a whole lot and it tries to wrap up loose ends from the Firefly series. All this, however, matters very little in the case of Serenity; it doesn't take itself very seriously and just wants to have a whole lot of fun. The cowboys-in-space idea generally works (though the dialogue often feels forced, like it was written by someone who hasn't seen a Western since he was a boy), and gives a much needed fresh angle to the science-fiction genre. The film is often very funny and the battles are exciting, which reveals some unpolished directorial talent in Joss Whedon, who should have two films out in the next two years. Let's just hope they too don't feel like a TV show on the big screen.

Enjo

2006-01-27T00:38:00.000-08:00

1958
Daiei
Director: Kon Ichikawa
Length: 98 min.
Format: VHS
Date Viewed: 26 January

Ichikawa is without a doubt one of the true masters of Japanese cinema, having the brilliant Tokyo Olympiad and the sumptuous adaptation of The Makioka Sisters as just two examples of his directorial filmography. It is disappointing, then, that his adaptation of Yukio Mishima's The Temple of the Golden Pavillion, here titled Enjo, is such a weak film.

Just like the book, I found it very difficult to get into the story. None of the characters resonate with me, and none are particularly interesting, save Kashiwagi, who is interesting in a perverse way. After a while and finding no access point I cared enough to go through, I found both book and film to be dull and cold. The script of the film is so jumpy and rushed that it's hard to get one's bearings, and all characters, especially the supporting characters, feel woefully underdeveloped. Worse, when Mizoguchi (Raizou Ichikawa) finally gets to his destructive act at the temple, it's not remotely clear why he made the decision to proceed.

The scope cinematography by master cinematographer Kazuo Miyagawa is extremely well-framed, and the match-cuts by editor Shigeo Nishida are flawless and seem quite ahead of their time, but both seem wasted on such a poor story and script.

Layer Cake

2006-01-26T15:09:00.000-08:00

2004
Columbia Pictures Industry
Director: Matthew Vaughn
Length: 106 min.
Format: DVD
Date Viewed: 25 January

It's a shame that first-time director Matthew Vaughn is being compared to hack director Guy Ritchie. Vaughn, in his one film, has shown far more talent than Ritchie has shown in his three (though I didn't see Swept Away because I'm not an idiot).

Vaughn gives us a confidently made crime film, utilizing stylization to suit the story as opposed to the other way around as most crime films do these days. The fantastic cinematography and seamless editing allow for a pacing that flows smoothly from start to end. The soundtrack, culled from must have been Vaughn's collection as a young man, is great and the songs very well chosen to fit their scenes.

The performances are also consistently strong. Daniel Craig is excellent here, and plays the lead in an atypical way. He never goes to bed with a woman, hates guns and gets extremely upset when he has to use one (though his playacting as Bond was rather funny) and gets obviously overwhelmed when the stakes are raised too high for his taste.

The script lets us down sometimes, though, dropping certain plot lines without notice and gets a bit too confusing during certain key scenes around the half-way mark (which is perhaps due to my limited understanding of British slang). The wraps everything up fairly tidy by the end, though, and the last scene, while it may understandingly frustrate many, was perfect for this type of story.

This is a very good film overall, and I am already excited for Vaughn's next film, an adaptation of Neil Gaiman's Stardust.

Crash

2006-01-25T21:28:00.000-08:00

2004
ApolloProScreen Filmproduktion
Director: Paul Haggis
Length: 112 min.
Format: DVD
Date Viewed: 24 January

Let's just get it out of the way. Crash is a terrible film. I somehow endured it's length (I can't remember ever being so happy for a film to end ten minutes before it's advertised run-time), and I ask you to avoid doing so yourself.

Racism in modern America is a topic that needs to be properly examined in the mass media. Some people have taken the stance that Crash fills that need. It doesn't, and perhaps even hurts our attempt to overthrow racism. Someone needs to come along and make a film that exposes the racist undercurrent in our country. How many people do you know spend their entire day screaming racial epitaphs or starting an agressive confrotntation every time they see a person of another race as they do in Crash? Exactly; almost nobody. How many people do you know tense up when they are around different races, or quietly single out an entire race as a group of thieves or bloodthirsty hoodlums to their same-race friends or families? That's right, almost everybody. And I, shamefully enough, include myself in that group (I've said some truly horrible things in my time). None of us are free from racially motivated stereotyping. Many of us work very hard on eliminating this racism and stereotyping from our thoughts and actions, but most people have no idea what they are saying or doing is harmful to others.

This is where Crash may hurt instead of help. In presenting racists as only those who openly and actively spew hate to others, it allows the subtly racist viewer off the hook. The subtle racist can correctly assert that they act in such a manner and thus, is either not a racist or, worse, can excuse their hateful words as they are not as bad as Crash's characters (trust me, I've seen this excuse from others and have used it myself in the past). This fallacy is already too prevalent in our society. You see it every time someone you know refer to anyone who speaks Spanish as a "beaner" to their non-Latino friends or points to prison statistics as proof that most black people are criminals (usually pointed out after the person says "I'm not a racist, but..."), for example. One day, a film may come along that exposes this truth and make us realize the error of our ways, but it seems that we're going to have to wait a little longer for that film.

But this is not the only problem of Paul Haggis and Robert Moresco's script. Throughout the film, you can almost hear the writers congratulating each other on how "perfectly" they scripted the ridiculously stupid coincidences that lead the characters to their conclusions and on how pat everything wraps up. They don't hesitate to use every cliche in the book and every non-revelation they can think of (wait, you mean the LAPD...is racist?). Haggis and Moresco even stoop so low as to have a scene where a little girl gets in the way of a gun, and worst of all, include a last-second rescue from an exploding car (it's so cheesy I had to leave the room for a minute, and almost turned the DVD off right there). Between characters making incongruous changes and choices and the aforementioned coincidences (and don't even get me started on the snowfall at the film's end), the script is so preposterous we can't begin to take it seriously even on a technical level. In fact, the whole script is generally of TV movie-of-the-week quality. The fact that the film played theatrically is something of a shock.

The cinematography is similarly poor. Slow motion is used at the worst possible times, and a hilariously poor dolly-counter-zoom only makes the child-in-danger scene all the more cringe-inducing (and not in the way Haggis wants us to cringe).

Nothing about this film rings true, and the entire effort is a huge waste of time. This isn't the worst film of the year. No, King Kong has a strangle-hold on that position. Crash certainly comes close, though. Let's just hope that somebody makes a real film on racism in the near future so we can erase Haggis' failed attempt from our consciousness.

The Molly Maguires

2006-01-24T23:17:00.000-08:00

1970
Paramount Pictures
Director: Martin Ritt
Length: 124 min.
Format: DVD
Date Viewed: 24 January

The Molly Maguires was a major flop when it was released, and led to Sean Connery being labeled "box office poison." It further killed any chance of making Richard Harris into a star. The film was a flop because it's not very good, but it's a shame that two leads took the hit, because they are two of the few shining lights of the film.

Connery gives one of his best performances as Jack Kehoe, a man of few words but plenty of intensity. Harris plays James McKenna the same way he played Captain Tyreen in Major Dundee, but he's damn good at playing it. Their last scene together is quite powerful, fully revealing their high level of talent.

The film's other strength comes in the irreplaceable James Wong Howe's cinematography. Howe is perhaps the greatest American cinematographer of all time. He doesn't disappoint here, with his fantastic scope compositions - the 2.35:1 frame perfectly matching the mines lack of height and excess of length.

As stated, though, the film is just not good enough to make up for its rather impressive strengths. The main problem lies, strangely enough, in its desire to remain totally objective. Walter Bernstein's script tries to remain too objective and not to show anyone in a truly bad light, and as a result it doesn't even tell us exactly what everyone is fighting for. A throwaway line, so quiet it's hard to hear, says the men are angry because of cut wages, but in the end, Kehoe claims he fights the police and mine owners to show that he "is alive" and won't roll over to the powers that be.

I'm lucky that I've been reading about the battles of the late ninteenth centure, and of the Molly Maguires themselves who fought against the injustices of inhuman mine owners and their vicious police officers. Anyone who has not read up on the period and the fights between labor and capital are sure to be lost, and not understand the significance of anybody's actions or motives in situations like the burning of the company store, for instance.

Ritt and Bernstein's quest for objectivity and their attempts at show us the motivations through background detail is admirable and preferable to being hit over the head with speeches and heavy-handed symbolism, but they have unfortunately gone to the opposite extreme. Ritt and Bernstein's refusal to explain the stakes for members on either side of this particular fight is baffling, and weakens the film immensely. Nine years later, Ritt would correct this mistake and tell us what the battle between capital and labor is about in his film Norma Rae.

Glengarry Glen Ross

2006-01-24T01:30:00.000-08:00

1992
GGR
Director: James Foley
Length: 100 min.
Format: DVD
Date Viewed: 23 January

Most films from the early 90s had a distinct style that now seems to resemble the late night soft-core Cinemax movies, and Glengarry Glen Ross can easily be counted as a member of this group. In Glengarry Glen Ross, this style is most notable in the poor and seemingly rushed lighting and in the soft jazz score that unfortunately underlines key scenes that should have been left alone. The editing is also weak, transitioning awkwardly between scenes and breaking scenes up into pieces that would have worked much better as a whole.

What the film does have going for it, though, is its excellent script and its fantastic actors. The dialogue, with its rough and vulgar language, feels extremely realistic in its portrayal of bottom-feeding salesmen. These salesmen are played fantastically by the ensemble cast, with Lemmon as its stand-out.

Lemmon is perfect as pathetic schmuck Shelley Levene, who makes a last-ditch effort to climb back up the heap that once was his. The character is impossible to like, but Lemmon knows how to reveal Levene's desperation lurking just below - though often showing itself explicitly at unguarded moments - the veneer of an old pro who still has the touch, but just not right this second. Pacino is also perfectly cast (another of the few films I like him in) as Ricky Roma, the hot-shot of the minor leagues. It's not so much that he's better in this film than any other one, but that he plays a character that perfectly encapsulates the "Al Pacino role." I could see Al Pacino as a property salesman in a place like Premiere Property (I'd most likely reach for my checkbook if he tried to sell me something), and as a result, is one of the few movies in which I can actually buy his performance. He does not disappoint here. Jonathan Pryce is the only actor in the cast who does, though, playing Pacino's prey, a man who seems a little too nervous. Why he exaggerated the character to the degree he does is beyond me, and perhaps this should have been rethought.

Regardless, the strengths outweigh the weaknesses, and the film works despite its flaws.

The White Diamond

2006-01-23T17:24:00.000-08:00

2004
Marco Polo Film AG
Director: Werner Herzog
Length: 90 min.
Format: DVD
Date Viewed: 23 January

The White Diamond is only the second Herzog film I've seen, behind Grizzly Man. I am very curious to see his fictional films, but I don't think I can take any more of his documentaries. The reason is extremely subjective. I have a very strict and narrow view on how documentaries should be made, and I consequently reject those that do not at least come close to matching this (perhaps ridiculously) confined notion.

Personally, I think documentaries should be as objective as is possible (knowing that nothing can be considered truly objective), that their flow and structure should be formal and logical, and for the documentarian to remain solely behind the camera - and in no circumstances getting in front of it (except for narration). Herzog stays close to my first rule, but he smashed the latter two with a sledgehammer with Grizzly Man, and does so even more with The White Diamond.

A case can be made that a child-like exuberance for his subjects do not allow him to restrain himself, but I feel it is more a large ego that leads him to do it. He occasionally steps in front of the camera and tries to change situations to fit his needs, inappropriately stepping over the documentarian line. In Grizzly Man, he films himself listening to the tape of Timothy Treadwell and his girlfriend being eaten by a grizzly, and then orders the keeper of the tape (an ex-girlfriend and interestingly enough a producer of the film) to destroy it. In this film, Herzog argues (on-screen) with the main subject, sad lost-boy Graham Dorrington, to allow himself to be part of the first flight with Dorrington. Ego seems to play a rather large, but very subtle, part of Herzog's documentaries, and it is, as expected, very off-putting.

In regards to my other rule of documentaries, the form of this film falls apart as we get closer to the end. The traditional climax finishes some 25 minutes before the end of the film, and the last third wanders around following tangents until we get to the credits.

It cannot be contested, however, that the footage is gorgeous, and that the additional, improvised sub-story following Rastafarian miner Mark Anthony Yhap is perhaps of more interest than Dorrington's fight to defeat the demons of his past. In fact, I almost wish that there was a film about Yhap, his desire to find his family, and his prized red rooster. This Guyanese Rastafarian somehow perfectly encapsulates the essence of the leading Japanese cultural aesthetic of mono no aware, or an ability to find beauty in the sadness of things, and is all the more mesmerizing for it. Dorrington still makes for an interesting subject, though, with his extremely conflicted sense of self, and the tragic loss of his dreams (hearing him talk about his missing fingers and the resulting death of his life's ambition is particularly devastating). He was also interesting to me personally as he is more like me than I necessarily want to admit.

Another high point of the film is the breathtaking views of the Guyana rainforest, and little moments like the waterfall reflected in the raindrop, or the thousands of Swifts racing back to their nests behind the waterfall, or the balloon gently touching the surface of the river. Henning Bruemmer and Klaus Scheurich are top-notch cinematographers, and interestingly enough, their only film credit, outside of Bruemmer's contribution to a TV show in the UK. It is my hope they will work again very soon.

The White Diamond is a good film, but it is hard for me to accept as a documentary, and in that respect, somewhat of a failure. When it comes to documentaries, Herzog needs to keep himself and his ego in check.

The Seven Year Itch

2006-01-22T14:49:00.000-08:00

1955
20th Century Fox
Director: Billy Wilder
Length: 105 min.
Format: DVD
Date Viewed: 21 January

I've never cared for ditzy blonde characters in comedies, but I make an exception for ones portrayed by Marilyn Monroe. She has perfect comedic timing and knows how to perfectly and subtly accentuate those little throwaway sight gags that make up some of the funniest bits of Wilder's The Seven Year Itch.

Clearly adapted from the stage, the film mines gold from the sexual hang-ups and exaggerated neurosis of summer bachelor Richard Sherman (Tom Ewell). The jokes come fast and funny, but the film starts to feel a little long by the end. Ewell is hilarious and perfect as the "Manhattan every-man," but when Monroe and Ewell are together, the film lights up so much that, as Melissa Anderson writes in her review for the Village Voice, "when she's not on-screen, we wait impatiently, wondering, Where have you gone, Mrs. DiMaggio?"

Of the three Monroe films I've seen (the other two being Some Like it Hot and Gentlemen Prefer Blondes - my favorite musical), this is clearly the lesser, but it's still a damn good film.

When a Woman Ascends the Stairs

2006-01-21T20:09:00.000-08:00

Onna ga Kaidan wo Agaru Toki
1960
Toho
Director: Mikio Naruse
Length: 111 min.
Format: 35mm
Date Viewed: 21 January

The only thing I like better than American melodrama is Japanese melodrama. Japanese acting, reaching back to the Noh theater, is more often than not a little over-the-top. This style carried over into films (and continues today) which of course lends itself very well to melodramatic movies. Of course, it's even better when melodrama is perfectly underacted, which is the case in Mikio Naruse's masterful film, When a Woman Ascends the Stairs. Employing the 60s Japanese filmmaking style I love so much - gorgeous Tohoscope cinematography revealing a booming post-war Tokyo, slick men's and beautiful women's costume design, fun jazzy scores and fantastic production design - the film revolves around the head hostess at a Tokyo hostess bar as she stands at a crossroads that will lead her to one of three different futures. Hideko Takamine, who plays the lead hostess, Keiko, gives a tremendous performance, caught between the lives of three men, each of which come to represent one of the three paths. The three men, played by frequent Kurosawa collaborators Masayuki Mori, Tatsuya Nakadai and Daisuke Kato, are similarly outstanding in their roles, giving perfectly subtle performances. The story unfolds slowly over the course of two hours, revealing layer after layer of carefully repressed truth and desire. There's nary a flaw in the film, which plays as part of a Mikio Naruse retrospective at the Northwest Film Forum during the next four weeks. If you are in the Seattle area, or in another of the 20 American cities the series is coming to, I strongly recommend that you go and see some of the films. You won't be disappointed.

The Constant Gardener

2006-01-20T18:09:00.000-08:00

2005
Focus Features
Director: Fernando Meirelles
Length: 129 min.
Format: DVD
Date Viewed: 20 January

The cinematography and editing style of Meirelles' City of God worked because it fit the flashy, over-the-top style of the low-life criminals in the slums of Rio de Janeiro. Meirelles brings that same style to Africa and Europe for a thriller about diplomats and activists fighting drug companies, and, as expected, the style doesn't fit. Way overproduced (one Tony Scott is one too many; we don't need a second), the style here is distracting and Meirelles desperately tries to have it cover the lackluster story. His attempt failed.

The film focuses mainly on Justin Quayle's (Ralph Fiennes) attempt to learn why his wife was murdered. This leads him across two continents and through many death threats from the British government and pharmaceutical companies. He uncovers a conspiracy in which many innocent Africans were being killed as a result, and it is in existing between the conspiracy and the mystery of Tessa Quayle's (Rachel Weisz) death that the film failed.

The film reveals its sad apathy to the Africans when Quayle is shown the location of the mass grave of the murdered pharmaceutical guinea pigs and then completely ignores it. You see, he cares more about finding every detail about his wife's death, while finishing her all-important work by revealing the evidence she could never find and vindicating the dead Africans is a trifling matter that little troubles the white diplomat. Trivial lip-service is given to the plight of the Africans at the hands of the whites, seen in the UN airplane that will rescue only aid workers when a bandit gang comes to attack a village, and yet, the film subtly turns the attack back on the natives for being the cruel ones, ignoring the fact that the Europeans are a major part of the problem. The conspiracy story-line shamefully lets the conspirators off the hook for all save the murder of a white woman.

On the other hand, the second main story-line, that of finding out the truth of his wife, fails to engage us fully. It seems that they do love each other, but the origin of the relationship feels false and rushed. They meet and make love immediately after they meet when Tessa makes an impassioned attack on Britain's involvement in Iraq following a speech given by Justin and they recognize their yin-and-yang possibilities. She badgers him in to marrying her and taking her to Africa, but it's hard to shake the fact, indeed throughout the entirety of the film, that she does this only to suit her need and her desire to fight the good fight on the front lines though still within the British power structure. This is never addressed in the film, but the specter of their relationship's dubiousness lingers as Justin wanders around the world. Soon after they arrive in Kenya, the young couple are pregnant and madly in love, but it feels rushed and forced. For a full two hour film, having one main story-line feeling rushed and unconvincing and the other fairly unimportant leads to a rather dull and uninspiring experience.

An important film needs to be told about the disgraceful actions of pharmaceutical companies. I guess we'll just have to wait a little longer.

Mysterious Skin

2006-01-20T01:03:00.000-08:00

2004
Mysterious Films, LLC
Director: Gregg Araki
Length: 104 min.
Format: DVD
Date Viewed: 19 January

Gregg Araki was always a director I heard should be avoided. His films were supposed to be flashy, aggressive and empty, so I saw no reason to watch Mysterious Skin when it appeared last summer. I'm glad I changed my mind. This is a fantastically written, well-acted look at the ramifications of sexual abuse. The two types of denial represented by the characters, and the extreme repression of Brian (Brady Corbet) and the self-destruction of teen hustler Neil (Joseph Gordon-Levitt) are superbly brought to the screen through the script, the actors, and of course, director Araki. The film is intense and unflinching, and very carefully edited, and yet, never exploits Brian and Neil, but shows, matter-of-factly, how they deal with the suffering brought on by the abuse of their Little League coach. Most critics have taken to Neil's story, but I took to Brian's story more. His relationship with Avalyn (Mary Lynn Rajskub) is especially engrossing and tragic. The film drags in the middle, which is the only disappointing aspect of the movie. Otherwise, if you can handle the disturbing subject matter and the particularly scary rape scene towards the end, you will be rewarded with seeing one of the year's best films.

Fingers

2006-01-19T20:56:00.000-08:00

1978
Fingers Productions, Inc.
Director: James Toback
Length: 89 min.
Format: VHS
Date Viewed: 18 January

Fingers was remade last year as The Beat That My Heart Skipped, reviewed earlier, and is one of those rare films that is actually lesser than its remake. Harvey Keitel gives an interesting performance as Jimmy, and the unmistakably 70s style is always cool, but the film as a whole is mediocre. The relationships between Jimmy and his mother (who is alive in this film, though almost entirely absent and forgotten) and his father are much weaker here than in the remake (though in the latter, I think this is subjectively so as the remake's relationship hews closer to my relationship with my dad, though obviously without the loan sharking/thug aspect), and Ben Gazzo, as Jimmy father, is a rather bad actor which makes his character hard to like (the exact opposite of how we are supposed to feel about him). Fingers is streamlined when compared to the remake, but the story is less interesting, focusing on both underdeveloped parental relationships and Jimmy's emasculation and (confusing) sexual issues, as seen in a rather tedious relationship with a hooker. The latter leads to bizarre and overlong scenes with Jim Brown as a pimp that make little sense as to what is physically going on, but we can understand that Jimmy has been emasculated in front of the girl he likes, which partly leads us to Jimmy's act in the final scene. The ending is pretty close to the remake's, but the remake was outstandingly ambiguous in this aspect. In the original, we feel that Jimmy has reclaimed his masculinity, and the main story-line's resolution is ambiguous, but it feels somehow unearned as the whole thing was too vague for us to care very much in the first place. Jacques Audiard, in making The Beat That My Heart Skipped, has created the right kind of remake: taking a weak film and improving the story immensely. I only wish more directors would follow his example.

Gone With the Wind

2006-01-19T19:44:00.000-08:00

1939
Selznick International Pictures
Director: Victor Fleming
Length: 238 min.
Format: DVD
Date Viewed: 17 January

I must admit something. I love melodramas. A lot. For the past couple of years, my love for them has grown. Had I known that Gone With the Wind was a melodrama, I would not have waited so long to see it. Its four hour runtime is daunting, but well worth it for anyone who likes a good melodrama or epic romances. On the flip side, anyone who doesn't like these should stay as far away as possible. For those of us in the former category, this is a rich and gorgeous film that gives us outstanding performances by Leigh (although admittedly she is like nails on a chalkboard in her early scenes, she more than overcomes this after the first thirty minutes or so), Gable and de Havilland, a witty and well-structured script, beautiful three-strip Technicolor photography and excellent production design. Unfortunately, there are a few dark factors found in the film. It is quite racist and has a strange nostalgia for the Old South, fondly recalling the days of slavery (explicitly, too, in the opening titles). Further, a rape occurs between two of the leads, and the result is shocking and abhorrent. The victim apparently loved it - check out her smile at breakfast in the morning. Are we to infer that she changed her mind once she was taken upstairs or that the director/writer are under the impression it was what she needed/wanted?. This shamefully misogynistic scene is a major problem in the script, and one I can't excuse. Aside from this, Gone With the Wind is still a very good film, and though it is generally overrated (it's not one of the best films ever made), it does deserve its status as a classic.

The Beat That My Heart Skipped

2006-01-19T19:41:00.000-08:00

De battre mon coeur s'est arrêté
2005
Why Not Productions
Director: Jacques Audiard
Length: 106 min.
Format: DVD
Date Viewed: 16 January

The Beat That My Heart Skipped has many moral quandaries throughout its runtime, but it focuses mainly on Thomas Seyr's (Romain Duris) decision between a future of being either a thug/shady real estate buyer or a concert pianist. This is also embodied in a struggle of loyalty towards either his father (himself a thug and rather weak loan shark) or his deceased mother (herself a noted concert pianist, who trained Thomas while he was a boy). Such a disparate choice of futures is fascinating, and is written and played very well by Duris, who also must decide between his piano teacher and his business partner's betrayed wife, and whether or not to collect a debt for his father from a deadly Russian criminal. The script is good overall, and the excellent cast more than makes up for their characters' one-dimensionality that is the script's one major shortcoming. Audiard is confident in his direction, and the cinematography is strong, with very restricted lighting and well-done hand-held camerawork. Audiard brings all the elements of filmmaking together flawlessly in the third act, where he ramps us the tension until it's almost unbearable during the riveting climax. This is one of the best thrillers I've seen in the past few years, and is easily one of the best of 2005.

Animal Farm

2006-01-16T21:16:00.000-08:00

1954
Halas & Batchelor Cartoon Films
Directors: John Halas & Joy Batchelor
Length: 72 min.
Format: DVD
Date Viewed: 16 January

After reading a particularly great book, our curiosity almost always drives us to seek out the film adaptation, and as anyone can tell you, it's almost always a letdown. Such is the case with Animal Farm, though the fault does not entirely lay the directors. No, in this case, it's partly the CIA's doing. Recently discovered as having been funded by the CIA (who bought the film rights to the novel after promising to arrange a meeting between George Orwell's widow and her favorite actor, Clark Gable), the infamous critique of the Soviet style of fascistic Socialism as well as of Western Capitalism morphed in its transition to the screen into a pro-West propaganda piece that betrays the novel and lessens the story. The directors, however, made another error in modifying some of the key characters by reducing their interesting traits - Benjamin, the intellectual and conscientious though quiet objector, is now just another working-stiff on the farm; gone entirely is Mollie, the uber-Capitalist. Further, almost all of the deceptively simple dialogue from the book was cut, and a narrator does much speaking, but only gives us background details and unnecessarily telling us what's happening on screen. Where the film succeeds is in it's simple yet gorgeous animation, and it's lovely score. Halas and Batchelor deserve much praise for these two aspects, but it's a shame the story and script couldn't match it.

The 40-Year-Old Virgin (Unrated Version)

2006-01-16T14:07:00.000-08:00

2005
Universal Studios
Director: Judd Apatow
Length: 133 min.
Format: DVD
Date Viewed: 15 January

Another in the long line of Unrated DVD editions of films, The 40-Year-Old Virgin adds 17 minutes to the runtime, and true-to-form, it's pretty obvious which scenes they are and why they were cut in the first place. Having not seen the theatrical cut of the film, it's hard to say whether or not the 116 minute cut played more smoothly, and if it worked better, though I'm guessing that even that could have been trimmed down by another fifteen or so minutes. Scenes play on far past their expiration date a little too often and other scenes go nowhere, or live to give a capping punch-line that just wasn't worth it. This is my one complaint about the film, but it served to make the film less enjoyable than I feel it could have been. Still, it is more often than not hilarious and also rather sweet when the film moves into the romantic half. Carell is perfect as the titular Andy, and his and Apatow's script accurately shows the comically painful details of being single and clueless as to how end said bachelorhood (certain scenes hit a little too close to home for me, as I'm sure they do for many), and also the details of how men often talk when they are at the bar or poker table. Regardless of it's main flaw, this is one of the funniest films of the year, and it will be exciting to see more from both director and star.

Arizona Dream (European Version)

2006-01-16T14:03:00.000-08:00

1993
Union Generale Cinematographique
Director: Emir Kusturica
Length: 142 min.
Format: DVD
Date Viewed: 15 January

Probably one of the funnier scenes I've witnessed in the last few months is seeing a middle-aged Jerry Lewis shouting nonsense and speed-walking away from Faye Dunaway firing a shotgun. Jerry Lewis is priceless throughout his rather short role in Kusturica's Arizona Dream, and the rest of the main cast, Johnny Depp, Faye Dunaway, Lili Taylor and Vincent Gallo are uniformly strong, and are often given great scenes to work with. Unfortunately, this is about all the movie consists of: great performances and a few memorable scenes encased in 142 minutes of a nonexistent story, symbols that make little to no sense, unbelievably cheesy score (we're talkin' Gallipoli cheesy here), and an understanding that Kusturica pushes his film into the realm of art for art's sake far too often for the movie to ever become a great one. But, the film is still enjoyable. Its a rather funny movie (Gallo's love/hate relationship with North by Northwest comes to mind), and is pretty much always entertaining. Too bad it squandered its chance to be great.

10 on Ten

2006-01-15T15:46:00.000-08:00

2004
MK2 SA
Director: Abbas Kiarostami
Length: 83 min.
Format: DVD
Date Viewed: 14 January

Abbas Kiarostami gives what he calls a "cinema master class" in this making-of piece that was created for the French DVD release of Ten, and it appears on the American release as well, though perhaps five minutes shorter than the theatrical and French version. Essentially, the director drives in his jeep and talks to the camera for 83 minutes on ten topics related to film production (the camera, the director, the actors, etc.). It's easy to agree with some of his ideas and philosophies, easy to disagree with others (video is not better than film; sorry, Abbas), and yet others are merely thought-provoking, if hard to agree or disagree with (American films sent abroad are more destructive than the American military - a statement he hopefully won't have to put to the test in the near future). This is an interesting film for those who want to be filmmakers, as there are some good nuggets of information to be mined, but it's best to see it only after first watching Ten, and being prepared for a bit of tedium.

Ten

2006-01-15T14:52:00.000-08:00

2002
MK2 SA
Director: Abbas Kiarostami
Length: 90 min.
Format: DVD
Date Viewed: 14 January

Filming the mundane, everyday world in a flat, verite style is very difficult in that it can easily become tedious. There seems to be no reason as the why one film in this style works and another doesn't, and I would venture a guess that the reason is entirely subjective. It boils down to whether or not the viewer is personally interested in the problems and emotions being presented. Kiarostami's Ten, unfortunately, did not interest me overall, though a couple of the vignettes worked for me. Whereas in Camel(s), I spent ninety minutes of a couple on a weekend with nothing to say to each other completely riveted and nearly on the edge of my seat, Ten, with its circular arguments and repetitive dialogue and segments, kept my toe tapping and my eyes on my watch. The style of Ten, boiled down to the extreme essentials of only three camera angles (one of which is only used once) and seven non-professional actors is certainly interesting, as is the subject of feminism and liberation for women in a society that often traps them behind closed doors. Too bad the film as a whole could not sustain my interest.

Downfall

2006-01-15T13:57:00.000-08:00

Der Untergang
2004
Constantin Film Produktion
Director: Oliver Hirschbiegel
Length: 155 min.
Format: DVD
Date Viewed: 12 January

The power of Downfall comes in part through its stunning attention to historical accuracy (everything that happens in the film was verified by multiple sources researched in the script phase), and also in part through its ability to show the people left standing as Nazi Germany collapsed around them. Not exaggerated monsters or over-the-top caricatures of evil men and women, but people. Believe it or not, Hitler was good with children, loved his new wife, Eva, treated his secretary with respect and took good care of his dog. Of course, he was an evil mass-murderer and a disastrously inept military commander to boot (clearly evidenced in this film), but everybody has some shred of humanism left in them, and Downfall wisely maintains this realism throughout its runtime. The chaos, the petty struggles for power over a virtually nonexistent state and military, and the shocking decadence shown by the powers that be while the Russians are mortaring them from a couple hundred meters away are extremely fascinating and it is easy to get swept up in the story, though I was happy to have watched it on video, where I could pause and do some quick research on the various players involved in these struggles. Much like Good Night, And Good Luck, the "who's who" is regrettably absent, and only those who have studied the higher-ups of Nazi Germany, 1945 will stay afloat. This is the one true flaw of the film, and it is a big one. The rest of the film is very strong, however, so I can still highly recommend Downfall; just have Google handy while you watch the DVD.

Nobody Knows

2006-01-15T13:45:00.000-08:00

Dare Mo Shiranai
2004
Bandai Visual Co.
Director: Hirokazu Koreeda
Length: 141 min.
Format: DVD
Date Viewed: 12 January

One of the best cinema verite films in recent memory, Nobody Knows is a breathtaking and, quite frankly, terrifying film. I sat on the edge of the couch in horror throughout the majority of the run time, as the situation of the four forgotten children goes from terrible to desperate to worse. The main character of the film, Akira, played to perfection by 13 year-old Yuya Yagira, who deservedly won the Best Actor Award at the 2004 Cannes, does his best to keep his siblings, each one born of a different, absent father, together and alive. Their abhorrent, run-away mother leaves them a very small amount of money which quickly runs out. Still, Yagira maintains a mask of strength around his brother and sisters, yet occasionally, his overwhelming desire to act as a normal child - go to school, play with friends, date the girl, play baseball on the team - destroys his facade, and in these times you realize how amazing Akira has been in handling the affairs of the family. He pays the bills, keeps all receipts, buys presents for his siblings that he pretends are from his mom, and of course, gets plenty of Apollo Chocolate for the youngest, Yuki. Ayu Kitaura, whose similarly wonderful performance as oldest sister, Kyoko, has been unjustly overlooked, ties down the domestic side, keeping the youngest two children inside and away from adults who may turn them in to Social Services, and perfectly reveals to the viewer her simultaneous hatred and love felt towards her mother. Other fears abound: did their surrogate third sister, Saki, really only sing karaoke with the middle-aged business man to help support the kids? What will they do now that the utilities are shut off? What has happened to Yuki? Will the landlord find out about them? All of this is captured by the largely unmoving camera, capturing the events like a documentary and through this stylistic choice, increases our fear about what will happen to the kids. This is easily one of the year's best, and we can only hope that it will be rightly awarded at this year's Academy Awards.

Kung Fu Hustle

2006-01-12T17:27:00.000-08:00

Kung Fu
2004
Columbia Pictures Film Production Asia
Director: Stephen Chow
Length: 100 min.
Format: DVD
Date Viewed: 12 January

After a rather intense opening sequence, Stephen Chow's Kung Fu Hustle settles into a fun comedy with a good blend of high- and low-humor and inventive fight scenes. It surprises me that the movie needed four writers to bring a characteristically weak and nonsensical story to the screen, but the dialogue is great (though I'm guessing that, as usual, plenty of liberties have been taken in the English translation) and the characters, with their individual, one-dimensional quirks, are a lot of fun. The fight scenes are, of course, the focus of the movie, and they are very well done. I'll admit, though, that kung fu films are generally pretty boring to me, and in Kung Fu Hustle, the fight scenes go on a little too long and get a little dull by the end. When it comes to Chinese/HK action films, the bullet operas always appealed to me far more than martial arts movies. This is a personal preference, to be sure, but it's the main reason why I prefer Chow's Shaolin Soccer. The lighter tone of Shaolin certainly helps in this regard, too. For as funny as Hustle is, it's a bit dark to go down quite as smoothly as I think Chow wants it to.

I Am Cuba

2006-01-12T16:50:00.000-08:00

Soy Cuba
1964
Instituto Cubano del Arte e Industrias CinematogrÃ¡ficos
Director: Mikheil Kalatozishvili
Length: 141 min.
Format: 35mm
Date Viewed: 11 January

I Am Cuba is told in four chronological stories, leading the viewer from Cuba the prostitute whosellss herself to America to Cuba the revolutionary, triumphing over the Battista dictatorship.

Forget for a moment that Castro is himself a fascist dictator (you heard me right) who rules his country every bit as strict as Battista did. Without this harsh understanding, the film is an amazing piece of art that shows how a country rejected capitalism and entered a perfect Socialist utopia.

The problem is that we cannot forget the true state of Cuba, and thus, the film becomes a simple piece of propaganda - naive and apologist - and a sense of dread falls over I Am Cuba as we realize that the people are being hoodwinked into thinking they will be truly free. We can only guess that Cubans had begun to realize this by the time the film was released five years after the Castro's rise to power; it bombed on its release and was almost completely forgotten until 1992. This is not to say that Cuba being a puppet of America and directly under a brutal dictator in Battista was better for the country; it most certainly wasn't, but the country has not importantly improved in any way outside of its wonderful medical program.

The film does accurately show the horrors of the Battista regime, from its opening story (the strongest of the four) of a young prostitute servicing Ugly Americans on a sex trip (she gets raffled off to a Pastor of some denomination, revealing, perhaps, Socialism's fear of religion's corrupting influence) to the selling of a serf's land to the United Fruit Co. - that company that wreaked so much havoc on the poor throughout Latin America - in the second story, to the corruption through murder and removal of civillibertiess of the Battista administration as seen in third story. These horrors are not exaggerated, but seem discredited when we reflect on Castro's vicious repression of homosexuals, the murder of those who oppose his regime and the lack of free speech.

This is not to say the film is without merit. Far from it, the stories are generally well-written, and the poetry narrated off-camera in between the four is haunting and moving. The first and third stories are particularly strong (though the irony of student revolutionaries wearing very nicepreppiey clothes and driving convertibles as they talk about making sacrifices for the revolution is rather funny), and the second and fourth are not bad, but are slightly discomforting in their leads' extremely selfish choices (think the selfishness of Roy at the ending of Close Encounters multiplied by 1,000) that are supposed to be revolutionary in their acts, but only lead me to think about how badly their wives and children are being screwed over by their husbands.

The most important thing about "I Am Cuba," though, is the cinematography. This is perhaps the most beautifully shot film of all time. Largely handheld, and using an extremely wide-angle lens (at times getting dangerously close to fish-eyed) and infrared film, the incredibly long takes (the average shot length must hover around 2 minutes) are a sight to behold, and the film should be viewed in a theater for this reason alone. Two shots stand out in my mind: one in which a camera starts on the roof of a hotel where a beauty contest is taking place, then wanders around an attached bar, focuses on a pool and then goes down three to five stories to get there (showing it through railing bars tosymbolizee the prison like feeling of this capitalist playground), following a woman who buys acocktaill and then enters the pool, and the shot ends underwater in the pool. In the second, we follow a funeral procession through the streets of Havana, go up three stories to a cigar rolling workroom, follow some of the men as walk to the balcony to drape a Cuban flag over the side, and the camera continues outside the building and down the street, three stories above. Breathtaking doesn't even begin to describe the two shots, and these are just two of the hundreds examples I want to share.

If you can ignore the naivepropagandaa, I highly recommend that you see this film, if for nothing else but the visuals.

Them!

2006-01-10T01:40:00.000-08:00

1954
Warner Bros.
Director: Gordon Douglas
Length: 94 min.
Format: DVD
Date Viewed: 9 January

If you are interested in 50s monster films, "Them!" is one of your best bets. The effects are great for the time, and are still a lot of fun (though admittedly, the queens and princesses are disappointingly lame). The camera-work and blocking are both excellent, and it's interesting that some of the better shots were done to allow for 3-D effects that were scrapped for budget concerns (during the film I just thought they were a little ahead of their time). The film does get a little talky during the second act, but this is fairly standard for movies of this era, and it does little to lessen the immense fun had while watching "Them!"