Author: Chris

Because of something I bought through Amazon, I just got a free movie pass to go see Surrogates at any local movie theater. Does this mean I have to go see Surrogates? The trailer features a freakishly young Bruce Willis (in surrogate mode) with hair similar to that he wore in the Jackal remake.  It looks scary.

The scope of Inglorious Basterds makes it too intimidating to try to review in one go. Besides, I want to see it again and have some time to process it. It is magnificent, and one of the most controlled pieces of film-making I can recall watching. But at this point, just a few reactions. The opening scene, Chapter 1, is just breath taking. Evoking Westerns, particularly Once Upon a Time in the West, a dairy farmer chops wood in rural France. A German colonel stops by and asks to be invited inside to talk. What follows is riveting. Every gesture, every word of dialogue, the framing of every shot works to build tension. Then, near the end of the film, in the projection room, there is a shot so heart-achingly beautiful that you desperately want to press rewind and watch it over and over. Continue reading Inglorious Basterds

An alien mothership appears stranded over Johannesburg. The starving aliens can not leave, so they are located in a sprawling shanty town beneath the mothership. Twenty years on, crime and squalor are rife in the shanty town, and there is rising tension between humans and aliens. A large corporation, simply called “Multi National United” is hired by the UN to shift the aliens to a new camp, further from humanity. The corporation, of course, has weapons and genetic engineering projects that would benefit from the exploitation of the aliens, who come to be called “prawns” by the humans. Continue reading District 9

Not a bad tribute here.

This is a simple story and simple movie. We have all seen this setup before, and the opportunities for missteps and a sentimental mess are rife. But somehow, Two Lovers works. It is a love triangle with Leonard (Joaquin Phoenix) caught between the solid, careful and loving daughter of his father’s business partner, Sandra (Vinessa Shaw), and the wild, glamorous, and more than slightly nuts, Michelle (Gwyneth Paltrow). Written and directed by James Gray, the movie follows Leonard’s ambivalence towards two women that represent different futures: marry Sandra and please his parents, go to work in the dry cleaning business, be sure of someone who really loves him; or escape Brooklyn and his past with Michelle, who could explode at any minute, and whose love for him is never more than glancing.

All the performances are impressive, especially Vinessa Shaw and Leonard’s parents (played by Moni Moshonov and a wonderful Isabella Rossellini). They are small, careful performances, eschewing any violent displays of emotion. The emotion is worn on the faces of the protagonists, not in their speech. There are a few small missteps (the opening scene with an attempted suicide), but they are more than outweighed by moments of delight. At the very end of the movie Leonard suddenly switches his affections, and while one would expect it to feel artificial and forced, but it seems perfectly natural.

Torchwood is a spin off from Doctor Who. The marketing strategy is pretty clear: the BBC created one spin off for younger viewers (the Sarah Jane Chronicles) and this one for more adult viewers. Torchwood has much more sex and plenty of gore. Characters from Doctor Who move back and forth between the two series, with the lead being Captain Jack Harkness (John Barrowman). He leads a secret unit (Torchwood) set up by Queen Victoria to save the world from aliens. The first two seasons are enjoyable, and occasionally very good, but the third season — Children of Earth — is something special. It is a five-part miniseries, shown on five consecutive nights, dealing with a single alien threat. It is some of the best British drama I have seen in a while. If you get BBC America, look for it starting July 20th.

You know the story. Bruno is the host of a gossipy Austrian fashion TV program, enjoying inventive sex with Diesel, his long-time lover. His velco suit causes havoc at the Milan fashion show, he is fired and Diesel leaves him for another man. So Bruno heads for Hollywood to become a star. What to say? Well: Continue reading Bruno

Does anyone know how Facebook works? Or, more precisely, how it can be that today it recommended Gio to me as a possible “friend”? I have never met Gio. I am not “friends” with anyone on this blog. I am not aware of traveling in any circles in common with Gio. She and I disagree about every movie ever made. And yet Facebook has somehow ferreted out this slim connection. I recently re-watched Enemy of the State and nothing the CIA could do in that movie comes close to this kind of deep knowledge produced by some software algorithm.

Is there really no existing thread about this film? I would very much like others on the blog to watch this and give their reactions, not least because I am still processing my own reactions. The film is animated (until the end), and it follows the efforts of the director and writer, Ari Folman, to recover his own memories and those of his fellow Israeli soldiers, concerning the events surrounding the massacre of Palestinians by Christian Phalangists at the Sabra and Chatila refugee camps in southern Lebanon in 1983. Continue reading Waltz With Bashir

What a pity. The story is here.