Category: classic

SiCKO

i have no idea why the title is spelled the way it is, but this is a damn fine movie. unlike bowling for columbine and fahrenheit 911, it’s nicely organized and focused, so you don’t have to spend precious mental energy figuring out how we got to Z from X and Y. the first part is devastating. the most devastating part is that you know everything about it. you have heard the stories, you know people who have gone through that, you know that, but for your nice university job if you are lucky enough to have one, you would be going through that too. you know all of this because it is your waking nightmare. you live under the constant threat that it might, that it will one day happen to you. Continue reading SiCKO

Levees

Has no one else seen this? I heard how good Spike Lee’s documentary on Katrina was, and so quickly bought it when released on dvd, then as quickly shelved it, as it was hard to drum up excitement about a film that was almost certainly good for me but would be painful to watch. Foolish. This is a great, great film–easily the best documentary I’ve seen since (and probably better yet than) the excellent Mondovino. It is heartwrenching but often startlingly funny; its powerful sociopolitical thrust complemented by a remarkable sense of rhythm, image, sound, editing. It’s just amazing filmmaking, and I’m enjoying the hell out of it, even as it is in equal parts enraging and enlightening.

I’ll write more later–but I wanted to see if others simply hadn’t posted . . . .

I think you could make the case that Spike Lee is our most important filmmaker–in every sense of “important.” I cannot believe a work this damn good came out so quickly after the event.

Zodiac

I loved this movie. Caveats: a) it’s my kind of film, and my reaction is horribly skewed given that it’s a very long, information-saturated, talky police procedural, more interested in the search for than the revelation of truth. b) There are one or two moments where a stray filmmaking detail (a Donovan song, a bit part played by a hip young actor) drew me out of the film. But more often we sink into the world constructed onscreen, and the almost three-hour running time flew by. I’d gladly have watched this for a year on HBO–it’s a film I was sad to see end, and highly recommend. Continue reading Zodiac

Tideland

I’m writing this only because it’s the first film I’ve felt very strongly about in a long time, and because it’s so much better than another much-talked about film to which it can be easily compared.

First off, my love of Terry Gilliam’s films are as deep and abiding as my love of David Lynch’s. Watching their very different, but equally spectacular failures over the past year (Brothers Grimm and Inland Empire) made me sad for many reasons – first that it will decrease their chances to get future films made, and b/c neither works very quickly and they’re not young. It’s just one fewer chance for them to make another truly great film. I have no idea what Lynch will do next. There’s at least little doubt that Laura Dern was great in IE, and it was so purposefully experimental that maybe studios will say it doesn’t count against him. Brothers Grimm on the other hand had 2 A-list stars, and a marketing budget, all of which served to just exponentially build the millions of dollars the film must have lost – and it came right after his failed Depp prodcuction of la Mancha.

So Mr. Gilliam, would you like to re-trench here and just go for an easy Fisher King feel-good re-write? “Fuck You” is his answer. Before I get too deep into Tideland, let me rail against the over-rated, empty Pan’s Labyrinth awhile. Continue reading Tideland

The Science of Sleep

I guess we could start with screwball comedy. The film vaguely resembles Annie Hall; albeit one rewritten by Tristan Tzara, directed by Luis Buñuel with sets and props by Joseph Cornell and Mike Kelly. And sure, throw Duchamp, Magritte, Beck, Breton and Dalí into the mix for good measure, but all this name dropping and genre marking simply ignores the singular talents of writer/director Michel Gondry. The Science of Sleep is charming, hilarious, poignant, sad, confusing, glorious, fantastical, inventive, mesmerizing, playful, hilarious, poignant, sad, goofy, silly, serious, beautiful, ethereal. It’s like pixie stix wrapped in cellophane, dipped in chocolate and covered with cloud fluff. This is the first movie Netflix has sent me that I will turn around and purchase. The commentary track alone is worth the price of admission. I love this movie. If I had been smart enough to drive the eight miles to Uptown, it would have been my best film of the year. This is why I like to watch; c’est mon dada.

The Tenant – Polanski (1976)

I feel like a pig shat in my head. And not because I had too much fun drinking last night. Nope, not a thing to drink – just the normal blinding, incapacitating headaches that come with a life of fear and paranoia in the big city. Still, my apartment is a relatively safe haven, what with its bountiful reserves of candy and bed. Such peaceful abodes seem to have eluded M. Polanski who should have taken the presence of Shelley Winters as concierge as a bad sign from the get-go. Continue reading The Tenant – Polanski (1976)

Mountain Patrol: Kekexili

Great little film. Some of the reviews I read said “harrowing”–to agonizingly work away, “with painful slowness”. I wouldn’t say painful, but there is a grim dedication, in the characters and in the advancement of the plot, which in the last thirty minutes (of a short film) does have an absolutely enthralling hold on the viewer.

Set in the high plains of Tibet, the (based-on-a-true) story conveys the tribulations of a group of a volunteer, anti-poaching posse, intent on protecting the dwindling herds of antelopes. Continue reading Mountain Patrol: Kekexili

Clubland: Le Samourai

I’ll say more about my thoughts on the film later, but I thought I’d just get things rolling with a couple of topics/questions.

1. I find Melville’s film to be devastatingly emotional, beneath the laconic dialogue and cool surfaces (or should I say, “because of?”). Do genre films–or let’s say films within genres that work as a kind of apotheosis of the genre–pack more of a punch emotionally because they are playing on a set of expectations? In other words, is the constraint of genre really a kind of freedom?

2. I particularly like the way the film quietly explodes the idea of a stoic masculinity–actions are not expressions of a philosophy where gesture supplants internal life, but messages from a vast unknown territory. Of course, I am a bit taken aback when I read that Melville describes his protagonist Costello as a “psychopath.” Do you agree? If so, the film might be part of the discussion with Straw Dogs and White.
Continue reading Clubland: Le Samourai

badlands

i hope someone will chime in with an erudite reading of badlands in the context of terrence malick’s whole production as a writer and as a director, or with some cool comments on its straddling different genres (the western, the psychopathic killer genre, the dissaffected youth genre, etc. — though, of course, these are genres that are often superimposed). i saw it two nights ago for the first time and i was most impressed. what a film. it would be cool to view this in our summer club, except the summer is almost over, if not astronomically, at least from the point of view of our employment (sigh). anyway, if you think this would be a good selection, read no further, otherwise, click here: Continue reading badlands

Mean Motherphilosophicking Tough Guys

Okay, in preparation for Michael’s contribution to the discussions, I re-watched Le Samourai. As it finished, I found myself still all revved up, so I stuck in Seijun Suzuki’s Youth of the Beast, which I’d never seen. It rocks. And now I’m in a mood that may lead me to see Mann’s Vice this afternoon.

The mood? Anomitastic. Nihilicentious. Aggressubilant. Without stepping all over Michael’s jump-start on Melville’s film, some quick thoughts on these flicks. Continue reading Mean Motherphilosophicking Tough Guys