April showers bring...
... another monthly film log. This one's pitiful, too. But you see how I stepped it up at the end? Big time? Stepped it up big time? Yeah. That's how I want all of April to look. Little write-ups underneath ones I feel like doing little write-ups for.
______________
Dumb Comedy Tallies (all social situations)
Old School: 1
40 Year Old Virgin: 2
Anchorman: 1
The Man Who Planted Trees, Jean Roberts. [C+] march 1st 2006
Capote, Bennett Miller. [B+] march 1st 2006
Team America: World Police, Trey Parker. [D] march 7th 2006
Dazed and Confused, Richard Linklater. [A-] march 7th 2006
The Hills Have Eyes, Alexandre Aja. [C] march 11th 2006
[I was excited going into this. I really liked High Tension, minus THE TWIST, and I kind of like that there's a guy out there like Aja, prepared to make horror grisly and gruesome and horrifying, without feeling gratuitous or disingenuous, like I imagine Hostel to be or know Saw to be. When I got hints of political allegory at the beginning, I was prepared to let myself love this movie, even if it was a fairly superficial and uncontroversial one. But then the story winds up getting real muddled and uninteresting and a guy gets his throat speared on an American flag and I start not liking it so much. Oh well. Maybe I should see the original.]
Inside Man, Spike Lee. [B-] march 21st 2006
[There's elements in this film that feel distinctly Spike Lee-esque and moments where I felt that it was clearly the studio getting involved. It bothers me that this wasn't advertised as the latest Spike Lee movie and it bums me out that the studios feel that his isn't a marketable name. I've heard that he cites Dog Day Afternoon as an influence on this and I really don't see it. Fairly fun thriller with some wonderful moments suffused with some equally terrible moments. Not sure I liked the story overall, either. Something about it feels off. This is the first Spike Lee movie I've seen that I didn't really like all that much. Okay, but not great. And what's with all the conspicuous product placement?]
The Warriors, Walter Hill. [C+] march 22nd 2006
[Maybe I was harsh on this. I do gut reaction grades in my log, but looking back on it, I definitely like this more than The Pillow Book and yet the grades don't reflect that. Fun/stupid adventure movie.]
The Pillow Book, Peter Greenaway. [B] march 22nd 2006
[Wonderful for the first half hour/forty minutes. Mediocre to bad once Ewan McGregor shows up. The whole movie became too narratively focused at that point and all but abandoned the beautiful and startling abstraction that it was before. And then it got good again for a little while and turned bad again at the end. A real let down after such a strong beginning.]
Sans Soleil, Chris Marker. [/] march 23rd 2006
["/" means I had 2 hours of sleep when I saw this on campus and can't remember any of it, which I feel awful about. I've gotten my hands on a copy since then and will totally give it a legit viewing sometime in the near future.]
Freddy Got Fingered, Tom Green. [+] march 25th 2006
["+" means I don't want to rate it, but I love this movie. I don't want to justify it or discuss it much, or anything else, but I will say this: It's one of my favorites and I definitely think it's brilliant, and not in a novel sense but in like a "this is a great work of art" sense. No one else has my back on this and I don't expect them to.]
Dave Chappelle's Block Party, Michel Gondry. [A-] march 26th 2006
Brick, Rian Johnson. [A-] march 29th 2006
[Boy was I excited to see this and boy was I happy that it fulfilled all my expectations. I was considering giving it its own post, and I may still do that in the next couple days, so I guess I'll leave it at "it really blew me away." It seems to be a real divisive movie; most people can't seem to agree on the issue of its main stylistic element: the hard-boiled dialogue in the mouths of teenagers still in high school. Those guys are jerks.]
Invisible Children, three dudes. [A] march 31st 2006
[I can't remember their names, it's not on IMDB and I don't really wanna search around on their site right. It doesn't matter, really. The film is good, but it's not great. That said, it's a great film. An utterly devastating documentary about three pretty well-off kids that go to Africa to make some sort of documentary in an attempt to "find themselves" but instead wind up stumbling upon one of the saddest, most intense stories I've ever seen. Rebel armies in Uganda kidnapping young children, aged 7-12 and forcing them to become soldiers in their armies, brainwashing them, torturing them, subjecting them to horrible conditions. Right now it's about 45 minutes long and the guys that made it are touring it around the US. They're hoping to make it into a feature that will get released next year. If it comes near you, please make an effort to see it, it's really wonderful, inspiring and heartbreaking and I think more people should become familiar with this issue and want to do something about it. I left the theater blubbering uncontrollably.
http://www.invisiblechildren.com Check it out, see if and when it's coming near you, as if anyone reads this, and see it. Seriously. I'm sleeping out on the street on April 29th because of this movie.]
Junebug, Phil Morrison. [B+] march 31st 2006
[I'm glad this was great. I didn't know what to expect of it and I was anxious that it would be another sort of generic "indie" mvoie, but it wound up being a really inventive, truthful and beautiful film. The audience I saw it with was largely unbearable, laughing at a lot of spots that simply weren't funny and betraying their contempt for the people portrayed in it. Their laughter reminded me of why I hate shit like Napoleon Dynamite: the entire joke hinges on you wanting to laugh at the people in the movie and letting yourself feel superior to them. Napoleon Dynamite is reprehensible, but this film doesn't have any element of that mawkish grotesquerie in it. Instead, the audience seemed to attempt to inscribe it into it. I hate how ironic my generation is getting; we're post-post-post-post-modern and it's really getting kind of unbearable. People can't be earnest without suspecting themselves or each other of sarcasm and it depresses me. This screening was just another example of that. That said, I thought the film was great and Phil Morrison, who was there to do a Q&A, seems like a stellar guy. One of the most insightful Q&A's I've ever attended and one that I feel took a lot away from.]
______________
Dumb Comedy Tallies (all social situations)
Old School: 1
40 Year Old Virgin: 2
Anchorman: 1
The Man Who Planted Trees, Jean Roberts. [C+] march 1st 2006
Capote, Bennett Miller. [B+] march 1st 2006
Team America: World Police, Trey Parker. [D] march 7th 2006
Dazed and Confused, Richard Linklater. [A-] march 7th 2006
The Hills Have Eyes, Alexandre Aja. [C] march 11th 2006
[I was excited going into this. I really liked High Tension, minus THE TWIST, and I kind of like that there's a guy out there like Aja, prepared to make horror grisly and gruesome and horrifying, without feeling gratuitous or disingenuous, like I imagine Hostel to be or know Saw to be. When I got hints of political allegory at the beginning, I was prepared to let myself love this movie, even if it was a fairly superficial and uncontroversial one. But then the story winds up getting real muddled and uninteresting and a guy gets his throat speared on an American flag and I start not liking it so much. Oh well. Maybe I should see the original.]
Inside Man, Spike Lee. [B-] march 21st 2006
[There's elements in this film that feel distinctly Spike Lee-esque and moments where I felt that it was clearly the studio getting involved. It bothers me that this wasn't advertised as the latest Spike Lee movie and it bums me out that the studios feel that his isn't a marketable name. I've heard that he cites Dog Day Afternoon as an influence on this and I really don't see it. Fairly fun thriller with some wonderful moments suffused with some equally terrible moments. Not sure I liked the story overall, either. Something about it feels off. This is the first Spike Lee movie I've seen that I didn't really like all that much. Okay, but not great. And what's with all the conspicuous product placement?]
The Warriors, Walter Hill. [C+] march 22nd 2006
[Maybe I was harsh on this. I do gut reaction grades in my log, but looking back on it, I definitely like this more than The Pillow Book and yet the grades don't reflect that. Fun/stupid adventure movie.]
The Pillow Book, Peter Greenaway. [B] march 22nd 2006
[Wonderful for the first half hour/forty minutes. Mediocre to bad once Ewan McGregor shows up. The whole movie became too narratively focused at that point and all but abandoned the beautiful and startling abstraction that it was before. And then it got good again for a little while and turned bad again at the end. A real let down after such a strong beginning.]
Sans Soleil, Chris Marker. [/] march 23rd 2006
["/" means I had 2 hours of sleep when I saw this on campus and can't remember any of it, which I feel awful about. I've gotten my hands on a copy since then and will totally give it a legit viewing sometime in the near future.]
Freddy Got Fingered, Tom Green. [+] march 25th 2006
["+" means I don't want to rate it, but I love this movie. I don't want to justify it or discuss it much, or anything else, but I will say this: It's one of my favorites and I definitely think it's brilliant, and not in a novel sense but in like a "this is a great work of art" sense. No one else has my back on this and I don't expect them to.]
Dave Chappelle's Block Party, Michel Gondry. [A-] march 26th 2006
Brick, Rian Johnson. [A-] march 29th 2006
[Boy was I excited to see this and boy was I happy that it fulfilled all my expectations. I was considering giving it its own post, and I may still do that in the next couple days, so I guess I'll leave it at "it really blew me away." It seems to be a real divisive movie; most people can't seem to agree on the issue of its main stylistic element: the hard-boiled dialogue in the mouths of teenagers still in high school. Those guys are jerks.]
Invisible Children, three dudes. [A] march 31st 2006
[I can't remember their names, it's not on IMDB and I don't really wanna search around on their site right. It doesn't matter, really. The film is good, but it's not great. That said, it's a great film. An utterly devastating documentary about three pretty well-off kids that go to Africa to make some sort of documentary in an attempt to "find themselves" but instead wind up stumbling upon one of the saddest, most intense stories I've ever seen. Rebel armies in Uganda kidnapping young children, aged 7-12 and forcing them to become soldiers in their armies, brainwashing them, torturing them, subjecting them to horrible conditions. Right now it's about 45 minutes long and the guys that made it are touring it around the US. They're hoping to make it into a feature that will get released next year. If it comes near you, please make an effort to see it, it's really wonderful, inspiring and heartbreaking and I think more people should become familiar with this issue and want to do something about it. I left the theater blubbering uncontrollably.
http://www.invisiblechildren.com Check it out, see if and when it's coming near you, as if anyone reads this, and see it. Seriously. I'm sleeping out on the street on April 29th because of this movie.]
Junebug, Phil Morrison. [B+] march 31st 2006
[I'm glad this was great. I didn't know what to expect of it and I was anxious that it would be another sort of generic "indie" mvoie, but it wound up being a really inventive, truthful and beautiful film. The audience I saw it with was largely unbearable, laughing at a lot of spots that simply weren't funny and betraying their contempt for the people portrayed in it. Their laughter reminded me of why I hate shit like Napoleon Dynamite: the entire joke hinges on you wanting to laugh at the people in the movie and letting yourself feel superior to them. Napoleon Dynamite is reprehensible, but this film doesn't have any element of that mawkish grotesquerie in it. Instead, the audience seemed to attempt to inscribe it into it. I hate how ironic my generation is getting; we're post-post-post-post-modern and it's really getting kind of unbearable. People can't be earnest without suspecting themselves or each other of sarcasm and it depresses me. This screening was just another example of that. That said, I thought the film was great and Phil Morrison, who was there to do a Q&A, seems like a stellar guy. One of the most insightful Q&A's I've ever attended and one that I feel took a lot away from.]
posted by Andrei at 3:03 AM
7 Comments:
"I hate shit like Napoleon Dynamite: the entire joke hinges on you wanting to laugh at the people in the movie and letting yourself feel superior to them. Napoleon Dynamite is reprehensible, but this film doesn't have any element of that mawkish grotesquerie in it. Instead, the audience seemed to attempt to inscribe it into it. I hate how ironic my generation is getting; we're post-post-post-post-modern and it's really getting kind of unbearable."
I'm so fucking behind you on this.
I've got my fingers crossed that as long as there's enough of us out there and we get ourselves mobilized, we can not wind up being the worst generation that ever was, thus far.
Andrei, you should check out a little film called 'Save The Green Planet,' assuming you haven't already.
-Nik Cairns
Nevermind on that one, just read down far enough to see you already had.
I saw it quite a bit ago, but to my memory a D+ seems a bit harsh, although I seem to remember thinking it kind of lost a lot of what made me like it towards the end.
-Nik Cairns
Hey, at the risk of making an ass of myself by posting three times in a row, did you ever see '2046?'
When I saw the trailer I thought it had the potential to be pretty amazing, but I haven't yet got a chance to check it out.
-Nik Cairns
Yeah, I dunno what it was about "Save the Green Planet," but that movie just kind of didn't sit well with me from the beginning. I didn't like the way it treated its characters, didn't find it funny or charming and a lot of people said that it was really eclectic and off the wall crazy, but I just kind of found it ugly and mean.
As for "2046," it's good, but it's not out and out amazing. I'm not sure if I'm in the minority in saying that, though. I dug it, for what it's worth, but I like a lot of Wong Kar Wai's other movies more. "2046" functions as a sort of pseudo-sequel to "In the Mood for Love," which in turn has some elements of strange continuity with "Days of Being Wild," both of which I think are superior films to "2046." I also really like "Chungking Express" and "Fallen Angels." "Fallen Angels" might be my favorite of his, followed by "Days of Being Wild." But really, I guess I recommend you see anything he's done.
Yeah, now that I've thought about it more I can see what you mean about 'Save The Green Planet.'
I've been into a lot of older Asian cinema lately, a lot of Kurosawa's films like 'Seven Samurai.' I think 'Grave of the Fireflies' is the only piece of anime I actually like. So I'll definitely check out some more of Kar Wai's work.
-Nik Cairns
Post a Comment
<< Home