Movie Rundown, Mid-May Version

I apologize that this has taken so long to get this out (by my count this is a week and change late) but things conspire from keeping me from sitting down and pounding this out. Not that I've been watching a whole lot of things, so this list isn't too terribly painful to slog through. Lately I've been doing less projects and watching more things I'm interested in, so this list is rated generally higher than a normal slice of movies would be. But there's nothing wrong with watching good movies!

The West Wing (season 2) – *****
The West Wing continues to be one of the best, if not THE best, TV shows I've ever seen. Season 2 was better than season 1, which was amazing in itself. A powerful show.

The Cat Returns – ****
One of the few Studio Ghibli films released in the West not directed by Miyazaki, The Cat Returns still bears a lot of the hallmarks that make Ghibli films so special: a sense of wonder, flight, an emphasis on personal empowerment and imagination. The Cat Returns is a great fairy tale of a young girl stolen away by a kingdom of cats. It reminded me a lot of Labyrinth. Anybody who loves good animation should see it.

Initial D Second Stage – ****
I could just repost my Initial D First Stage review, but this is 2010, so instead I'll just link it.

Dexter (season 3) – ****
Dexter season 3 went to some interesting places. After Dexter confronted his worst fears in the last season, he entered this season full of confidence and power and the ability to achieve whatever he wanted. A killer in his prime, it was the entanglements on the home front that really made this season, including an amazing guest role by Jimmy Smits.

The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus – ****
I'm an unabashed Terry Gilliam fan. That said, I understand that his movies are difficult at best, and downright antagonistic towards the audience at worst. The first half of this movie, especially, fell into that later category, with a whole slew of unlikable characters acting with uncertain motivations. But it all really starts to shake out once Heath Ledger shows up and takes charge. Even forgetting that this is his last movie, he turns in an amazing performance as a smooth-talking man with an ambiguous past and only a flirting relationship with the truth. The Imaginarium works, even with the death of its star mid-movie, and the inclusion of Johnny Depp, Jude Law, and Colin Farrell to take the place of Ledger in scenes feels organic and appropriate for this movie. It's a miracle this didn't end up like Don Quixote, but I'm glad it didn't. At the end of the day, Parnassus is up with Gilliam's better movies.

Match Point – ****
Continuing my long term Woody Allen project brought me to this darkly comic little thriller. Match Point starts out as a weird classist British drama about a working man who suddenly finds himself in the upper class and uncertain how to handle it. Watching it all unravel is interesting enough, but the movie takes a late second act turn that really surprised me, and kept me on my toes until the final scene. Match Point is a movie that continually undermines itself in the best way, a riff on an established movie archetype (see Cassandra's Dream, below) that is better for its self-awareness.

Oceans
Disneynature is in the habit of releasing a nature movie every year for Earth Day, it seems. And I couldn't be happier. On a big screen, in a theater full of people, these movies are breathtakingly beautiful and incredibly engaging. I teasingly refer to it as the yearly public dose of nature porn, but that's not far from the mark. It's a lovingly created tribute to the natural world, and just from a visual standpoint it's worth experiencing. Is it good? I have no idea what metric to compare it to.

Kick-Ass – ****
Make no bones about it, Kick-Ass is violent. But I wouldn't call it violent in a seedy, exploitative way, despite what some people might want to claim. It's transformative violence, people in situations who react in a certain way that goes beyond our day to day responses, to a place where some part of us dreams we could all be, a place of mythic heroes. There are scenes in this movie that have the impact of movies like Old Boy, The Professional, or Kill Bill Volume 1. They're affecting because of their extremes. And the rest of the movie is pretty good, too, a great send up of the same old tired origin stories every super hero movie tries to tell. For anyone with the disposition to handle a little blood, Kick-Ass has plenty to offer.

North by Northwest – *****
North by Northwest is the best James Bond movie ever. No, I'm not kidding. Yeah, sure, it involves a reluctant case of mistaken identity, but the movie quickly drops the pretense that Cary Grant is just a normal guy in an abnormal situation and becomes one of the best cinematic representations of adventure and intrigue I've ever seen. Grant carries this movie, suave and unassuming and convincingly competent without seeming invincible. I love everything about this movie, from it's goofy, out-of-left-field start to its rapturously brief (and dare I say perfect) ending. This isn't just the best Hitchcock movie I've seen yet (not really a big field to dominate, I'll admit) but it's one of the best movies I've seen--ever.

Bronson – ***
I really wanted to like Bronson. In fact, I was going along with it quite well at first. The barely lucid, crazy story of Britain's most notorious prisoner, Bronson opens with the kind of fever dream violence that reminds me of A Clockwork Orange. It's strange, entrancing, and powerful. Unfortunately, that kind of energy doesn't stick around, and midway through the movie seems to run out of steam, plodding across the finish line by the sense of goodwill the first half gathered. It's not a bad movie, but it's so horribly front-loaded that the ending was a crushing disappointment.

Iron Man 2 – ****
Iron Man 2's best feature is that it doesn't feel like a proper sequel. In its fast paced two hours isn't a heavy continuation of the first movie's arc, but instead it is perhaps the first major installment of this new Marvel Universe initiative. The movie is a breezy 2 hours, but it seems to go by in the blink of an eye. Ideas that will pan out in future movies are introduced, nods to other franchises are made, and Tony Stark continues to be the most fascinating Marvel hero put on film yet. It's a strange movie, but I found it incredibly compelling.

Cassandra's Dream – ***
Remember up in the review of Match Point when I mentioned the obvious entries into the thriller drama movie? Well, this movie is that. The story of two brothers who get roped into a murder and how it affects them, this movie has all the charm of a dead fish. It's baffling how the same director can tackle similar subject matter with two wildly different results. The actors (Ewan McGregor and Colin Farrell) are both fantastic, but the story is very straightforward and I ended up waiting for the movie to end instead of enjoying my experience with it.

A Long Time Coming – Movie Rundown

Okay, I know it’s been a while since I’ve done one of these. My movie mood kind of died after the fever pitch it was at during the end of 2009. Which isn’t all that surprising. It was a truly unsustainable pace. And it is within my nature to tend to overindulge in one thing until I burn out, and then pick up one of the things I neglected in the interim.

But I didn’t completely stop watching movies. So here’s the rundown of what I’ve been watching, and how I feel about it. New to this list is TV season reviews, because I’ve been watching a lot more TV shows and it was suggested that I give them their proper turn in this list, too.

I wouldn’t expect the Movie Rundown to return to being a weekly feature just yet; I don’t watch enough right now to justify that kind of regular committment. But I’ll keep watching and when I get a build up I’ll put one out. Until then, here we go!

Whisper of the Heart – ****
One of the more obscure titles from Studio Ghibli, Whisper of the Heart is the story of a bookish young girl who dreams of becoming a writer. It’s a sweet coming of age story, about childhood dreams and budding romance on the cusp of adulthood. But all you really should need is that this is a Ghibli film. Which means it is of course beautiful and sweet. The heartwarming, quiet story told within is just the icing on the cake.

Tron – ****
The last time I saw Tron, many years ago, I remember not liking it very much. Revisiting it after the trailer for Tron: Legacy dropped, I couldn’t begin to tell you why. Tron is a pretty amazing film. From the silent film cinematography to the trippy neon visuals and crazy Metropolis-inspired computer effects, Tron is a visual treat. It doesn’t hurt that wrapped around it all is a fascinating story about faith and rebellion. This is a movie I’m really glad I revisited.

The Hurt Locker – *****
I saw this shortly after The Hurt Locker won best picture. After seeing it, I understood why. The Hurt Locker is the perfect war film for our time. Not about the conflict itself, but about the people who live it and what happens to them. Not even those who fight, but those who deal with the periphery of war, suffer the consequences of being in a combat zone. The Hurt Locker is a long look into a dark part of the human experience.

Rear Window – ***
I don’t get it. I understand Rear Window is really popular, but … of the three Hitchcock movies I’ve seen, this is by far my least favorite. The story meanders, the tension is as limp as a wet noodle, and the whole time I’m listening to the lackadaisical jazz soundtrack and wondering when it all will end. I thought it was funny more than anything, and while I enjoyed Stewart’s performance (as usual) I was left pretty unmoved by the whole thing.

Vicky Christina Barcelona – ****
In my very short acquaintance with Woody Allen movies, I’ve kind of fallen for his understated humor. And Vicky Christina Barcelona is the most understated of the lot, a melodramatic set of love triangles that speak to the fickleness of the heart and the bizarreness of the creative temperament. Also of note is the absolutely amazing soundtrack, heavy on Spanish guitar. It really is an enchanting ‘strangers in a strange land’ kind of film.

The Breakfast Club – ****
I hadn’t seen this until recently, which probably makes me a failure as a movie person. The worst part is, despite my genuine distaste for most things 80s, I found myself really loving this movie. It’s a surprisingly bleak look at being a teenager, with stereotypes that do a pretty great job of breaking out of their outlines and becoming recognizable people. That said, Emilio Estevez as the super jock is too ridiculous for words.

Richard III – ***
I’ll admit it, I’m not really much of an Olivier kind of guy. On the spectrum of Shakespearian film adaptations, I feel he errs too far on the side of theatrical. And I understand that that’s a product of the time he performed in, but that doesn’t mean I have to like it. That said, I’m not sure there’s a better faithful adaptation of Richard III around, which is a pretty good play with one of Shakespeare's better villain main characters. So … any Shakespeare nerds should probably see this.

Sunshine Cleaning – ***
The story of a single mother who starts her own crime scene cleaning business. It sounds like quirky indie bait and it really is, but it’s got a lot of heart and Amy Adams is as lovely as always. I’m not sure there’s much to say about this, though. It’s cute, but it exhausts its premise pretty quickly and the ending leaves a lot to be desired.

Hot Tub Time Machine – ****
Remember how I said earlier that I kind of hated all things 80s? Well, here’s another exception, since it’s kind of a spoof and also ridiculous. HTTM is a dumb movie. It wears that fact on its sleeve, and just carries forth with all the tropes of 80s teen comedies AND time travel stories with a flip, breezy attitude. It’s a movie that smartly never gets mired too far in subplots, going for the laughs and keeping it all light and moving. A great genre mash-up.

Wonder Woman – ***
Okay, so the DC Animated Universe movies have all been pretty good. So I’ll admit that I hold them to a higher standard. Which is why I was kind of disappointed in Wonder Woman. It’s a gorgeous movie, and has some fun moments, but it’s probably the weakest entry of the films I’ve seen so far. Wonder Woman’s naive feministic stances play as eye-rollingly camp more than effective character-building, and the origin story for WW has always been kind of lame. This story was told better in Justice League, I’m afraid.

Green Lantern: First Flight – ****
This is the flip side of the coin. I don’t really remember the Justice League Green Lantern story being all that great, but Green Lantern: First Flight is probably the best movie Green Lantern story we’re going to get (because I have almost no faith in the eventual live action version). This movie might as well be called SPACE COP. It’s got all the beats of a great two-man cop movie, but with space adventure and aliens and all the general Green Lantern craziness. It’s fun, it’s smart, it’s a GREAT superhero movie.

Shutter Island – *****
It’s hard to quantify why exactly I love Shutter Island so. It’s not the most inventive film. The twist it was sold on is predictable. But it is a beautiful film, a lush tribute to Hitchcock, a film fallen out of time. From the amazingly dark score to the stillness of the scenes, the film is a dark ominous cloud, a gathering storm of dread. It’s beautiful and scratches an itch for that ‘cinema’ feel that so few movies satisfy these days.

Crazy Heart – ****
The Dude won an Oscar for this movie. Sure, it was a long time coming, but this movie really did make a compelling case. The story of a washed up old country singer and his deteriorating life, Crazy Heart reminded me in many ways of The Wrestler. Though, it’s a much more sentimental picture than Aronofsky’s. Also, the music is pretty amazing.

K-ON! – ****
K-ON! is an anime about a group of high school girls who decide to form a music club at their school. I kind of ended up watching this on a whim and totally falling in love with it. The key here is that this show is ALL about being cute and girly. They play pretty fluffy light rock, have tea time, wear a bunch of costumes. It’s a Japanitastic version of girliness. But weirdly it’s crazy compelling. There’s something irresistible about a show that makes you squee over and over again. K-ON! is that show.

Initial D First Stage – ****
Initial D is a show about drift racing. If you don’t know what drift racing is, I’ll direct you to some awesome youtube videos of drift racing. This is a pretty old show, and it definitely shows its age. The animation is kind of meh and the car models are kind of hilariously low poly, but it has some of the best music of any show ever and the racing sequences are genuinely fantastic. If you’re into eurobeat and drifting, this is the go to thing.

Dexter (season 1) – ****
Dexter’s the kind of show I was pretty sure I would like. The story of a forensic investigator who is also a serial killer, tracking down serial killers that he discovers through his job. What isn’t to love? Little did I know that the show would be such a lush dark comedy, full of irony and self-depreciation and a dark appreciation for this kind of flippant violence. The first season kind of meanders right near the end and wraps up a little too fast, but it’s truly a great show.

Dexter (season 2) – *****
Second verse, same as the first. Season 2 is a much tighter show than season 1, in part because the main storyline is that Dexter’s body dump site is found by the police and a federal investigation into his activities is opened. It’s a tense season, with Dexter trying to balance all the parts of his life while changing his carefully crafted methods to both keep killing and not get trapped by the approaching manhunt. It’s a dizzy season, full of great moments. Fantastic.

The West Wing (season 1) – *****
I almost feel silly reviewing The West Wing. Either you know its great or you’ve been missing out on something amazing in your life. I don’t have much to add to the heap of love this show regularly still gets. I will say, though, that The West Wing is the one show that when I watch it makes me desire to be a better person. That’s a pretty powerful thing. An invaluable thing. Which is why The West Wing is special.

Movie Rundown - January 3 to January 10

This was really supposed to be a bigger list, but snowpocalypse and workpocalypse and all sorts of other pocalypses kept me worn out and in the house when I would otherwise have headed to the theater. That said, what little I do have I'll offer up here. You guys are probably lucky you get a week off.

Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby - ***

Anchorman, but for Nascar instead of the 70s. I don't really have much to say about this one, honestly. It was okay. I thought it'd be much worse than it is. But you already know if you're interested in what's being offered here.

Tetsuo: The Iron Man - ****

A super low budget Japanese cyberpunk thriller from the late 80s, Tetsuo concerns a man who runs over a metal fetishist, a man who inserts pieces of metal into his body in an effort to achieve some sort of organic-industrial hybrid. After killing the fetishist, the man begins a transformation into a metal monstrosity, absorbing and growing scrap metal. This movie actually reminded me a lot of Lynch's classic Eraserhead, except instead of the horror being directed at infants and parenthood, it's instead horror about modern life and its encroachment into our daily lives and selves. It's a great movie, frenetic and strange and surprisingly effective.

The Ten - ****

A series of short stories about the ten commandments. This was something I went into with some trepidation, as I recently saw one of the director's previous movies (Wet Hot American Summer) and left it feeling pretty unimpressed. That said, the short story format here works really well. The storytelling can be very brief due to how much is being told, and that suits the filmmaking far better than the lack of cohesion Wet Hot American Summer had. That said, the Ten Commandments stuff is really just a frame. Don't expect much in the way of religious farce here.

Night of the Living Dead - ***

Tom Savini's remake of George Romero's masterpiece is best summed up as 'more.' More action, more make up, more production values, more gore. That said, one of the things about Romero's movie that made it what it still is today is the understated nature of it, the commentary on people. Something that Savini includes with all the grace of a brick to the face. That said, there's an interesting twist on the ending of the film that is actually surprisingly satisfying, and enough to earn this a third star.

Full Metal Jacket - *****

Full Metal Jacket is amazing. But you probably knew that. I feel like I'm really late to the party on this one, Kubrick's take on Vietnam and the military and warfare in general. I had watched the first half once upon a time and lost interest once they got to Vietnam, but upon revisiting I'm kind of sad I didn't stick with it the first time. The story of what happens to a man when he's turned into a soldier, and what it means to see 'the shit' is depressing and frightening and feels real in a way that meant something to me. Could not recommend this enough. For now, my favorite Kubrick movie.

Bye Bye Birdie - **

I hate Bye Bye Birdie. I don't even know where to begin with this movie. From the lack of characters I could give a damn about to the over-reliance upon dated 50s stereotypes to the musical sequences that feel perfunctory more than fun. There's probably a great stage production behind this movie, but the movie itself feels old and worn and not particularly interesting. Some of the dance stuff towards the middle is pretty good, which is the only thing keeping this from rock bottom, but ... no thanks.

3:10 to Yuma - ****

I watched this finally after being a pretty big fan of the remake from a while back, and I was pretty impressed. One of the problems with American westerns from that era is that nothing feels particularly dangerous or emotional in any way. That has a lot to do with acting styles and presentation, I understand, but it's always been a negative for me. That said, Glenn Ford's performance as a captured outlaw just waiting to be broken out by his gang has a surprising amount of jovial menace to it. That said, I think the two films are pretty similar in quality, separated only by the eras they were made in.

Broken Arrow - **

It's telling that five days after I watched Broken Arrow I can't remember quite how it ended. I think John Travolta gets impaled on a missile. But I could be wrong. Look, if you want a dumb action movie with smarmy Travolta, go get Face/Off. It's just as dumb, but Nic Cage gets to play both hero and villain and it's one of my favorite Cage performances. Instead, for this movie you get Christian Slater. Not a fair trade, IMO.

48 Hrs. - ***

Perhaps the first buddy movie, Eddie Murphy and Nick Nolte are both sad reminders that they used to be actors and now one of them is crazy and couldn't become coherent enough to perform in a good movie if his life depended on it and the other is Nick Nolte. That said, this movie's pretty good, with a lot of menace from both of the leads. This movie makes Lethal Weapon look like a Disney production.

Movie Rundown: Week Ending Jan 2, 2010

Here we are, the start of a new year. In fact, the start of the OFFICIAL YEAR OF THE FUTURE, TWENTY TEN. And as such, I'm going to restart the long-running series of movie reviews that used to grace this site on an almost-weekly basis. I'm not going to run down the entire list of things that were missed between the last time I did this and now, because that list is 121 movies long. Instead, I'll give you the last week and change.

Also, as a slight change in format, I probably won't be expounding at too much length on most of these. Mostly because it was the extent I was going on about these movies that caused my burnout in the first place. If anybody wants to hear my opinion on any film, of course, you're free to ask for it. I can probably go on at length.

Anywho, the list!

The Ice Harvest - *****

Neo-noir is a funny thing. The balance between calling back to the classic film tropes and updating the settings and characters for a modern audience is a crazy tightrope to walk, and there are many roads to choose, from the historical recreation of The Good German, the modern absurdist transplant of Brick, or an irreverent take like Fargo. The Ice Harvest strays closest to Fargo in setting and tone, though much of the warmth is sucked out of it by taking away any relatable character and instead giving us John Cusack at his kinda-smarmy, kinda-adorable best.

Thankfully, it's a gloriously understated film, with the violence rather perfunctory and all the characters tired old washouts struggling to steal a paltry 2 million and get out of the icy backwater of Wichita Falls. And the fact that it goes so poorly, and does so with such a dry sense of humor, is what puts this firmly among the neo-noir greats. The film is simply fantastic. I can't recommend it enough. It might actually be my favorite Cusack role to date.

Jules et Jim - ****

My second Truffaut film is his third, and the difference between this and 400 Blows is pretty evident. 400 Blows was a deeply personal film, obviously of great importance to the director. It felt heavy with intimate knowledge of the experience. Jules et Jim, meanwhile, is set up with Truffaut providing narration as he tells a story, adapted from another person's work. And with that distance comes the real appeal of Jules et Jim. It's a movie about friendship and what love can do between friends, but the love triangle is presented with a detachment I found stunning. The characters comment on each other's loves without hesitation, pointing out the problems, but in the end they are all blind to their own problems, and we are left to consider how easy things look from the outside, and how complicated it is when we ourselves are caught up in similar circumstances.

My only problem with the movie stems from the final ten minutes. I won't give anything away, but I feel like the story veers too far into melodrama too fast, when everything has been so beautifully understated for the rest of the run time. It doesn't mar the film that much, but it was sad to see it end on such a sour note.

The Bicycle Thief - ***

My problem with movies about people suffering under unbeatable odds is that it seems kind of ... detrimental to enjoying a movie. There are exceptions, to be sure, but typically around minute 40 you know what kind of movie you're in and you have a pretty good idea of how it'll end up. At that point, watching life shit on the main character stops being engaging on any rational level. Some movies get around this by being just that damn poignant (Grave of the Fireflies is my favorite example) or by presenting problems that are the natural outgrowth of flawed protagonists (Requiem for a Dream, here).

This is not either of those. It's a movie about a good man having horrible things happen to him due to fate, and then it's over. It's sad, but in a detached way due to the general grunginess of it all. Sure, he's starving, but so is everyone else in post-war Italy. The scope is just wrong, and it never connected.

I understand the impact, neorealism and an appraisal of Italy in that period. I just ... don't care. And that's a fatal flaw, if you ask me.

Knife in the Water - ****

Roman Polanski's first feature film, the story of a middle aged couple who picks up a hitchhiker and brings them along on a sailing trip around the lakes of backwoods Poland. Knife in the Water is pretty claustrophobic, taking place almost entirely on the sailboat. It's also pretty good. There's a real sense of menace as all three strangers bounce off each other in interesting ways, and the interloper forced in close confines with a married couple exposes all the underlying tensions of a marriage. It's pretty great.

Blade Runner - ****

Look, it's Blade Runner. Go see it. Seriously. It's one of those movies everyone should probably see, since it informs a pretty broad stretch of pop culture. I thought it was fantastic, though I had reservations that I believe seeing the Final Cut or Director's Cut versions would probably solve. We'll have to see at a later date. However, you should see Blade Runner. I mean it.

The Gay Divorcee - ***

Let me tell you my problem with 40s musicals. You see, they're typically fun, so long as its a bunch of singing and dancing. Astaire and Rogers are fantastic. But in this period of Hollywood, there was this presumption that the song and dance sequences needed to be framed by a plot that has all the grace of a middling studio product from that era (i.e. none).

So while The Gay Divorcee has about a half hour of absolutely amazing singing and dancing (and a huge sequence at the end that had me riveted to the screen) it's hard to justify it for anyone who doesn't enjoy the musical sequences for their own sake. They're stunning, but the film that frames them isn't much to see. So ... move along unless you're already on board.

Sherrybaby - **

You know all of my problems with The Bicycle Thief above? Copy and paste them here. But the problem is that Sherrybaby has no excuse. It's not 60 years old, three years old. And the story of a young mother getting out of prison and trying to kick her heroin addiction has all the charm of a bad rash. Instead, it comes across like the big screen version of a Lifetime movie of the week. I won't deny that Maggie Gyllenhall's a good actress, and the story here has an appropriately dim ending, but ... no connection. I don't know. These kind of films really aren't my thing.

It Happened One Night - ****

One of the last movies before the production code was put into effect in 1934, It Happened One Night is a screwball comedy that plays pretty well. I'd never seen a Clark Gable movie before, and was pretty impressed with his comedic timing. The movie hits all the notes really well, in a way I haven't felt from a classic comedy since seeing Bringing Up Baby.

Wet Hot American Summer - **

I get that this is both a send up of summer camp movies and a solid entry in its own right. I get it. But ... well, I hate summer camp films. And the narrative felt like it was just a barely held together series of sketches. I don't know, the only thing I really liked about this movie was the wildly miscast 10-years-too-old set of actors. Otherwise, I was kind of bored. But then, like I said, this genre does little for me.

The Fountain - *****

The Fountain is a story about death and love told in three time periods--the time of the conquistadors, the modern day, and the far-flung future--about the bond between characters played by Hugh Jackman and Rachel Weisz. The Fountain is a lyrical, nigh-incoherent movie, but it's really beautiful and heartbreaking and is easily my favorite Aronofsky movie. There's just something to the depictions of scenarios playing out similarly through the ages that gets me. The movie got under my skin the first time I saw it in theaters but lately it's been coming up more and more often, so I revisited it and fell hard for it. Cannot recommend it enough.

Up in the Air - ****

I knew going in I would enjoy Up in the Air. George Clooney is the movie star of our generation, and Jason Reitman is a pretty solid director. I ended up liking this movie far more than Juno, but less than Reitman's debut, Thank You For Smoking. Part of that is due to the subject matter, with Up in the Air being a more clinical, bleaker film. Which was fine, I suppose, though I was left feeling let down by the ending, which seemed intent on building to something and then forsaking it for a throwaway 'look at us isn't this independent!' unresolved moment to close the movie out. Oh well. It's still quite good and feels very of our times.

Avatar - ****

There's been enough words on the internet about Avatar, so I'll be brief: the movie is predictable in the extreme, but is beautiful and well-made and should most definitely be seen on the big screen. I don't think that what it is would translate as well in the home theater. Along with Star Trek, the definitive popcorn movie of 2009.

Following - ***

The first movie by Christopher Nolan, Following in a no-budget, super-small neo noir with Nolan's typical flair for nonlinear storytelling. There's a lot of Memento's pacing in this movie, but the acting really isn't up to snuff and the shooting isn't nearly as refined as his second effort (and all after) would show. It's not a bad movie, but it's more a curiosity than a great time.

Kinsey - ****

I've never been really big into biopics. I feel like standing in the fuzzy line between fact and reality typically ruins most of the good fictional qualities of a movie. Which is why I also don't hold much for 'true stories'. That said, Kinsey is really quite good. Liam Neeson's take on the famous entomologist-turned-sex-researcher really does provide a nuanced take on what has been a pretty controversial figure in contemporary American history. Also of note, is the rampant period ignorance about the subject. Kinsey makes a great case both for exploring the life of the man and exploring through his situation the reality of the need of his work and how much of an impact him and others like him have had on advancing our knowledge as a culture in the past century.

The Jazz Singer - ****

The first full length motion picture to have spoken dialogue, The Jazz Singer is known for a lot of things. It is a seminal film, the bridge between the silent era and the talkies. What's surprising is how modern it feels the moment it does speak, and how out of place it is between the silent beats. Also, The Jazz Singer is the template for 'rise to stardom' films, so far as I can tell. There are beats in it that are repeated endlessly through the history of movies into the present day. It's not only an interesting historical study, but a good film even now. That said, the blackface is, admittedly, kind of hard for me to fit into my 21st century sensibilities.

Ikiru - *****

The story of a government official in postwar Japan who discovers that he has fatal stomach cancer, Ikiru is the story of searching for life's meaning on a deadline. It's a sad, beautiful film, not entirely unrelated to The Fountain in many ways. It's certainly a more muted, understated film, but is a classic for good reason. A must see.

Sherlock Holmes - ***

Look Sherlock Holmes has more tonally in common with Pirates of the Caribbean and Scooby-Doo than it does the famous detective. Yes, there are plenty of references to the canon, and the film isn't that much of a bastardization, but it feels ... like a misplaced move with the source material. That said, the movie was fun enough, with great chemistry between Jude Law and RDJ. I know this one's probably going to become a franchise on some level, and I think I'm okay with that, but ... I hope that maybe they do a bit more detecting and bit less adventuring in the next one. Also, don't reveal all of Holmes' obvious plot deductions that any fool could figure out all in the last five minutes. It just makes him look smarmy, not on the ball.

Nine - ***

Rob Marshall's film adaptation of the Broadway musical adaptation of Fellini's classic 8 1/2, Nine has all the hallmarks of a Rob Marshall production--beautiful, heavy on color and sex, impressionistic at the sake of coherency at times. Which makes him a good choice to tackle the source (see below). Unfortunately, I felt like the music itself just wasn't quite there on the level it should have been. Too much set piece and not enough exposition, it was beautiful in a train-wreck kind of way. I am tempted to rate this higher, simply because I really ended up sympathizing with Guido as an artist, but really, what mostly happened was that Nine inspired me to finally go ahead and watch...

8 1/2 - ****

I tried early in 2009 to watch this movie and failed rather spectacularly. But coming off of my general interest in Nine I couldn't help but feel the need to fire it up and see what was what. What I got was a movie that even still felt a bit over my head, but in a way I could see the merit of. 8 1/2 is a very personal movie, a movie about a director struggling with the demands of creativity and productivity and what it does to his life and those who are along for the ride. It dabbles in surrealism, with understated exaggerations in design and editing put together to straddle the line between imagination and reality. Guido often enters the realm of his own mind, and with little warning to the audience. It is a tightly wound film, a piece about tension and desperation that looks very confusing to those who have never been through something similar. It isn't an easy movie to approach, but I'm glad I did, and I'm sure that it'll grow on me over time and I'll revisit it more than once in my lifetime.

Love Me if You Dare - ***

A strange romantic French film, the story of a boy and a girl who grow up playing an escalating series of dares as they grow into a turbulent adulthood. This was a recommendation by Elizabeth Ditty based on my professed appreciation for Marion Cotillard in Nine, and I have to say that I am glad I saw it, but ... it's a weirdly dark movie. I don't know what I think of it still, and that score reflects that. We'll see how it grows on me. I suspect well, though probably not enough to warrant a fourth star. Still, if you're into darkly warming and whimsical movies, it's pretty good.

The Proposition - ****

One of the millennial westerns from director John Hillcoat, better known now as having directed The Road, The Proposition is a story of 19th century Australia and an outlaw played by Guy Pearce who is offered freedom for him and his younger brother if he tracks down and kills his psychopathic older brother. The Proposition is like many of the millennial westerns, brutally realistic and violent, but with a sense of poignant loss that runs throughout the film. Like The Road, the movie is shot amazingly well, with the whole backdrop of the vistas of Australia a strangely unfamiliar take on the general southwestern America of most Westerns. If you're a fan of the genre in its most recent incarnations, it's a hell of an example.

Taken - ***

Also known as the Liam Neeson Badass Power Hour, Taken is a single-minded movie almost to the point of hilarity. There's some token stuff about an absent dad trying to connect with his kid, but to put it simply, Neeson's daughter is kidnapped and sold as a prostitute and Liam Neeson is an ex-CIA agent with a lot of paranoia and a lot of skill. The movie would be dumb, but the action is fast and well paced and Neeson is a genius stroke of casting. His general severe gravitas takes what would easily be a straight to DVD Steven Segal affair and makes it something really special. It's dumb, but it's awesome.

Being John Malkovich - *****

This is one that's been on my list for a very long time, but finally broke down and watched. You know what? Sometimes I'm a damn fool. Being John Malkovich is amazing. Simply amazing. I was completely blown away. I can't count how many times I was surprised into genuine laughter. Of all the movies on the list this week, this is the one that I just have to say--go see it, really. It's on Netflix Instant. It's great. Do it. For yourself. For me. For Malkovich.

Movie Rundown - This Past Weekend

Here you go, part two of the movie extravaganza, this time detailing the movies seen from Friday through to Sunday. Hope you're still with me. Like most second acts, it's a dark and dreary road.

Halloween II (**)
Probably the worst Rob Zombie film, and that's saying something (I adore House of 1000 Corpses, but I'll freely admit it's a trainwreck of a movie). The problem isn't that Zombie has no good ideas. In fact, there are lots of good ideas here. A realistic look at what horror movie survival can do to a heroine, a solid amount of gore, and an incredibly well-used Malcolm McDowell. That said, the film is so horribly put together and has so many OTHER ideas that are simply garbage that I will recommend this one to the hardcore only.

Indie Sex (****)
A fantastic four-part documentary about sex in film, from the beginnings of cinema to the modern cutting edge of envelope-pushing art films. This one's a great tribute to a lesser-known line of films, from the incredibly influential to the extremely obscure, but treated with the proper thoughtful discourse that our culture so often lacks when it comes to such things.

If you're a film person? This is a must-see. For everyone else, I would simply say that if the subject matter interests you, there's little that's not covered here.

Anchors Aweigh (**)
An incredibly flawed musical starring Gene Kelly and Frank Sinatra. As much as I like Gene Kelly, and as famous as the sequence of him dancing with Jerry the Mouse is, the movie's too long and too lacking in musical bits to really grab me. It just feels terribly bloated and self-important. I would suggest looking up the musical bits on youtube, and letting this one pass by the wayside.

La Vie en Rose (***)
A beautiful film about French singer Edith Piaf, this movie is ... frustrating. The character is well-acted, but is so terribly unlikable that I spent the first two thirds of the movie wishing I were doing something else. I don't know how accurate it is, but it's very off putting. That said, I think that it ends pretty well and the music and cinematography are second to none. I wouldn't go out of my way to recommend it, but then, I rarely think biopics scream recommendation.

What A Way to Go! (****)
A great dark comedy starring Shirley MacLaine and a bunch of leading men (Gene Kelly, Dick Van Dyke, Paul Newman, etc.) about her continued efforts to land a man who appreciates the simple life and her curse of them all trying to gain huge fortunes and dying. The movie is goofy, but one of the best things about it is that each of the men she goes through has a genre of film spoofed about their relationship. It's a neat touch, and the film itself is clever and light and everything it needs to be. A comedy that still works as much as the day it came out, a rare treat.

Les Paul: Chasing Sound (****)
A documentary about the life and accomplishments of Les Paul. It's good. I learned a lot. If you like music or interesting people, it's well worth watching. That is all.

Movie Rundown - Catching up, honest!

Okay, ladies and gents. It's been WEEKS since we've done this, because I kind of fell out of my movie watching habits aside from the odd new release, and ... well, to be honest, I didn't feel like writing about one movie at a time. Unfortunately, it's added up, and become a list so lengthy that trying to go through them all would be nigh impossible.

So you're getting three installments. First, we'll catch up to this past weekend. On Wednesday, we'll cover the weekend proper. And on Thursday, we'll talk about the movie marathon that saw me through Labor Day. I was going to make this one big tome of a thing, but a certain Miss Ditty, Esquire decided it would be best if I split it up and she generally knows what she's talking about.

So, here you go. The long road to the present!

Clerks 2 (****)
Clerks 2 was the end of this summer's Kevin Smith project, and has become tied with Chasing Amy as my favorite of his films. Things of note? Musical sequences, a great cap on the universe that's come from all of the other films, and Rosario Dawson being amazing (as she always is). I think that Kevin Smith's best watched in order, but if you've seen Clerks at least and enjoyed it, you owe it to yourself to see this brilliant, brilliant movie.

Nosferatu (***)
The original vampire movie. Like most silent films, it's nearly impossible for me to judge the quality. I thought it was okay, with the plus of atmosphere and an amazingly haunting portrayal of Nosferatu himself coupled with the fault that it ends rather abruptly with what I can only call a cop out. Still, for fans of horror movies or film in general, it's a must see.

(500) Days of Summer (***)
I really loved this movie a lot as I left the theater, and it struck a chord with me. There were parts of it that seemed taken exactly out of my experience. If I had written this then, it would have easily garnered four stars. That said, weeks have passed, and my feelings have cooled significantly. My problem with this movie is that it simply tries too hard to appeal to the hipster 20-something crowd. While watching it, I didn't notice as much, but it's most decidedly built to make everybody of a certain age think it's written about them. That touching personal nature instead started to feel like calculated demographic-targeted writing, from the quirky girl to the guy who talks about philosophy over a table arcade game to the Top 20 offbeat musicians that make up its soundtrack. It's nothing special, but if you're of the right age, I bet you'll walk out feeling like it touched you in some way. I just ... am not sure the intentions were correct.

Ponyo (*****)
Ponyo. Miyazaki. Either you know of the genius of Hayao Miyazaki or you know nothing of film. This isn't his best movie, but it's a brilliant movie, as just about everything he does is. This movie needs to be seen by everyone, as far as I'm concerned. It is, like all of his movies, magical.

District 9 (****)
Great movie, though the first half is FAR better than the second half. That said, it's the second best sci fi movie of the year so far (behind MOON) and is well worth people's time.

Inglourious Basterds (****)
Tarantino going back to the kind of noiry post-modern cinematic mashups that he did prior to Kill Bill. Fantastic movie. I ended up wishing that many of the characters had films about them. That's always a great sign. It's not going to win over anyone who hates Tarantino (those sad, misguided souls) but for everybody else ... I wouldn't be surprised to see this movie on my best of 2009 list.

Movie Rundown - July 13 to July 19

All right, ladies and gentlemen! We're up to our asses in films this week, so let's not beat around the bush.

Movies incoming!

Benny & Joon (**)
I checked this one out on the recommendation of one Elizabeth Ditty, who typically has great taste in film. Perhaps that still holds true, but I found Benny & Joon to be a frustrating, empty experience. In short, a man caring for his schizophrenic sister takes in an offbeat layabout (played by Johnny Depp) who acts like Buster Keaton. Antics ensue.

There's some stuff about mental health and other stuff about a budding romance, but it's pretty light fare. The problem comes from the actions of the titular Benny and Joon, both of whom are basically entirely unlikable and spend the entire movie doing the wrong things for the wrong reasons until the writers ran out of pages and let them all live happily ever after.

There is something very charming about Depp's performance, back in the day when he hadn't yet learned how to play Movie Star Johnny Depp. But unless you have a thing for him or a high tolerance for sappy-at-the-expensive-of-all-else kind of movies, stay away.

Reclaiming the Blade (****)
A documentary about swords. Seems straightforward enough. But this is a movie with an edge. More to the point (okay, I'm done) the film is about the history of these weapons of legend, from their first developments to their use in modern day in sport, reenactments, movies, etc.

There's quite a lot to love here. It explains the sword in function and theory, and the Western infatuation with the blade. There are interviews with actors, sword trainers, martial arts experts, blacksmiths, scholars. It's pretty exhaustive, though even after an hour and a half I was ready for more.

Of particular note are two sections, one on how fencing bears little to no resemblance to any sort of actual swordfighting, a reduction of a skill to a sport and how the proliferation of fencing nearly ruined the heritage of European martial arts. And secondly, of the rediscovery of the true European martial arts, both of swordfighting and grappling, that has risen up very recently.

If you love movie fighting, real fighting, or just documentaries in general, this is for you. It's on Netflix Instant, for anyone who's interested. And it's well worth the investment.

Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince (***)
This is going to be short. Either you're A) a Harry Potter fan and are going to see this one no matter what and nothing I say is going to sway you one way or another B) someone who hates all the Harry Potter garbage with a passion and nothing I say will get them to watch this or C) someone who's kind of meh about the whole thing.

I fall pretty heavily in category C. But I encourage all Category C people to go ahead and see this one. It's solid enough, not as flashy or pointless as the last two felt, not as whimsically stupid as the first two. It's not as good as Prisoner of Azkaban, but it's a decent movie that had to do a lot to get away from the soggy trainwreck of a novel that is the Half Blood Prince book.

I don't really have much more to say on the subject. The films are bigger than my opinion. I thought this one in particular had an eye for how to shoot a dynamic scene and the actors gave much better performances across the board than they ever had before, but the story itself is kind of long-winded and ineffectual, as penultimate stories typically are.

That said, it's a worthy setup to the two Deathly Hallows movies, and if you've come this far through movies 1-5, you're probably going to see this one anyway. So yeah. Harry Potter. Another one. Woo.

Dogma (****)
Dogma is the next in the Kevin Smith project, and one that had already been highly recommended to me many times before. It's an amazing movie, funny and smart and surprisingly well-paced especially for a Kevin Smith movie.

The story of a young woman who is drafted by Metatron, the voice of God, to stop two angels from fulfilling a plan to lead to the destruction of all creation, Dogma is part quest film, part road movie, and part religious satire. Along the way, the woman runs into the 13th Apostle (Chris Rock), the Muse Serendipity (Salma Hayek) and more.

There's a lot of things I'd say about this one, but instead I'm going to tell you to go and watch it. Much of the comedy would be spoiled by a bigger, better explanation. But I will say that as long as you don't mind some punches being thrown at the Catholic Church and Christian religion, you're going to have a great time. Guaranteed.

Cannibal Holocaust (*)
I don't know if you've heard of this, but if you're a fan of horror or exploitation or controversial movies in general you should have. In fact, you've probably seen it, as it's one of the most ubiquitous exploitation movies of all time.

Which is unfortunate, because it's terrible.

The movie charts a professor who goes into the jungles of South America to find a missing film crew. In doing so, he stumbles upon a wild tribe who have the rolls of film, and then returns to New York City to view the grisly footage on display.

The problem is the film is a trainwreck. There's a hamfisted message about how civilized man is worse than cannibals in the wild, because while cannibals are just doing ritual slaughter modern man comes and destroys and rapes and pillages.

Of course, the film has no qualms about going around showing you just how bad the film crew is. There are multiple murders, and multiple rapes, to the point where something's getting screwed, shot, or stabbed about every three minutes in the last half of the film. And it's all done with a flair for the graphic detail, which leads to an onslaught of gore and hyperviolence that permeates the second half.

The problem is, for all that fury it ends up shooting itself in the foot. You watch so many people get hacked apart, so much raw looking flesh get eaten, and so many people violated in so many ways that it just ceases to be affecting and becomes slightly queasy and slightly boring. When they talk about the deadening affect of violence in media, this could be the poster child. For all its atrocities, they're all misused and stripped of context until it all becomes meaningless and stupid.

But, sadly, this is still a significant film. And despite my hatred for it, I know how it exists and why it's so regarded and controversial to this day. Any film person is going to have to give it a go sooner or later. And while I absolutely hated it, maybe ... just maybe, someone else will see something in there I don't.

(as a final note, I know some people are really weird about animal cruelty, and know that this movie has real images of real animals having bad things happen to them on camera. none of them are so cuddly as dogs or cats or anything, but ... it's there, and it's as gratuitous and exploitative as the rest, but worse for being real )

Moon (****)
Imagine a future where Earth gets all of its energy from a substance called Helium-3 mined on the far side of the moon. It's a mostly automated process that only needs limited oversight. So there's a single man who signs up for a three year contract on the moon base, watching the harvesters and doing any necessary repairs.

This is the world of Moon. And in many ways, it's a world of isolation. It's about what happens to a man when he's cut off from the world, and what that can do to a person in stages of their life. The film is basically Sam Rockwell in a single set the whole time, kept company by an AI built into a mobile console played by Kevin Spacey.

It's when Sam (Rockwell's character) gets in an accident and wakes up in two places at once that things get dicey. The two versions are both identified by the AI as being the same person, and they both share the same memories. And it is the interplay between the two versions of the main character and the AI that become the driving force of the film.

And guess what? It works. Really well. There are multiple layers to the story, and whenever I figured I had it pegged and was like 'huh, it'll end on this level and that'll be kind of cliche' it went ahead and took it further. There was just so much atmosphere, and the performances were so great, that it was impossible not to get sucked in.

Well recommended. Easily one of the best sci fi movies I've seen in years and years.

Jay & Silent Bob Strike Back (***)
I can already tell you exactly whether or not you'll like Jay and Silent Bob. Are you into his other movies that came out previously? Do you like the things that Kevin Smith is into (Star Wars, comic books, movie nerdism, etc)? Can you appreciate fan service? Do you like Jay and Silent Bob as characters?

If so, you'll like this movie. It's entirely a fan service project, a movie that Kevin Smith made as a love letter to the other movies in the same universe, where characters exist together and everything is touched upon. Actors play two different roles if they were in two of his movies, just about every familiar face returns, and the whole thing is kind of a goofy romp through the world that Kevin Smith created, seen through the eyes of his dumbest characters.

At heart a buddy road movie, Jay and Silent Bob isn't very good, but it's great fun. I mean, the climactic battle involves Kevin Smith as Silent Bob facing off with Mark Hamill (doing a barely-disguised Joker voice) in a lightsaber dual in a batcave knockoff.

I think this is the movie with the highest barrier to entry of all of his, because it does have so many callbacks. But for a part of the movie project? It was like a love note to what I had been doing, taking in these movies so rapidly. Just don't expect a masterpiece. At the end of the day, Jay and Silent Bob go through life smoking weed and telling dick and fart jokes.

Nosferatu
I really debate rating movies like Nosferatu and others in the silent film genre, because of how far removed we are. That movie is literally 87 years old, and generations of movie advancement apart. How good it is at that point becomes really abstract, requiring a lot of context and knowledge that I might not necessarily have. So ... I think I'm going to abstain from rating it.

That said, it's an interesting retelling of Bram Stoker's Dracula, focusing more on the first half of the novel. Guy goes to sell a mysterious Count a house, gets trapped in the castle, Count turns out to be a vampire who is infatuated with guy's young wife, heads to England to drink her blood.

The movie itself takes plenty of liberties with the source material (though, then again, it's not a direct Dracula adaptation). But all in all it's very well put together. The makeup on Nosferatu himself is well done, going for a rodent-like appearance over a charming count. And all in all, I think it's a far better portrayal of a monster than trying to humanize it. That said, if you're into horror movies, vampires, or silent films, it's well worth watching. It's endured through the ages for a reason.

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And that's all for today! I didn't get through one of my netflix discs, but it'll show up next week. Also on the agenda is Clerks 2, the last of the Kevin Smith project. Past that? Who knows! Gonna be playing it by ear a bit more next week.

Movie Rundown - July 6 to July 12

All right, I've been working on one of my previous books, rereading it in order to get an edit job going in the next week or so. So to be honest with you, I really didn't have much time or energy to watch many movies. This was compounded by work being extra special plusbad difficult last week, so ... the fact that I decided to watch a bunch of movies this weekend is the only thing that really guaranteed I'd do one of these this week.

An eclectic bunch, but nothing new, so let's just get started.

Hellboy (****)
I rewatched Hellboy for the first time since 2005 on Friday, a nice blu-ray copy on a friend's nice television. Aside from making me crave my own BD player, the movie was a nice reminder of just why I originally fell in love with the work of one Mr. del Toro.

Hellboy's aged pretty well. This was the extended edition, so there were some scenes (especially some nice ones with Selma Blair) that really rounded out the characters nicely. But the movie itself remains as fun and well-made as always. With the higher resolution, some of the CG doesn't hold up, but I think that's mostly true across the board.

That said, I think I've finally decided that of the two the original movie is the superior product. What little I know of Hellboy as a comic I think was likely much better captured in the first film. The second film, for all the things I enjoy about it, certainly feels like del Toro ran with his own fever dream visions much more so than he did. Which is fine, but detracts from the original Mignola style of the comics and first movie.

Moon Child (****)
Moon Child is a Japanese film starring pop singer Gackt and L'Arc-en-Ciel guitarist and lead singer Hyde. Hyde plays a vampire who is discovered by a young orphan. The two become fast friends, and as the young orphan grows up (played by Gackt) they become a team taking on crime-ridden streets and living a life of abandon.

The movie is surprisingly touching, given the fact it stars two music stars. The movie explores what it means to grow up, and what happens to friendships over time based on the choices people make. It's heavy stuff, full of death and betrayal, with an emphasis on typical gangster fiction played out as the backdrop to the personal drama.

The movie itself was touching, but more surprising is the fact it exists at all. Yes, the stylish action and goofy humor at times make the movie feel uneven tonally, but I could never imagine an american musician ever making a film half as deep or complex as this one. If you're into either of the musicians, or into Japanese films, or vampire movies in general, it's well worth seeking out.

Chasing Amy (*****)
The latest in my ongoing Kevin Smith project, Chasing Amy comes on the heels of last week's Mallrats, which I wasn't much into. However, things have come around and in a big way. Chasing Amy is not only fantastic, but might be my favorite romantic comedy of all time.

Why? Well, that's hard to explain. But the movie itself feels very grounded and very real, with characters who act in ways that I could identify with and didn't seem cliche at all. That's the key, how relatable the characters are, that makes Kevin Smith's best work so great. These people are all fucked up, some a lot and some a little, but they're fucked up like you or your friends. And so, the situation doesn't seem trite or rehashed, but real and meaningful and (when it all clicks) very moving.

Of particular note here is Ben Affleck, who continues to grow on me with just about every movie I see him in. Here he is endearing and infuriating and it all works in a way that feels right. He's a leading man who doesn't lead anything anywhere. And in his understated performance, he sells the entire situation.

Go see this movie. There are some minor complains that maybe I could make, especially thematically, but they're well beyond the scope of this write up here. Just go see it. It's wonderful. I'm not sure what else I'll get out of Kevin Smith, but this movie alone makes the entire project a rousing success.

Scoop (***)
Scoop. Oh Scoop. I picked this one up on recommendation of one Elizabeth Ditty, who normally has solid taste in movies. This time, though, I'm going to have to disagree with her.

Scoop is a Woody Allen movie, and is admittedly the first one I've seen, but I was very unimpressed. A offbeat comedy-mystery starring Allen himself, Scarlett Johansson, and Hugh Jackman, it's a light movie that kind of trundles along at its own lazy, happy pace. In reality, though, the whole thing felt a little too empty. At the end of the day, I felt like I had watched something in line with Nancy Drew or The Hardy Boys, young bumbling detectives who figure out a case and ...

Look, the movie's fine. It's cute, sometimes it's genuinely funny, but it's pretty harmless all in all. I was looking and hoping for something with some more oomph, maybe a little deeper meaning, and I was left feeling a little hollow. I don't know if that was just an expectation problem, but at the end of the day the film left me more annoyed with it than pleased.

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And that's it! As of the time of this writing, the Netflix website is down, but I'm hoping in the next week to see Dogma and, if it's out on DVD yet, Tyson. Also up is the new Harry Potter film, Harry Potter and the Bloated Penultimate Book, which I have very low expectations for. There might be something else thrown into the mix, but I couldn't begin to tell you what at this time and date.

That's all, friends! I might post a bit about my editing process, maybe throw up some notes or whatever. I don't know. Writing books doesn't make for compelling blog content, I've noticed. Especially since right now I'm not doing much more than reading and making notes.

Oh well. See you on the flip side of the week, if nothing else!

Movie Rundown - June 28 to July 5

Not much to say about movies this week. My movie project procedes as usual, and my most anticipated movie of the summer turned out to be kind of a bust. That said, there are several notable things in movie land this week.

First off, the arthouse theater in town is showing The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly at the end of the month. As one of my favorite films, and I think the best shot film I've ever seen, I'm very very excited to be able to experience it on the big screen. Going to be an experience.

Second, from the creators of Machine Girl and Tokyo Gore Police (both amazing, amazing movies) comes this trailer this week. Watch it, and enjoy it's awesomeness! Movie reviews will follow below, and we'll see you next week with another one of these!



Gran Torino (****)
Clint Eastwood's latest movie about a Korean war veteran set in his ways. The movie opens on his wife dying, on the family that is spoiled and estranged from him and his old fashioned ways. His life is one out of time, the kind of man that doesn't exist anymore, a man who can fix things and keep a strong face and knows his shit. Which is when a Hmong family moves in next door and he's thrust into a living world that actively tries to bring him out of his shell.

The interesting thing about this movie is that it plays off of the traditional antihero action guy role that Eastwood has been playing his whole life. By referencing it but placing it in the background of this angry old man, it lends a certain amount of sadness and an undercurrent of dark humor to it. Clint Eastwood has been the baddest of badasses, but watching him groan to reach down and pick something up is both heartbreaking and endearing.

The movie itself deals with what it means to be American in the 21st century, and an older generation learning to accept a new generation and new realities while still understanding how they're relevant and what they can contribute to the world even long past their prime. I couldn't help but watch the movie and think of my own father, who is of a similar age and acts in very similar ways sometimes. And in creating something that would probably speak to his own generation and say something to people my age, Eastwood has made a movie that feels realistic but also a great postmodern twist on Eastwood's ancient action persona.

Mallrats (***)
The second in my Kevin Smith project, and a disappointing entry. Mallrats, especially coming hot off the heels of Clerks, feels kind of hollow. Sure, the film has a budget, and it's in color, and it is determined to give you a good time. But in doing so, the heart seemed to be missing from it.

The characters seem far more cartoonish than they were in Clerks, and the comedy is a lot of running around and doing things without any of the subtext and deeper meaning that Clerks had. Clerks was about finding direction in a life that was going nowhere. Mallrats is just about some guys trying to win the hearts of some women.

Funny, but ... disappointingly lacking.

My Name is Bruce (****)
Bruce Campbell. Either you know what I'm talking about or you don't when it comes to the man best known as simply The Bruce. If you don't know, this isn't for you. But if you do, let me spin you a tale.

Bruce Campbell is a B-movie star of such films as Evil Dead, Bubba Ho-Tep, and Man with the Screaming Brain. He's got a slimy agent, a bunch of nerdy fans he hates, and an ex-wife who hates his guts. But suddenly, a fan shows up and kidnaps him, taking him to a backwater town. The reason? A real demon has been unleashed, and the town decided that the best way to fight a demon would be to hire a guy who made movies about fighting demons.

Makes sense, right? Problem is, Bruce thinks its just an appearance gig.

This movie is a no-budget horror production. As it should be. It's hilarious, awesome, and full of Bruce. Bruce. Seriously. If you like Bruce, see this. The man is in almost every scene and is nothing but magnificent.

Bruce. Accept no substitutes.

LolliLove (**)
A mockumentary written, directed by, and starring The Office's Jenna Fischer. It charts the fictionalized attempts of her and her then-husband, James Gunn, to get a homeless charity off the ground. It's a ultra-no-budget affair, a bunch of people messing around with commercial cameras on the weekend sort of thing.

It's not bad, but it's ... amateur. The whole thing is short and kind of lame, but Jenna Fischer is her typical endearing self. All in all, though, I'd say that you'd be fine just not bothering with this. It exists, but you're not missing much.

Public Enemies (***)
Where to begin with this one? I don't want to seem harsh, but this isn't a great movie. It's an okay movie, with some solid performances but some serious flaws. Among them? It's WAY too long, WAY too slowly paced, and the cinematography that Michael Mann uses to great effect to explore modern urban areas is wasted here, becoming a jumbled mess that feels brutish and ugly.

In making a film about John Dillinger, Mann has spent most of the film so in love with the idea of making a biopic that he forgot to make a satisfying story. One might argue that with prior warning, that would be fine, and in the hands of another filmmaker I would agree. The problem is, Michael Mann doesn't make biopics. He makes crime dramas. Out of his element, the film doesn't have a lot going for it when it comes to plot or direction, and it shows.

That said, the actors do amazing jobs. Johnny Depp turns in what is probably his best performance in years, reigning in his usual Depp-ness in order to portray a much more reserved, much more down-to-earth man in Dillinger. The film banks on his name, and he carries it well.

Sadly, Christian Bale wasn't so lucky. He's become something of a go-to guy these days, but with his terrible southern accent and his blank demeanor, he's basically wasted here. It's a shame, too, because the film seems primed for a meeting of the minds much in the way of Heat. Sadly, that never comes to pass.

It's an okay movie, and worth seeing (especially for Depp fans, or Michael Mann fans) but ... be forewarned. It's a frustratingly disappointing film on multiple levels.

Movie Rundown - A long list of movies

Okay, so here's a big catchup post of movies from the past three weeks or so. I don't remember exactly how long, but ... yeah. Long time. I think I'm getting back into movies, and I started another movie project, so hopefully this'll be a little more regular after this.

Maybe.

Sorry for the short intro. Work's been busy, and I'm trying to keep my rambling for a minimum. Hand troubles and all. So let's begin.

Kids (***)
This is one of those movies that's worth watching, but isn't a very good experience. The movie itself is fine, don't get me wrong, but it's depressing through and through in every aspect. The story of teens in New York City, it's about sex, violence, and the spreading of AIDS. And it's not happy, heartwarming fare. Nor is it comfortably tragic a la RENT. It's bleak. Refreshingly so, but ... it's not going to bring smiles to any faces. For people into depressing experiences only.

UP (*****)
Go see UP. Look, Pixar's never made a bad movie, even if I'm not really into A Bug's Life. This one is easily their best and miles above Wall-E. It's fantastic, it's beautifull, it's sad. Then after you watch it, go watch Kiki's Delivery Service and Howl's Moving Castle by Miyazaki and realize that they get their magic by emulating the master of magic.

But mostly, just go see it. It's wonderful.

Drag Me to Hell (****)
Look, I have a love/hate relationship with Sam Raimi. I really love Evil Dead 1 and 2. I'm not as into Army of Darkness. And I'm really ambivalent about Spider-Man. One was okay, two had it's great moments, but three was the blockbuster trainwreck of that year. Hated it. Hate hate hate.

This, however, is love. It's much more like Evil Dead. If you go into this as a straight up horror film, you'd be sorely disappointed. You see, Raimi has a fetish for torturing his characters. And so Drag Me to Hell, much like Evil Dead, exists in the little-explored region of horror/comedy. If you're into that sort of thing, go see this. It's brilliant. If you're not into that, no amount of explanation will ever make you see this. Which is sad, you closed-minded bastards.

Tremors 4: The Legend Begins (***)
Look, have you seen Tremors? No? Because it's a CLASSIC. And the second one isn't too bad either. If you're truly a masochist, you need to go ahead and watch Tremors 3. It's awful, almost completely irredeemable, but ... then you get to this. The ghettoist ghetto. Tremors 4. A prequel to a movie that most people have never even heard of.

And guess what? It's pretty good. I mean, it's silly, sure. And it has almost no budget. But as a monsters-in-old-west story it plays pretty well. It knows what it is and that it has to tell a modest story and it does that handily. Just for the setting and genre alone I'd say go ahead and give this one a watch, assuming you like Tremors as a franchise (such as it is).

Miami Vice (****)
Michael Mann. That enough is gonna get me to see a movie. And this one is pretty much a Mannstravaganza (which sounds, in retrospect, like something WAY different). It's full of fast-paced dialogue and ambiguous characters on either side of the cop/criminal divide. It has a few action beats that are vicious and feel realistic and have impact because they're so minimally used. It's not Heat, but it feels a little more measured in terms of the character portrayals than heat. Of particular note is Colin Farrell, who I've never really been into but really surprised me here.

Easy Virtue (*****)
I already reviewed this one, and basically I feel the same way as I used to. So go HERE, read this review, and then go see this movie in any way you can.

Clerks (****)
Okay, so I started a new movie project this summer (last summer was the Coen Brothers filmography) and I chose Kevin Smith. I don't know why I chose Kevin Smith, other than I had really been feeling like comedies lately and Kevin Smith movies are all films that I wish I had seen but haven't ever gotten around to seeing.

So, Clerks. I assume most everybody's seen Clerks. Its one of those movies that is everywhere and I hear jokes referencing it all the time. So I was expecting the movie itself to be bereft of much of its original voice and impact. Surprisingly, that wasn't the case. In fact, I found this movie to be surprisingly relevant to now even if it's well over 15 years old now.

The story of a bunch of apathetic convenience store clerks over a single day, Clerks is a no-budget slice of life comedy with a good eye for dialogue and a perfect sense of how guys talk when nobody's around. I know, because this movie very much feels like it's out of my own life. While I'm not sure how much people who aren't just out of their late teens/college years would like it, I felt that it was heartfelt in its vulgarity because it was so true. It really connected to me, on a multitude of levels, where I actually related to the characters in a way I typically don't.

So ... yeah. Clerks is great. And I'm looking very forward to watching the rest of Kevin Smith's movies.

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So, that's done. Who knows whats on the agenda this week, aside from my much-anticipated viewing of Public Enemies on Friday and Mallrats sometime this week. My friend Adam is trying to rope me into watching Twilight, but ... I don't think anybody wants that, other than him.

And he's a bastard.

Movie Rundown - April 20 to May 10

My apologies for this taking so long. Things have been kind of hectic, with the failure of my Script Frenzy attempt and some family issues. I'm probably not going to talk about either here on the blog. Maybe the Script Frenzy thing. On a day when I'm feeling particularly self-destructive.

I haven't been much in the mood for netflix movies lately, so this list is going to be short for how much time it covers. I've just been watching The Office in my spare time. Good stuff. As for the movies, here we go!

Resurrecting the Champ (****)
Josh Hartnett plays a struggling sports journalist who discovers that a homeless man who goes by Champ (played by Samuel L Jackson) is a former boxing contender to a world title. He tries to form a bond with Champ in order to write his story, a sure-fire hit.

It sounds like it could descend into the saccharine, but I found it a really good movie. Hartnett, who's never really set me afire, is surprisingly solid in an ineffectual everyman sort of way. The real star here is Jackson, though, who forgoes his typical blaxploitation schtick to turn in a great performance. Champ is run down, ancient, wobbly and screechy, and Jackson's portrayal is at times heartbreaking and others repellant. It's the backbone of the movie, and it carries it well.

2 Fast 2 Furious (**)
The second move in the series of things that are Fast and Furious, this is widely regarded as the worst of the series. And I'm willing to agree with that. This movie is kind of messed up from the get go. It just plods on with a formulaic adherence to mediocrity that's startling. There are moments that are fun, but there are (minus one) no moments that are great.

For a big budget summer action movie? That's inexcusable.

Also, there's a crazy amount of CGI used in this movie, especially at the beginning. It got better over time, but at the beginning it was nearly insufferable. The rule of car movies needs to be "NO CG." And its lack of faith in the subject matter is disheartening. For completionists only.

Diva (***)
I had never heard of this movie until I read an essay from Tom Robbins where he answered the question "What is your favorite movie character?" He cited this movie and one of the characters in it. The joy of the modern world, I could have it in my mailbox within a week.

This is a French movie about a young man who records a singer who refuses to record her work for his own use. But when his tape is mixed up with a tape incriminating the leader of a prostitution ring, the young man is tossed into a world of intrigue and blackmail.

The movie itself is strange, with an odd surrealist quality to everything. Tom Robbins' favorite character dances around the periphery of the story like some sort of mad monk, which is probably what appealed to him. But the action itself takes on this strange dreamlike quality where the danger feels almost unimportant in the face of people's desires as they go through the story. That detachment I'm almost certain is on purpose, and I like the dreamlike nature of it, but I wouldn't say it's particularly gripping. If you like strange French thrillers, go right ahead and watch this, though, and you won't regret it.

Earth
I'm not rating this one, and you might say that's a cop out but I'm going to defend it. Simply put, there was a narrative here, but my enjoyment of it was completely independant of whatever storytelling they were trying to do.

We all know the story. Disney nature documentary using footage from the Planet Earth miniseries from a year or so ago. There's a story about some families of mammals in the struggle to survive on a dynamic ecosystem such as ours. There is some talk of global warming and whatnot.

But what this truly is is nature porn. It's the landscape and the creatures upon it as art in themselves, presented in the most breathtaking ways. This is one of those films that thrives on camera technology, on the ability to shoot HD and slow motion and from far away with a Steadicam and still get detail. And what it picks up is amazing, from slow motion footage of a cheetah bringing down prey to a time lapse of a frozen forest coming to life. It's spellbinding in a way that is all about the image and very little about anything else.

I highly suggest anyone who is into things beautiful go see it, if it's even still playing. The nicest screen you can find it at. This is one that benefits greatly from the HD experience. I would probably not been as affected had it been on a TV running a plain old DVD.

X-Men Origins: Wolverine (*)
I was going to write up why this movie was completely fucked from end to end, but you could get that from a lot of places. It stands as the worst movie I've ever payed money to see, from the terrible CGI used all over the place in glaring ways to the insipid script that ruins perfectly good actors on material that would have been at home with the Super Friends. Hugh Jackman and Liev Schreiber try their hardest to add some gravitas to the proceedings, but it's not enough, nor is the typically solid Harry Gregson-Williams score. Whoever made this movie like this messed up huge. It's trash. Garbage. Don't give them your ticket money. Simple as that.

Star Trek (****)
This one is easier to write about, because it's easy to gush. So I'll keep it short. Star Trek is a reboot of the franchise that everyone all over the world has heard of. It's a new Kirk, Spock and McCoy back when they were just starting out on their first adventure. It's made by J J Abrams, who apparently is pretty popular these days.

It is also fantastic. Every bit works, from the pitch perfect casting to the balance between being faithful to the fans of Trek and making a movie that nonfans would actually care about. It's emotionally strong, it's fast paced, it's interesting, it's full of actual danger and real risks and they pay off big time in surprising ways (which I won't go into, but have ramifications for any sequels that come about).

Go see it. I don't care what you think about the original Star Trek. I was sorely tempted to give it five stars, but even at four, I think that it's a movie that everyone needs to see and a movie that'll find its way onto my Top Movies of 2009 list later this year. You need to see it. It's a movie that's bigger than a fanbase, and bigger than serious moviegoers. This is THE event film.

( Also, because I have to give shout outs to the best parts of the movie, Karl Urban as McCoy is BRILLIANT. I could have watched a whole movie about him. I've been behind him since I saw him in The Two Towers, so seeing him really put in that strong of a performance is thrilling. Also, Michael Giacchino, the composer, does an amazing job of providing strong thematic material to help underscore the movie. It's big and bombastic, but it rarely feels heavyhanded. In fact, I'm listening to the score as I write this. Giacchino also did the scores to the underappreciated Sky High and Speed Racer, and the rightly appreciated Incredibles. He's a man I'm going to watch, because I ALWAYS enjoy his work. )

The Soloist (***)
I slipped this one in on Mothers Day and came away kind of ... unenthused about the whole thing. The story is easy enough, the tale of a Juliard dropout with schitzophrenia who's living on the streets playing music when he's discovered by an LA Columnist who takes an interest in his story. I'd heard of the story when the book was released, and the movie does a good job of retelling it.

The problem is that the director doesn't seem satisfied with letting the actors do their job. There is a bombardment of jump cuts and surround sound wankering with voices to help illustrate the schitzophrenia. There are strange, surrealistic scenes plopped in seemingly at random. And there's an absolutely mood-breaking moment of synesthesia placed smack dab in the middle of what should have been one of the most affecting parts of the movie. But instead of trusting Jamie Foxx to do his job, the director seemed more interested in how he could play around with his tools.

Disappointing, I say again. Solid performances, but the filmmaking itself left a lot to be desired. I wouldn't say its a waste of time, but it's nothing special.

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And that's a wrap. I'm going to be trying to start writing again this week as I try to get out from under all the problems that aren't my creative work that have been pressing me down. I've also go the madness of a younger brother graduating high school this week, but ... I'm hopeful that I'll be able to get some output.

See you on the other side of this week.

Movie Rundown - April 13 to April 19

The Cutting Edge: Magic of Movie Editing (*****)
Film editing is one of those hidden arts of making movies. It's rarely obvious, it's rarely noticed by the average movie-goer, but it is one of the most essential aspects of the art. It's right up there with the writer and the director. An understanding of editing is essential to appreciating movies as art.

Good thing there are things like this documentary to point out examples of editing achievements and techniques, of a brief history of editing from the first person to splice film together to the MTV generation of quick cuts and the ability to edit within the frame.

This is one of those documentaries that needs to be seen, an examination of the film medium in total, an elaboration on one of the most under appreciated aspects of movie-making, bringing it out and exposing it in way that I guarantee will provide nearly everyone with a great appreciation of the task after having watched it.

Breathless (****)
One of the major films of the La Nouvelle Vague, Breathless is the film of a thief and his love interest as he tries to lay low after the unintentional murder of a man during an escape.

This is a hard film to talk about, if only because like many of the most influential of films from the era, what it did best has been so mined and replicated that it can kind of feel like old hat. But Breathless sets itself apart by keeping the characters and acting interesting, with a story that carries on to an inevitable end but invests you in the characters who try their hardest to avoid it.

The real key here is in the film making techniques. Goddard was big into jump cuts, disregarding the traditional editing of film to provide a more kinetic experience. It's almost jarring at first, with the film skipping like a record with a scratch, but the energy on the screen is absolute. By cutting out the unimportant things, or choosing when to show them, the empty spaces are given a weight and impact that most films lack. I can't help but recommend this one for just being that amazingly put together.

Milo and Otis (***)
I saw this on the urging of my friend Adam, who said that he had fond memories of it. It's the story of a cat and a dog who grow up on a farm together and end up getting lost in the wilderness on an adventure. Standard animal fair along the lines of Homeward Bound or similar?

Not really. See, Milo and Otis was actually a Japanese movie that was appropriated for American audiences, given a comforting narrator and turned into a comfortable story. But like the most classic fairytales, there's something in the storytelling that makes me feel as if there's far more here. The animals are described in adorable ways, but they act like animals, with the instincts of hunters and scavengers and fighters. There is a kind of hard undercurrent, dark and bleak, that keeps the storytelling interesting.

I don't know if it's just me, but it feels like there are two stories here, a very adult, mature story about the stages of life and the isolation of men over time, even in the state of nature, and the cozy bedtime story of farm animals looking for home. And it's that dichotomy that makes it worth watching, the hidden depth that provides entertainment across the age groups.

Yeah, for an animal movie, it's pretty good.

The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift (****) [rewatch]
It's getting to the point where the car movie reviews are coming to be old hat. So let me just break this down really fast. The third entry in the franchise of things that are both Fast and Furious to varying degrees is a fun movie. It's got a silly but servicable plot, some pretty solid acting, and absolutely amazing car work. It also it completely fetishistic about how awesome Japan is, from the crazy styles to the crazy food to the insanity that is Japanese culture.

If you haven't seen any of the movies before, this one is essentially a stand-alone film, so you wouldn't be missing anything by just skipping to this one. It's got some cute eye candy of both genders, some great music, and brilliant car work (almost all of which was done practically, see my complaints about the original Fast and Furious below).

Also, Sonny Chiba.

Sonny Chiba is the motherfucking MAN.

Bullitt (**)
This is ... troubling. Bullitt is the first of the 'rogue cop who doesn't play by the rules' movies. Or at least, the first big one. Dirty Harry, Die Hard, whatever you want. That archetype made it here. The problem is, as the first of a subgenre, it feels really mellow and tame compared to the rest. So the film itself seems long and boring and convoluted.

That said, there's a classic car chase through the streets of San Francisco in here that's FANTASTIC. The problem? It's 10 minutes long, and the movie goes on for another 45 minutes after that.

This one's just aged really badly, I think. I wouldn't recommend it to anyone who wasn't looking at it for a particular film reason. Like I said, it's noteworthy, but ... not my thing.

State of Play (****)
I wasn't really that excited for this movie going in, which might have been a blessing or not, because I ended up really surprised. You see, I wasn't committed to seeing anything this week, but knew I should, and this was showing before Observe and Report so it got the vote.

This tale of reporters after a conspiracy is a strange beast in this day and age. The BBC miniseries version from a few years ago probably was a little more relevant, I'm not sure, but this is a movie that exists in the last days of the newspaper business. And it's aware of that, with a newspaper that's a small arm of a giant media company and the tension of a Journalist with a capital J and a member of the paper's younger blogging branch teaming up.

It's an odd combination, but it really does work quite well. It feels kind of strange, though, watching the paradigm shift. The world isn't going to be the same, and while Journalism will eventually find its proper home after the sinking of the newspapers, right now we're entering a time when this kind of story would be nigh-impossible to actually come about. The idea of a newspaper having the resources to dig into a conspiracy? Well, that's hard to do if the newspaper is owned by corporate business interests. Impossible if there's no funding for that kind of in-depth research. Ridiculous if there's no power to protect sources and go where one shouldn't in pursuit of the story.

It's a digression, but that the movie left me with those feelings is only to its credit. To turn back to it, it's a tightly plotted political thriller with a great cast. I'm never a Russell Crowe fan, but I have to admit that he always is a credit to any movie he's in. And Mr. Affleck is the perfect actor to portray a Senator. It's impossible to tell with him what's real and what's artifice, and the role suits him.

It's a great movie. I'd recommend it for anyone with even the slightest interest in the subject matter or genre.

The Fast and the Furious (***)
So I picked this up at Walmart for the hell of it on Friday night after seeing State of Play, and rewatching it is kind of a frustrating experience. See, this is one of those movies that is going to go down as the kick off of a franchise that's become pretty good in the past two movies. But this one isn't so great. In fact, it's sometimes infuriating.

Why?

CGI.

See, the whole point of any decent car movie is to see these powerful, behemoth vehicles doing things that a normal person could not make them do. It's pushing the limit on what can be done with something that is normally so ordinary. The drivers are exceptional, the equipment is top notch, the magic the two make is thrilling.

Unfortunately, in one of the first noteworthy scenes of the movie, the majority of the race is done in CGI. Which exhibits a lack of faith in the subject matter that I find disturbing. A director who can't trust the cars to sell themselves is a director who hasn't committed to the idea of making a car movie.

That said, it's a solid enough film, and the second half is much better about this than the first half, with some solid races and an absolutely killer final crash that's all in camera and breathtaking for it.

This one is eventually going to go down as a guy movie classic, I think, so going back to it is to acknowledge its influence. Unfortunately, Tokyo Drift and Fast & Furious are much better films, but will likely suffer for not coming first.

The Darjeeling Limited (***)
This one's confusing. Because I really adored the first half of this movie, only to really lose my patience with it in the final 30 minutes or so. You see, this is a quirky movie about some idiosyncratic brothers (Owen Wilson, Adrian Brody, and Jason Schwartzmann) who take a train ride across India for reasons that aren't originally clear. It's a movie about dysfunction, about the relationships between family, about growing up and growing together. It's a nice film.

It just makes its point too damn early. There's a moment towards the hour point of the film where all three brothers are sitting around a campfire bonding. And everything that comes after that is simply a retread of that moment. I don't know, call me crazy, but I felt that the pacing on this one was all knocked out of alignment near the end.

That said, I did enjoy it. It's got a great style, and is shot well, and the three leads are genuinely funny. I just ... didn't enjoy it as much on the exit as I did during the watching.

10 Questions for the Dalai Lama (****)
Despite being more than moderately curious about Buddhism, the history of Tibet and the Dalai Lama has never really been a big subject for me. I knew about it, of course, but not in such detail as this documentary provides. Shot by a man who spent the month before a 10 question interview with the leader of Tibet-in-Exile travelling through the land and taking in the religion and traditions of the people, this is an intimate and compassionate look at the displacement of Tibet and the history of the region, including the Chinese invasion.

It all culminates as the director sits down and talks with the Dalai Lama about the nature of happiness, cultural change in the face of globalization, the problem with China on the international scene, and other things. What's remarkable about this movie is the Dalai Lama himself. Here is a spiritual leader who embraces what is new and different, a man who's devoted to learning and understanding not just his faith, but things all over the world. As you watch this man dressed in monks robes fiddling with electronics, or talking about quantum theory, you can't help but be amazed that in a world where all too often religion goes hand in hand with closed-minded zealotry, here is a man who can embrace his faith and the works of humanity all in a single grasp. A man who believes in peace as a road to solve all problems. A man who laughs even when faced with a bleak, unwinnable position, because he refuses to be a victim and refuses to resort to emotional vengeance and self-destruction.

It's inspiring, just to watch him. This is one of the few times I've ever been moved by the statements and arguments of the leader of any faith. And I think that it is worth experiencing, whether you would agree with him or not.

Dark City (*****)
Talk about going out on a high note. This movie was a recommendation from a random person on twitter, and I added it mostly on a whim. Little did I know what I was walking into.

Dark City is a neo-noir about a world where nothing is as it seems. Memories are faulty. The hero wakes up remembering nothing with a dead hooker in his room. There are men in black coats after him. There is a wife he doesn't remember, played by the enchanting Jennifer Connelly, playing a jazz singer who steals the show whenever she stands in front of the microphone in one of her vintage, solid-color dresses, the bright spot of an otherwise mundane world.

This is a movie about mystery. A movie about identity. It did what The Matrix tried to do better a year earlier, with more regard for having substance. It's empowering, it's mysterious, it's unknowable and yet familiar. I can't heap enough accolades upon it.

Go see it. Seriously. The director's cut can be picked up for cheap at Walmart, or you can netflix it, or whatever. But it's a brilliant film that I wouldn't hesitate to recommend to EVERYONE. I don't even want to talk about it, for fear of spoiling things. Just ... go see. You won't be disappointed.

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And there we go! Next week is already pretty planned out, though I wouldn't be surprised if something out of the norm shows up in there, too. So far on the agenda we have the following movies coming from netflix:

City of Lost Children
Diva
2 Fast 2 Furious

And on Friday I'm planning on seeing Earth, Disney's new nature documentary that looks gorgeous. I'm not even into nature docs, but it's utter eye candy and digital theaters mean that I'm willing to see things just to look at them and drool for a while.

Until next week, enjoy! Time to get working on the script!

(p.s. Lovely readers, I'm planning on getting the script up on the blog once Script Frenzy is over for anyone to read. Look for that in early May some time, I'll have to figure out how to host it and all that first.)