LORD OF THE RINGS: THE TWO TOWERS (Peter Jackson) viewed 1-5-03 in Imax theater
Grade B- 2002
Not as good as the first one, mainly because not much new ground is covered both in the literal sense and the narrative. The effects are generally very nifty and Jackson knows how to stage an action scene, but to what end? The big battle at the end of this film is a technical triumph and a logistical nightmare: with a handful of the fellowship able to single-handedly kill thousands of their enemies. The most interesting plot thread is between Frodo and Gollum because it is the least distracted and stays closest to the dynamics around the ring, everything else is a distraction.
PUBLIC ENEMY (William Wellman) viewed 1-9-03 on laserdisc
Grade A- 1931
A savage and brutal pre-code film with a stunning star turn by James Cagney. This film was undoubtedly an influence on Scorsese with its casual blend of perverse violence and humor, for instance in the horse scene. The violent showdowns are wisely kept just offscreen, heard mostly as the camera only lets to witness the before and after, almost like the camera can’t stand to look at the violence. The grapefruit scene is still so shocking 70+ years later that the people I saw it with were laughing uncomfortably in disbelief. The rain-drenched climax is iconic and has been referenced as lately as Road To Perdition.
MEET ME IN ST. LOUIS (Vincente Minnelli) viewed 1-10-03 on video
Grade A- 1944
Very good musical, that uses its musical sequences to bring characters together or bridge their emotions. The story is unabashedly romantic and melodramatic, dealing with moving away to New York and the courting of two budding girls. Before the ridiculously happy ending, we get scenes of surprising poignancy: the girl destroying her snowmen or the older couple making up with a duet of “You and I.” The ending is a piece of dream fulfillment that reminded me of Jacques Demy’s Young Girls of Rochefort, and made me feel unreasonably good.
CLERKS (Kevin Smith) viewed 1-10-03 in theater (approx. fifth viewing)
Grade B+ (downgraded from A-) 1994
First time viewing Clerks in the theater and my opinion of it dropped a bit, viewing at home might be ideal for this film. Dialogue feels overpolished and more mannered here than any of his later films, and said by unprofessional actors it comes off stiff. Some of the gags feel a bit too cute for there own sake: the anti-cigarette riot, or the perfect dozen eggs, and characters are forever pulling out business cards to give themselves credibility (Do we really need the contractor to show his credentials to the clerks?). The big screen also brings out how bad the film looks, often framed and blocked into ugly compositions with cutaways that don’t really make sense: a brief shot of the shoes of the people who are talking. That said this film is often very funny and engaging, and Smith may one day develop into a major talent (retiring Jay and Silent Bob is a good choice).
NINOTCHKA (Ernst Lubitsch) viewed 1-11-03 on video
Grade B 1939
The third Lubitsch film I’ve seen but the first that didn’t remotely achieve perfection. Not as funny as Trouble in Paradise or as full of adult humor (a concession to the code has a tamer Lubitsch) and nowhere near as charming as The Shop Around the Corner. It is fun to watch Garbo melt to the charms of capitalism, but neither entertaining or funny enough to clarify this films status as a classic film.
THE OUTLAW JOSEY WALES (Clint Eastwood) viewed 1-11-03 on video
Grade B 1976
A little revisionist on the typical Eastwood Man With No Name persona but Eastwood’s genre changes haven’t taken the sublime quality they would in Unforgiven. Starts very well, with the event that drives forward the rest of the plot and Eastwood’s preparation for revenge all coming before the opening credits. Eastwood wisely puts a scar down the middle of the hero’s face to remind us that all his violence springs from the opening action. There are also some scenes that work in ways that are different than expected: especially a showdown between Eastwood and a group of Indians and the very last scene. A good film and probably the best western Eastwood directed other than Unforgiven, although not its equal as Eastwood and some critics think to be.
NICO ICON (Susanne Ofteringer) viewed 1-11-03 on dvd
Grade C 1996
Talking head documentary of the life of Nico: the singer on the first Velvet Underground album, model and solo artist later into the seventies and eighties. The film is not bad its just not very insightful, it lacks some key interviews and viewpoints and focuses too much on interviewee’s who didn’t seem to know her all that well. I’m a Nico fan, I have her album Chelsea Girl and listen to it frequently but this film doesn’t add any new background that would help me appreciate her work more.
RABBIT-PROOF FENCE (Philip Noyce) viewed 1-12-03 in theater
Grade C 2002
Taking a serious injustice film and turning it into an adventure film isn’t a problem for me, just this adventure film happens to be rather limp. The journey isn’t really seen as a big conquest (the natives mostly seem helpful and sympathetic to the girls’ plight) and no real sense of time passing (months go by – we are told). No real sense of the little girls as individual characters (although they are all photogenic) and that might have helped develop interest in their journey, which isn’t all that visually interesting; not like Roeg’s view of the outback in the masterful Walkabout.
WESTWORLD (Michael Crichton) viewed 1-12-03 on video
Grade B 1973
An entertaining hybrid of the western and science fiction genres, with a fantasy construct of the mythic old west going terribly wrong because of mechanical problems. The climax plays more for surprise effect than gradual suspense and it feels like the wrong choice, with everything happening too fast and over too soon.
THE GENERAL LINE (Sergei Eisenstein) viewed 1-13-03 on (a very bad) video
Grade B+ 1929
Those who regularly read my site (both of you) may have noticed that I gave a C+ to Battleship Potempkin, and now in giving Eisenstein’s least admired film a higher rating I may be accused of perverse snobbery. The General Line (also known as The Old and the New) isn’t simple a better film than Potempkin; it is a more technically accomplished one and surely a more entertaining one. That said, I must say the version I saw was a shitty video copy of a 16mm print with no music and thus I may still be severely underrating this film. The film is about the wonders of cooperative farming and its most exciting scene is an anticipation of cream being churned into butter. Before you sigh sarcastically and skip to the next review know that the butter-churning scene is actually pretty damn exciting and surprisingly funny. Also very funny is a “wedding” scene with a bull being introduced to a cow, that scene climaxing (literally) in a witty and wonderful expression of montage that blew me away. Well worth seeing if you are interested in Eisenstein and were put off by his oppressive masterpiece Potemkin.
THE BIG COMBO (Joseph H. Lewis) viewed 1-13-03 on dvd
Grade B+ 1955
Odd film noir that plays with dream logic, with each character unbalanced by their emotions. Lewis’ uses cinematic technique in collaboration with the film’s violence: music as device to torture the cop, sound muted for a significant murder and dramatic lighting finally killing the villain. The direction is stylish and the shootout in dense fog at the climax is an obvious highlight.
FRANKENSTEIN (James Whale) viewed 1-14-03 on dvd
Grade C 1931
Surprisingly mad and off-balanced, with actors going so over the top that they distract from the story and especially the mood, which is often creepy because of Arthur Edeson’s photography. The film veers wildly from broad comedy to expressionistic horror, but is neither funny nor scary enough to warrant its status as the horror classic. It’s interesting to take the queer theory with this film: since Whale was gay and the story is basically two men creating new life without a woman, and Elizabeth set in opposition to Dr. Frankenstein’s achievement.
SWING TIME (George Stevens) viewed 1-14-03 on video
Grade A- 1936
Charming and entertaining Astaire-Rogers vehicle with delightful musical sequences. The film doesn’t ever reach the sublime level of Top Hat, but does qualify as one of the best musicals made during the classic Hollywood years for musicals.
FEAR DOT COM (William Malone) viewed 1-14-03 on dvd
Grade C 2002
This film is best when playing up the visual imagination and playing down the plot, which is laid pretty thick and is mostly disposable. William Malone may one day make a quality movie, but he’s currently one of the only schlock horror director that’s trying to achieve something unique. And as always, it’s nice to see Jeffery Comb’s getting work.
WHAT TIME IS IT THERE? (Tsai Ming-liang) viewed 1-15-03 on dvd (second viewing)
Grade B 2002
A slow and beguiling film with 103 long or very long, static takes of people doing mostly banal tasks. 103 shots in 116 minutes gives you an idea of the film’s pacing and the director doesn’t ever move the camera, if it sounds like slow torture you may as well skip to the next review. If you’re still reading you are the prime audience for this film and probably something of a masochist, although that’s not to say the film is without pleasure or interest. One of the bigger pleasures is the film’s sense of humor that is quirky and understated, sometimes deadpan like Jarmusch and sometimes visual like Tati. The film is also a meditation on loneliness and dislocation: all the characters close themselves in and are missing someone or something important to them. This is the second time I’ve seen the film (so I’m a bit of a masochist as well) and the images are rich in a way that really stays with you after you’ve seen them. There is also a loving homage to Francois Truffaut, Jean-Pierre Leaud and most significantly Paris.
METROPOLITAN (Whit Stillman) viewed 1-15-03 on video (third viewing)
Grade A 1990
Whit Stillman’s first film Metropolitan announced a great new voice in independent films, and is one of the best films of the nineties. His writing isn’t joke-oriented but witty and observantly funny. It’s the kind of subtle comedy that can be watched repeatedly without losing its appeal, in fact with each viewing it becomes obvious how much effort was taken in letting the humor come from the characters and how they talk rather than limp comedic situations.
A middle-class socialist joins a clique of wealthy yuppies, The Sally Fowler Rat Pack, in after deb-party for a few weeks around Christmas Time. Stillman keenly observes the parties, and presents them in a sampler form that keeps the conversations immediate and interesting. The conversations range from Jane Austin to surrealist contempt for the bourgeoisie to title aristocracy, sometimes the parties turn to strip poker or truth or dare.
The cast is a heap of newcomers with the introducing list is longer than the regular cast credits, but they mostly do a very game job with the material. The dialogue is mannered and could easily come out wrong with misdirection or bad acting choices (see Clerks for occasional examples). In particular Chris Eigeman handles himself very well in the tastiest role of snarling Nick Smith (his first role) and he would continue to be one of the most integral parts of Stillman’s next two projects.
When will Whit Stillman make another film?!
SHOW ME LOVE (Lukas Moodysson) viewed 1-15-03 on dvd
Grade B+ 1999
Honest and moving love story of two teenage girls that fall in love with each other and the consequences that it brings them. Before the two meet up the film makes some pointed and funny observations about teenagers living in a small town; yearning for drugs, raves or anything exciting to happen. The relationship develops in a way that seems very original, with both girls coming into it with different reasons and different family life. The birthday party near the beginning is a minor masterpiece seeming both cruel and utterly convincing in the way people hurt each other just to strike out. Original Swedish title was Fucking Amal (Amal being the lame small town the characters are stuck in) but Show Me Love is a good enough replacement as it sums up the emotions more than might be first expected. Only caveat is the final song coming in and undermining the impact of the final scene.
BLONDE VENUS (Josef von Sternberg) viewed 1-16-03 on laserdisc
Grade B 1932
Certainly campy for much of the first half: highlight being Dietrich stripping from an ape suit and singing
“Hot Voodoo” with two arrows sticking through her head (attracting Cary Grant in the process but who could resist that). The middle section slumped as Dietrich slums it trashy hotels keeping her son from her husband. Then the film rebounded with a final scene of bittersweet reconciliation that brought a lump to my throat.
THEY LIVE BY NIGHT (Nicholas Ray) viewed 1-16-03 on video
Grade B+ 1949
Convict and young bride run off together in Ray’s adaptation of Edward Anderson’s “Thieves Like Us” played as a tragedy with the two young criminals as corrupted innocents. Walks a similar line with Ray’s next film Knock on Any Door, but this one favors moody poetry to preachy speeches and it is really effective. Altman also adapted the book into a film of the same name and made a significantly different film, which feels earthy rather than brooding.
A GUY THING (Chris Koch) viewed 1-17-03 in theater
Grade D 2003
A hard film to watch since I like most of the actors involved and couldn’t imagine them in a film as bad as this. Comedy is unnecessarily scatological (he has crabs, ha-ha) and half baked (a subtext of guys helping Lee out of the worst jams for the sake of male camaraderie suggests another film). Mostly I just wanted to hurl things at the screen with every progressing moment, and even begun to be annoyed by things I usually like; from Mark Mothersbaugh annoying score to Jason Lee’s eyebrow reliant acting. Of everybody involved only Julia Stiles comes away basically untarnished, she may be in for big things if she finds the right part. A good start would be passing on films from the director of Snow Day and looking for more films to stretch your palate.
25TH HOUR (Spike Lee) viewed 1-18-03 in theater
Grade A 2002
Spike Lee’s return to form and his best film since Clockers and it stays away from the things that usually trip him up. Gone are the unnecessary subplots that have him distracted, gone is the loud music distancing us from the characters' dialogue, and gone is the heavy-handed message mongering. This film is focused and simple, and Lee invests it with his exceptional craftsmanship.
The film’s theme is doing the right thing when opposed with life’s challenges and the reparations for doing wrong. Norton is going to jail for selling drugs, but the people in his life (girlfriend, best friends and father) are all accomplices to his wrongdoing and didn’t do anything about his activity. All are seen as guilty in some way and most of all is Norton, who is established as a flawed character who has done some destructive things to the neighborhood in favor of making a quick buck. The film doesn’t skate blame off of its characters, and it gives them other flaws to establish that even very positive characters (a teacher or a businessman) can behave just as destructively in their own interest.
The film also deals with September 11 in a way that is both moving and refreshing; showing anti-Arab sentiments in the backgrounds of scenes, flags on cars (remember that) and staging an important conversation by a window over looking ground zero as workers clean the debris. Spike Lee even stops the forward momentum of the film for an impassioned soliloquy of hatred delivered by Edward Norton, dishing “fuck you’s” to every racial group in NY, and individually citing Osama bin Laden, Enron, George W. Bush and Dick Cheney -specifically in their involvement of the Enron scandal.
QUAI DES ORFEVRES (Henri-Georges Clouzot) viewed 1-19-03 in theater
Grade A 1947
A great unseen film from Clouzot, who has for too long been unfairly neglected by American audiences, and is capable of making suspense films that can compare with Hitchcock in their technical quality and undeniable entertainment value. This film’s first half has the logic of an American film noir film, with characters driven by self-interest or blinding emotions into a downward spiral of fate. After an important murder, the film switches gears and becomes a top-notch detective story and mystery. Somehow Clouzot is able to both get suspense by aligning us with the guilty (either actually or by appearance) and then surprise us with twists that reveal new sides to things we thought we knew from the film’s first half. A great film that I look forward to seeing again.