Sympathy for Lady Vengeance (2005)
Viewed 1/9/2005 (first viewing)
Finale to Park Chan Wook's Vengeance trilogy is arguably the best of the lot. A young girl is forced by her boyfriend into taking a kidnapping/murder rap for him and plots revenge while in prison. Then she's released and puts her plan into action. Elegantly styled and not as violent as
Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance and
Oldboy, with a haunting finale.
out of
Feet First (1930)
Viewed 1/9/2005 (first viewing)
Still wending my way through the Harold Lloyd collection. This middling comedy has Lloyd as a shoe salesman who impersonates a leather magnate in order to impress the girl he loves. The climatic building-climbing sequence - a reprise of Lloyd's
Safety Last set piece - seems out of place but is pretty good in and of itself.
out of
The Idiot (1951)
Viewed 1/10/2005 (first viewing)
Akira Kurosawa's sluggish adaptation (even after a studio gutting) of the Dostoyevsky novel still has enough brilliant passages and moments to make it worth a look.
out of
R-Point (2004)
Viewed 1/10/2005 (first viewing)
Korean ghost story set during the Vietnam War. A squad of soldiers is sent to a remote island to search for a missing platoon, but finds only vengeful ghosts... A bit hard to follow at times, but generally well-done and effective.
out of
A Hole in My Heart (2004)
Viewed 1/10/2005 (first viewing)
Difficult-to-watch film from Lukas Moodysson about four miserable people holed up in a small apartment: a porn director, his two leads, and his reclusive son. An incisive look at lost, frustrated people, but not for all tastes.
out of
Camille (1936)
Viewed 1/11/2005 (first viewing)
Greta Garbo soaper, based on a novel by Alexander Dumas. Here Garbo is a Parisian socialite who sponges off wealthy men for a living. When she falls in love, will her past come back to haunt her?
out of
X2 (2003)
Viewed 1/12/2005
Revisited the sequel to
X-Men, in anticipation of the upcoming third installment. One of the best comic book adaptations.
out of
The 400 Blows (1959)
Viewed 1/12/2005
Finally dove into Criterion's Antoine Doinel set by revisiting this French New Wave classic.
out of
Antoine and Colette (1962)
Viewed 1/12/2005 (first viewing)
Francois Truffaut's short follow-up (initially part of the anthology film
Love at Twenty) to
The 400 Blows finds the 17 year old Antoine Doinel desperately in love with a girl who doesn't quite feel the same way. Heartfelt look at young, unrequited love hits the right notes.
out of
Ride the High Country (1962)
Viewed 1/13/2005 (first viewing)
Started in on the Sam Peckinpah Western set. Joel McCrea and Randolph Scott are aging gunslingers who come into conflict while guarding a gold shipment. A thoughtful meditation on the different paths people take during their lives, with the requisite shoot-em'-up climax. One of Peckinpah's best.
out of
Now or Never (1921)
Viewed 1/14/2005 (first viewing)
Harold Lloyd short finds the comedian roped into chaperoning a bratty child during a train trip. Pleasant and funny, if not particularly memorable.
out of
High and Dizzy (1920)
Viewed 1/14/2005 (first viewing)
Another Harold Lloyd short. This one features the bespectacled one as an aspiring young doctor who has a hair-raising encounter with a sleepwalking patient. The building ledge sequence would lated be expanded upon (and used to much greater effect) in
Safety Last.
out of
Camille (1921)
Viewed 1/14/2005 (first viewing)
Silent antecedent to the Greta Garbo vehicle stars Rudolph Valentino as Armand, with Alla Nazimova as a more vampish Camille. Interesting version.
out of
Matewan (1987)
Viewed 1/15/2005 (first viewing)
Lengthy but engrossing drama from John Sayles chronicling the 1920-21 Coal Wars, in particular the events leading up to the Matewan massacre.
out of
Les Mistons (1957)
Viewed 1/16/2005 (first viewing)
Francois Truffaut's first film, a short wherein five boys harass the older girl they've fallen in love with.
out of
Stolen Kisses (1968)
Viewed 1/16/2005
Third in the Antoine Doinel series picks up with Doinel getting kicked out the army. He then finds work at a detective agency and tries to resume his relationship with an old flame. Good-natured and rambling, if not quite up to its predecessors.
out of
Dr. Jack (1922)
Viewed 1/16/2005 (first viewing)
Harold Lloyd beats Robin Williams to the punch by about 80 years by playing a clownish doctor who treats his patients with humor and real affection. Just okay until the uproarious climax.
out of
