Track the Films You Watch (2007) - Page 6

george kaplan · 01-15-2007, 01:32 PM

If George is reading, here's a good example of where I share his feelings about disliked films that don't improve on a second viewing.

Yep, happens to me everytime.

Tim Glover · 01-15-2007, 03:05 PM

Revisited these films the past few days:

Good Will Hunting, 1997. Great film and terriffic performances. 9.5/10

Fever Pitch, 2005. Funny, romantic comdey. Some of the passionate sports behavior from Jimmy Fallion reminded me of myself a bit.

One of my recent comedy favorites. 9/10

Harry Potter & The Prisoner Of Azkaban, 2004.
My favorite of the series. The score is by far the best as is the direction. Loved the story too. 10/10

schmidtt · 01-15-2007, 04:39 PM

JANUARY REVIEWS

1/1-Irreversible (2002)-
A brutal rape and even more brutal slaying of the rapist are depicted in 12 scenes moving backwards. Unlike Memento, the gimmick is never justified except by the ridiculous "time destroys everything" preface. The motivations of the rapist and repercussions for the victim are never examined. Instead we are shown, in this order: the boyfriend's confused rampage through a gay sex club, the rape, a party, a few intimate scenes between the woman and her boyfriend, and abundant nudity. If I want to fuck Monica Bellucci, does that make me complicit in the sexual violence? The unrelenting savagery and totally chaotic, nearly unwatchable first third is unprecedented, but ultimately the film just feels exploitative.

1/2-Un Dimanche à la Campagne (A Sunday in the Country) (1984)-
An old painter's two children come to visit him in the country. The son is devoted to his father, but the old man is critical of him, recognizing in his son his own unwillingness to take risks. The daughter, by contrast, is spontaneous and full of life, but also erratic and unreliable. The film is very restrained: the authenticity of the relationships is (somewhat inexplicably) never sacrificed for dramatic action. For much of the film I found myself waiting for something to happen. Yet, the benign interactions between the characters are occasionally punctuated by their own thoughts -- the son imagines his father's death bed early in the film, the dead mother occasionally appears in the house. These startling moments suggest the characters' unexpressed inner lives and their surprising complexity.

1/5-House of the Dead (2003)-
A Sega rave on a haunted island is invaded by zombies. Despite Boll's deft use of actual video game footage, the narration, and Clint Howard's screwy performance, the distended 40 minute showdown that closes the film is absolutely excruciating.

1/5-Clifford (1994)-
It would be easy to dismiss this as a cynical attempt to capitalize on the success (?) of the Problem Child films, yet Clifford's surreal, unrelenting sadism (you really are meant to share Grodin's desire to murder Clifford) and 44 year old Short's singularly annoying turn as a 10 year old sets this apart from other films in the Children & Family genre.

1/7-Blue (1993)-
Though it lacks the philosophical punch of the Dekalog, this is, nonetheless, a beautiful film that depicts a woman encased by grief mostly through images rather than plot. Binoche's performance is amazing considering how little dialog there is and how much of the film consists of close shots of her face.

1/8-The Last Waltz (1978)-
The Last Waltz features so many great musicians (Dylan, Muddy Waters, Van Morrison, Neil Young, Joni Mitchell) and is directed by arguably the greatest filmmaker of our time (Martin Scorsese). So why is this such a piece of shit? The problem is the Band, and in particular, Robbie Robertson. During the interview portions, Scorsese focuses almost entirely on Robertson, who cynically describes his "16 years traveling the country" and refers ominously to "casualties of the road" like Hendrix, Joplin, and Elvis (?) when it was common knowledge that the primary motivation for this film was to drum up more drug money for the Band. The others are mostly reticent, though Scorsese's question about groupies elicits some hearty guffaws from all of the members (Richard Manuel: "I like the music too, but..."). The performances are imaginatively shot (save the ridiculous waltz sequence), but the band's playing is so leaden that almost all of the songs sound completely lifeless. Dylan shows up for the last few minutes of the film with a perfunctory rendition of "Baby Let Me Follow You Down", as if to say "This is your film. I'm not going to make it good."

1/10-L'Enfant (The Child) (2006)-
The title describes both a 9-day old infant and his teenage parents, both utterly unprepared to raise a child. The film's power lies in its low-key approach -- the story never culminates in any real epiphany or tragedy, yet the raw, naturalistic performances and direction are unsettling because they are so convincing.

1/12-Team America: World Police (2004)-
In the end, this is probably more juvenile than subversive (the best jokes involve bodily functions), and the film has absolutely no restraint (the acronym for the "Film Actors' Guild" is flashed about a thousand times). Nonetheless, there is something liberating about the "nothing is sacred" unrelenting vitriol for all walks of humanity, and the very fact that they were able to carry off a feature film staged entirely by puppets is kind of amazing.

1/12-Sour Grapes (1998)-ZERO STARS
In a scathing review, Roger Ebert argued that this disastrous, abortion of a film was so bad because of its subject matter: "Larry David apparently thinks people are amused by cancer, accidental castration, racial stereotypes and bitter family feuds." Of course, all of these topics have been the grist for Curb Your Enthusiasm, which is brilliant. I think the problem with Sour Grapes lies more in the exaggerated performances (especially Craig Bierko) and awful '80s sitcom premise (Cousin A lends Cousin B 50 cents for a slot machine, Cousin B wins a jackpot, Cousin A wants half the money, Cousin B won't share), both of which belie David's low-key observational humor. Larry David and his surrogate George Costanza may be assholes, but we can identify with their plight. The characters in this film are just obnoxious.

1/15-My Man Godfrey (1936)-
Godfrey (Powell) is a "forgotten man" until he is picked up from the dump by Cornelia (Lombard) and made the family butler. My Man Godfrey is the only movie I've seen from the 1930s that actually addresses the Great Depression, and there is something truly original about its whimsy, which rarely relies on slapstick or puns. Too often, though, the film's class consciousness is laid on a little too thick. For example, at one point Godfrey gives Cornelia's sister a dressing down ("You belong in the unfortunate category I would call the 'Park Avenue Brat') -- as if any doubt remains that this character is unsympathetic. The film's didacticism is made even more annoying by the implausibility of Godfrey's existence. Though less stilted and predictable than Powell's earlier movie The Thin Man, I prefer that film's unabashed celebration of alcoholism to My Man Godfrey's heavy hand.

1/15-Seppuku (Harakiri) (1962)-
Peace has spread across seventeenth century Japan. Impoverished ronin wander the country, looking for admittance to houses of feudal warlords to perform harakiri (self-inflicted disembowelment), in the hopes that they will instead be pitied and either retained or given a small sum to go away. The film begins as one feudal lord, fed up with the practice, forces a young ronin to go through with the harakiri, even after discovering that the man has only a bamboo sword to perform the suicide. Despite the young man's grisly death, we share the warlord's frustration with the ronin that asks to perform harakiri but then begs for a furlough when he discovers that the harakiri will actually be carried out. But when the story of what drove the young man to ask for harakiri is told to the same warlord by the young man's father-in-law, the warlord's decision to carry through the suicide is exposed as a disgusting, shameful act. A stunning, powerful rebuke to the hypocrisy of authority, a rigid, unbending society that places arbitrary notions of "honor" over human compassion, and, most explicitly, the samurai myth itself.

1/17-Sommarnattens Leende (Smiles of a Summer Night) (1955)-
Bergman is often accused of being too oppressive and austere, and indeed, many of his films deny the audience even a moment of levity. Yet what impressed me most about this wonderful film is its lightness of tone, even while the characters are discussing the most serious matters. I had long feared this film would contain a string of incomprehensible puns, yet Bergman's dialog is completely vibrant 50 years on and despite the language barrier. Gunnar Bjornstad is really remarkable in the leading role, and, donning a fake beard, manages to make a philandering lawyer with a sixteen-year-old wife and nothing but contempt for his own son completely endearing.

1/18-After Hours (1985)-
A bit of a departure (HEY-O!!!) for Scorsese: a comedy filmed without his usual cadre of actors, made quickly after his first stab at Last Temptation of Christ fell through. I loved the first hour of this movie - the wacky plot twists are perfectly counterbalanced by the main character's mounting sense of dread - though the suspense dissipates rather than builds in the last third.

1/20-Mujeres al Borde de un Ataque de Nervios (Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown) (1988)-
This movie made me consider how few foreign comedies I have actually seen: though I laughed a lot, I also had the distinct impression that many of the jokes simply don't translate. And yet, one can't help being swept away by Almodovar's frenetic, wonderfully irreverent direction.

1/20-Broken Arrow (1996)-
A cult classic among my friends; I really wanted to like this, especially as I am continually being accused of "hating fun." I won't be able to dispel the charge here. I was particularly troubled by one aspect of the plot, upon which the whole film hinges: If anyone can obtain a Russian loose nuke for the price of a BMW, as U.S. government officials state so matter of factly halfway through the film, then why would the villians go to such risk and considerable expense to hijack a U.S. nuclear weapon? LOVED THE SOUNDTRACK!!!

1/21-Images (1972)-
Altman's examination of schizophrenia displays an obvious indebtedness to Bergman's Persona, a film he would more successfully exploit in 1977's Three Women. Yet whereas Persona explored the limits of the film medium itself, Altman's film is focused on a single woman's mental illness. Altman does an exceptional job evoking the main character's subjective state through repetitive shots of her hallucinations and John Williams' creepy score. Unfortunately, the film is incredibly tedious, and it seems implausible that everyone around this woman, including her own husband, would be so oblivious to her psychosis.

1/24-Birth of a Nation (1915)-
It is difficult (and pointless) to assign a rating to this film, which is like rating Aristotle, or the Bible. And yet, despite its obscene three hour running time and mind numbing first half, I will say that I actually enjoyed this movie. The film is so celebrated for its innovation and so derided for its racist content. But even if you take the film's technical merit for granted (as I did), Birth of a Nation remains a compelling historical document. The film's racism is not so much offensive as totally incomprehensible. In the first half, which deals with the Civil War, race is only addressed in so far as Griffith suggests that the North should have left well enough alone (slaves are only shown once, having a wompin' good time in the cotton fields). The first half is somewhat flat with its pat aphorisms about the uselessness of war and maudlin analogies drawn between a Northern and Southern family. The action picks up in the second half. The Reconstruction is depicted as the inverse of today's understanding of 1920's Jim Crow: the whites are disenfranchised from the vote and confined to their homes to avoid the black menace in the streets. But then the protagonist (referred affectionately throughout as "the Little Colonel") observes two black children fleeing in horror from a white child under a sheet. Our hero gets a glimmer in his eye. The Klu Klux Klan is born, for "white preservation" from the "blacks and carpetbaggers" as the title card explains. The last half hour of the film consists of several chase scenes where the KKK swoops in to save white women from being raped by crazed men in black face.

1/25-SherryBaby (2006)-
To be honest, I feel like I went into this film for the wrong reasons, and was repaid in kind. Maggie Gyllenhal plays a heroin addict who, upon her release from prison, decides to try to start a relationship with her 4-year-old daughter. The plot unfolds inevitably as the main character cusses people out, breaks things, screws all of the male characters, relapses -- there's even a smattering of incest thrown in near the end. The Monster critique, that the film is nothing more than a glorified Lifetime movie, would almost seem to apply here. And yet, this criticism is not quite fair, as the film goes out of its way to thwart our expectations about all of the characters. In the end, the whole thing stands or falls on Gyllenhal's performance, which, though certainly not bad, feels like a too aggressive attempt to emulate the "playing ugly" Oscar formula.

1/27-Three Days of the Condor (1975)-
The hopelessly convoluted plot was too much for my feeble brain. Nonetheless, Redford and Dunaway are both stunning in the title roles, even when faced with the most obnoxious, faux-"intimate" 70s dialogue ("I don't remember yesterday. Today it rained."). Also of note, the film has what a friend of mine called "the loneliest lovemaking scene ever."

1/27-A Hard Day's Night (1964)-
After seeing this I had to go back and revise my "Favorite Beatle" list. Ringo is totally charming and self-effacing, George is witty and sardonic without ever overplaying it, John is more bizarre than amusing, and Paul comes off as a first-rate asshole. Though I was a bit put off by the interminable train sequence that begins the film, once the music starts in the band's energy is infectious. Director Richard Lester has acknowledged the influence of French New Wave on his filming style, and it is interesting to see how those techniques are applied in this context.

1/31-Rich and Strange (1931)-
Hitchcock's sixth film in two years is an anomaly for him insofar as it lacks a homicide, a villain, or suspense. Unlike 1929's Blackmail, where Hitchcock's inspired direction and perverse humor overcome other problems, here he is completely submerged beneath the film's prudish moralizing, contrived plot, and some of the most horrible acting I have ever seen.

george kaplan · 01-15-2007, 07:42 PM

The Terminal

Interesting idea, but the execution is quite a bland film.

Josh.C · 01-15-2007, 10:18 PM

2007 Films:
2/16- Bridge to Terabithia

2006 Films:
1/9- Rocky Balboa (theater)

1/10- The Descent

1/13- The Illusionist

1/21- Thank You for Smoking

1/25- The Guardian

2/28- The Departed

Rewatched in 2007:
1/4- Conan the Barbarian (TBS)

1/5- Serenity

1/6- Kill Bill Volume 1

1/7- Kill Bill Volume 2

1/12- The Itallian Job

1/19- Syriana(1st time screening)

1/20- Borat

1/23- Prime

1/27- Surviving the Game

2/2- The Skeleton Key(1st time screening)

5 Star rating system for each movie screened

Tarkin The Ewok · 01-15-2007, 11:56 PM

1/14: Ben-Hur (1959)

out of

This was my first time viewing the classic epic. The only thing I knew going in was that there was an amazing chariot race in the movie. That did not disappoint, but the rest of the film just blew me away. The crowds, sea battle, and the rest of the spectacle provide a fitting canvas, but it is the emotional journey of Judah and his family that propels Ben-Hur to greatness.

The character of Esther caught me off guard. I had expected her to be the typical love interest, but she turned out to be something quite different. I was surprised by many of the plot twists, but they were all logical in hindsight.

One of the highlights of the movie is how well the life of Jesus is woven with the story of Judah Ben-Hur and what happens when their paths cross. The prologue encapsulates the majesty of Jesus' nativity in a surprisingly short amount of time, and the crucifixion/resurrection sequence is quite powerful, especially since we never see the face of the actor portraying Christ.

Next up on my list of classics for first-time viewing is Lawrence of Arabia.

Ted Lee · 01-16-2007, 12:31 AM

title: haven
rating: c
comments: i don't know if this is how cayman island local folks behave, but i found it a bit far-fetched. yet, the movie somehow kept my interest ... possibly some nice visuals, decent acting and an evokative mood helped.