Michael Reuben

It's certainly a good film, but since it's the only one of the nominees I've seen, I can't say whether it was the right choice.

The only other film in the category to get a U.S. release (so far) was El Crimen del Padre Amaro, which I did not see (and it was horribly reviewed). The Man Without a Past opens here next weekend, but there's so much other stuff that I doubt I'll get to it. A trailer played before Nowhere in Africa, and the film looks interesting and very funny.

Part luck, part conscious decision. Film and theater are a big reason I'm still here.

M.

“They’ll just take some stinkeroo movie or some songwriter’s catalog, throw it onstage and call it a show.” -- Zeus, Xanadu (the musical)

"What kind of movies would there be if everyone in them had to do what we thought they should do?" -- Roger Ebert

HTF Beginner's Primer and FAQ

Ted Todorov

The Man Without a Past is a very, very good film, one of the top three from last year's New York Film Festival. The film's director, Aki Kaurismäki has a very distinct style, very, very dry and deadpan, which I absolutely love, but I can see that his style might not suite everyone -- but everyone should sample his work just to make sure. Again, The Man Without a Past is highly recommended.

And I don't know who wrote the "horrible" reviews of Padre Amaro, but my only real problem with the film was that the protagonist's bad behavior pales compared to recent press reports on the real life behavior of a multitude of priests, and thus one doesn't feel nearly as much revulsion towards him as the filmmaker no doubt intended. That quibble aside though Padre Amaro is beautifully made and acted film.

I haven't seen the AA winner -- I'm stuck at home with a broken leg and blown out knee, so now I know what it's like to live far from any good movie theater -- no fun at all

Ted

Hold on tightly, let go lightly.

Mark Pfeiffer

El Crimen del Padre Amaro is essentially a soap opera and a mostly entertaining one at that. Ted, I think the key is that Padre Amaro's crime has less to with his relationship with the girl and more to do with The film attacks the system as corrupt, which is probably far more controversial than the romance. I wouldn't have named it as one of the five best foreign films of the year, FWIW.

[size=1.5]Read my reviews at www.dvdmon.com
My blog: Reel Times: Reflections on Cinema[/size]

Ted Todorov

Mark,

I agree with you completely, and also was also far more the "crime" in question than the relationship itself.

Ted

Hold on tightly, let go lightly.

Michael Reuben

I see that, when all the reviews were added up at Rotten Tomatoes, Padre Amaro did OK. I just happened to see bad ones (notably, Entertainment Weekly and the NYTimes).

Sorry to hear you're laid up, Ted. Get well soon!

M.

“They’ll just take some stinkeroo movie or some songwriter’s catalog, throw it onstage and call it a show.” -- Zeus, Xanadu (the musical)

"What kind of movies would there be if everyone in them had to do what we thought they should do?" -- Roger Ebert

HTF Beginner's Primer and FAQ

Colin-H

Cross-posted on the film list thread, since it’ll ultimately be deleted there.

Spun
Spun features some popular young actors (Jason Schwartzman, Brittany Murphy, John Leguizamo, Mena Suvari, Patrick Fugit) as a bunch of meth addicts. It’s littered with music video–style visuals, such as quick-cut closeups of dialating pupils and parts of car engines. Oh, and pornographic cartoons. Not really much need for things like “plot” or “character development” here. (Sounds a little like Moulin Rouge, ey?) You’ll never see Mena Suvari look so nasty, but her and the rest of the characters’ roughness seems too polished. The style and the unstereotypical performances from the cast are enough for me to recommend it.

Bend It Like Beckham
A relatively amusing coming-of-age story. The plot is not new (girls wants to play football/soccer, girl’s parents want her to get ready for marriage, girl rebels and plays football anyway), but the surroundings – a traditional Indian family in the UK – are new. It’s an entertaining feelgood movie, but too often it resorts to cheap mainstream tactics. It strives to be feminist, yet it presents numerous exploitative images and stereotypes. (The main character’s friend, who you might recognize as the decoy Amidala from The Phantom Menace, is a tall, stick-skinny white girl.) Also: If you don’t want to hear, “Mommy, what’s a lesbian?” on your way out of the theater, I don’t recommend taking young children. On one hand, highly enjoyable; on the other hand, not the new standard for coming-of-age comedies (see below).

À la folie… pas du tout (He Loves Me, He Loves Me Not)
I walked into this one half-expecting a rehash of Amélie. I was fooled. The first half of the movie is farely typical romantic comedy fare. We’re see a young art student giddy about her relationship with an older cardiologist. In the middle of the movie, the perspective shifts, and we learn the doctor’s side of the relationship. Its best to go into this one without knowing much more than this. I hate sappy romantic movies, but this movie is a wolf in sheep’s clothes. Engaging and entertaining, if not innovative.

Русский ковчег (Russian Ark)
This movie has made history: The entire 96-minute film was shot in one take. We (in the form of an unknown twentieth-century Russian man, or maybe spirit) take a trip through the Hermitage with a nineteenth-century French diplomat. As we move through the rooms, the decades shift: In one room, we see Catherine II, in another, we see modern students viewing art, and in the film’s final scene, we witness a grandiose ball, which was the last to take place in the palace. What’s great about this film is the technique is inseparable from the story – this film would not be compelling if told in any other way. A few technical flaws, such as audio sync issues and the occasional anachronism, mar the film slightly, but it is still an amazing achievement and a compelling film.

任逍遥 (Unknown Pleasures)
Two nineteen-year-old Chinese boys are affected by a decidedly Western lack of direction. This movie has its moments, but it’s long and boring. Maybe it’s some sort of autobiography. Avoid.

Laurel Canyon
This film is an indy through-and-through, which is both good and bad. It’s edgy, but it pretends like it has some sort of deep message. It’s about the journey – and I mean that both literally and figuratively – that two recently engaged Harvard medical school graduates take when they stay with the groom’s hedonist, record producer mother in SoCal. A series of events unfold that cause the main characters to question their relationships and lifestyles. If you though Frances MacDormand was sexy in The Man Who Wasn’t There, check her out here. Entertaining, but pretentious.

Raising Victor Vargas
A coming-of-age love story of an adolescent player-in-training and a girl who’s sick of being no more than “Juicy Judy.” This movies best quality is its honesty. You will not find any emotional trickery. You will find honest, quasi-improvisitational performances that hit you with both humor and real emotion. Redefines the coming-of-age movie. Do whatever you can to see this one.

Irréversible (Irreversible)
Scenes are presented in reverse chronological order, and each scene is shot in a single, uncut take. There are two scenes of extremely graphic violence, which is taken to a Faces of Death–like extreme since the film doesn’t cut away. It’s hard to stomach the sight of a man being beaten to death with a fire extinguisher or nine-minutes of the violent rape and subsequent beating of a woman. This film batters you over the head with symbolism and connections. (I’ll take flagrant symbolism over a fire extinguisher any day, thanks.) It is contrived and polished. It constantly reminds you – almost apologetically – of its message, which is “time destroys all.” Too obtuse for me. I kept searching for something to justify the violence and the style, but I couldn’t find anything. Tries to push the envelope, but fails.

\"At least Kurosawa doesn\'t give his samurai hairstyles that make them look like drug dealers from some intergalactic trailer park, as Mr. Lucas did with Obi-Wan Kenobi and Anakin Skywalker.\"

DVD List | 2003 film list

Kirk Tsai

I think all "white people goes to Africa" movies are problematic, but Nowhere in Africa has less problems than the usual. There are still plenty of predictable items typical of this type of premise--we know the stuck up wife will grow to love the land and its people, for example--but the movie is engrossing indeed. As Michael pointed out, the center subject of the film is not the Holocaust; I look at it as the relationship between husband and wife. It works because their attitudes towards life is at the heart of their conflict. The photography and landscape is beautiful, the musical score delicate and soaring at times (a piece used in its trailer). Oh, can the little girl be any cuter? Very good.

I thought Nowhere in Africa was stronger than Padre Amaro, but I liked that one, too. As a combination of soap opera and criticism, it works very well.

Colin, I agree with you on Irreversible.

Lew Crippen

Caught Shanghai Ghetto this weekend. It is a documentary of Jews who fled pre-war Europe for Shanghai, remaining there until well after WWII, when the all relocated elsewhere. For me, this was a fascinating film, because of its subject matter, about which I was completely unaware.

The film carters on interviews of a few who were young back then, cut with some still and WWII archrival film footage. There are also some interviews with a couple of historians, which helps to put the first person descriptions into perspective.

For me, by the time the film finishes I felt that there was a bit too much ‘the holocaust was bad’ and not quite enough on the displaced Jew’s life, interacting with the Chinese (and Japanese).

Still, this is a minor quibble, for a film that gave me insights that I had not had. Recommended for fans of documentaries or history.

¡Time is not my master!

Chris_Richard

Laurel Canyon - A moderately enjoyable film while watching it but a day later I really haven't thought about it. There were a couple of nice scenes (Bale & McElhone in the parking garage, and the resolution) but most of it was too formulatic and the characters not fleshed out enough for my taste. It is definitely not in the same league as Lisa Cholodenko's previous work High Art.

I also couldn't get past the fact that part way through I keep thinking that this is a reworking of the Hugh Grant / Tara Fitzgerald film Sirens. Another film that was more style over substance.


The Good Thief - I really enjoyed this fun film. This is all style over substance but it doesn't pretend to be anything else. It is a heist film much like Ocean's 11, which many people at the screening were comparing it to. In this film Nick Nolte creates a group of people to rob a casino in Monte Carlo of its art work the night before the grand prix. This is a reworking of the 1955 Bob le Flambeur.

The heist is secondary to this being a character film. Actually if you try and think too much about how the heist works you will begin not to like the film, just go with it. It has a very loose structure and a very good jazz/blues score. Because of this it plays more like a Mike Figgis film that being a Neil Jordan film. It might be one of his loosest films he has ever directed. And after the beautiful but claustrophobic The End of the Affair, that is a good thing. The photography is also very good, but it's hard to make the south of France look bad.

I'm not a Nick Nolte fan, so his acting and mumbling bothered me. But the rest of the cast is very good. Tchéky Karyo, who gets a much better film that The Core, Emir Kusturica, the Polish twins, Ralph Fiennes and newcomer Nino Kukhanidze all make this a enjoyable, fun romp.

Jason Seaver

Finally, someone else has seen this piece of mad genius. This may have been the funniest movie I saw all last year, promoted by the local theater as "Owing as much to The Evil Dead as to The Sound Of Music." When I told my brother about the exchange that includes the line "My daddy ran away with a high school girl!", his reaction summed it up:

"That is so very, very wrong. When does it come out on DVD?"

(It's out now, apparently. See it and find out why Chicago wasn't even the year's best musical)


À la folie... pas du tout (He Loves Me... He Loves Me Not)

Neat stuff is happening in the French film industry these days. Not that it has never been the case, but it seems like when you compare the French movies that managed to grab some notice five or ten years ago with what's coming out now, there seem to be more movies that you could show to an American audience that normally ignores subtitled movies and get a reaction other than walking out.

Part of this, I suppose, is that the younger generation of French filmmakers have been heavily influenced by Hollywood, or at least Hollywood's domination of the box office. What's neat is that even though movies like Amélie and Brotherhood Of The Wolf have the sort of polish expected of Hollywood movies, they still have a European feel to them. To someone who enjoys both American and European movies, it can be the best of both worlds.

I mention those two films because their respective stars - Audrey Tautou and Samuel Le Bihan are the two leads of He Loves Me, He Loves Me Not which tells of the relationship between a young art student (Tautou) and an older cardiologist (Le Bihan) from both perspectives. The production values are Hollywood-slick; interior sets are clean and warm-looking, while location work is vibrant and colorful. The film is definitely French, though, treating adultery more casually than an American film probably would, for instance.

The actors do good work. I loved Amélie when it came out, but upon further reflection, the title character sort of creeped me out; Ms. Tautou harnesses that off-kilter, weird sensibility to good effect here, while also seeming more real (and sexy). M. Le Bihan doesn't have quite so colorful a character (or supporting cast), but he turns in a good effort.

The script has some problems, especially in the second half. Not "this doesn't make sense" issues, but it doesn't quite trust its audience enough - one scene is replayed in its entirety from a different perspective, even though you've probably caught the ironic bit about ten seconds in. There's also a recap that challenges the one in Signs in its... um... exhaustiveness, but isn't stitched together quite as well.

As a result, the movie falls just short of brilliance. But it's still quite entertaining, even if you don't normally go in for le cinéma français.

½


Laurel Canyon

This is an actor's movie, filled with actors who might not get me (or others) into movies on the strength of their names(*), but are generally charismatic and interesting once you're there - Frances McDormand, Christian Bale, Kate Beckinsale, Natascha McElhone, and Alessadro Nivola. They all turn in good performances, as you might expect.

What makes Laurel Canyon work is that the characters are neither completely generic or too quirky, but are, for the most part, likable. A lesser actress might have made McDormand's Jane into a bunch of goofy tics, and Christian Bale's Sam could have easily become bland or unpleasant. The odd number of main characters adds an element of interest in that there's no way to pair them off without leaving someone left standing (and no minor characters that can be used to make it even).

McDormand is the standout - hopefully she'll be considered the next time awards season comes around. But everything, I found, was quite watchable.

½

(*) Okay, I'll see just about anything Kate does, she's so cute, but I was able to resist Pearl Harbor.

Jay's Movie Blog - A movie-viewing diary.
Transplanted Life: Sci-fi soap opera about a man placed in a new body, updated two or three times a week.
Trading Post Inn - Another gender-bending soap, with different collaborators writing different points of view.


"What? Since when was this an energy ball movie?" - Overheard during a screening of Takashi Miike's Dead Or Alive
"What the hell religion are you people?" - Overheard during the Captain Marvel serial at SF/29
"If I feel even one bullet hit me, I will rip your lungs out through your nostrils!" - Ron Silver as himself, "Heat Vision And Jack"

Scott Weinberg

I've been meaning to participate in this thread for the longest time. At the beginning of this year, I thought "Heck, I'll wait. How many 'alternative-ish' movies am I gonna see in the next few months??"

Boy was I wrong. I worked myself into a very lucky situation in which I now frequent film festivals. And they're wonderful. After Sundance/Slamdance in January in South By Southwest last month I now feel like an erudite cinephile.

OK, no I don't.

But I figure that I've seen so many so far that I'd be foolish not to contribute to this excellent thread. I'll be attending two more film festivals in the next two months...but that leads me to a favor I'll ask after my list.

Here's what I've seen so far:

28 Days Later ( out of 5) (Horror, Sci-Fi, Action / Dir: Danny Boyle / Release Date: June 13th / Rated R / Fox Searchlight Pictures) - Brilliantly dark, stark and altogether unsettling, Danny Boyle's tale of apocalyptic flesh-eaters will become an underground smash - if I have anything to say about it. Genre fans take note!

Ali G Indahouse ( out of 5) (Comedy / Dir: Mark Mylod / Release Date: TBD / Rated R / Universal Pictures) - Never seen this character's TV show but the movie had me laughing quite heartily. Raunchy and VERY silly in some spots but also laden with several solid bits. Nice to see a 'race comedy' that doesn't feel terrified and homogenized.
Assassination Tango ( out of 5) (Drama / Dir: Robert Duvall / Release Date: March 28th / Rated R / MGM) - Low-key and borderline slow in spots, but damn if Robert Duvall isn't one of the most watchable actors on the planet.

Bend It Like Beckham (