* School of Rock (Linklater, 2004)|||||6.5
Before Midnight (Linklater, 2013)|||||7
Adamant in making crystal clear what we've always sort of known throughout these movies: Jesse and Celine are not particularly "special" people. In fact, they're utterly banal. Jesse is a man capable of deep, enlightened thoughts, but he's also rather a lightweight; Celine is much less compelling a thinker, but she's a passionate and razor-sharp pragmatist - also persuaded by raw emotion to a fault, as we're made to see so clearly here. Before Midnight is a plunge into the fuck-ups of normal imperfect people, and as such it's wonderful. As a capper to my time with these characters, though, it left me a bit ornery and unsatisfied: rather than bringing us down to the ground as it does, I wanted Linklater to damn it all and take the artistic liberty with real life by letting the trilogy follow its previous trajectory of upward and upward fantasy, to end with a conclusion on an even higher plane than the last one (and I loved the ending of Before Sunset). Instead, the last scene - SPOILER - wraps things up with the two commiserating on a round of make-up sex. The profound, beautiful, and basic, nature of love, indeed. Good for Celine and Jesse, though, and good for Linklater.
To the Wonder (Malick, 2013)|||||8
Hell of the Living Dead (Mattei, 1980)|||||3.5
Before Sunset (Linklater, 2004)|||||7
The perfect ending. Didn't see it coming, and it was the best brick in the face I've ever felt.
Before Sunrise (Linklater, 1995)|||||6.5
* Stagecoach (Ford, 1939)|||||7
Three Crowns of the Sailor (Ruiz, 1983)|||||6.5
Slacker (Linklater, 1990)|||||8
Life of Pi (Lee, 2012)|||||6
Killing Them Softly (Dominik, 2012)|||||5.5
In Vanda's Room (Costa, 2000)|||||7
Bernie (Linklater, 2012)|||||5.5
Man of Steel (Snyder, 2013)|||||5
* Lifeforce (Hooper, 1985)|||||7.5
Deja Vu (Scott, 2006)|||||4
Resident Evil (Anderson, 2002)|||||3.5
Frances Ha (Baumbach, 2012)|||||7
* Halloween II (Zombie, 2009) (Director's Cut)|||||5.5
The Director's Cut is indeed evidential of a drastically different vision, heavily cut down and simplified for the Theatrical Version. If you saw this theatrically, then you actually haven't seen Zombie's film. You can't doubt the 14 drippy extra minutes. No, the gore-level stays mostly the same - 14 extra emotionally drippy minutes. The deleted bits are almost entirely dramatic, and suddenly the arc involving Laurie and Annie's strained relationship appears before your very eyes. The film emerges into itself as an explicit white trash drama, and highly deconstructive of its thick surface slathering of seamy and tabloid-ready embroiled violence (in all incarnations: physical, but especially psychological, emotional). The film's greatest virtue becomes how constantly and earnestly it will repeat and underline and emphasize the issue of its emotional undercurrents. Zombie betrays himself as, and I'm beginning to suspect most great horror authors are this, deep inside, a big, highly sensitive softie (which is further proven in his follow-up to this, the softly treading "Lords of Salem," where the human scenes once again surpass in effect the leaden horror scenes).
Goke, Body Snatcher from Hell (Sato, 1968)|||||5.5
Warm Bodies (Levine, 2013)|||||5
Colossal Youth (Costa, 2005)|||||7.5
Texas Chainsaw 3D (Luessenhop, 2013)|||||3.5
Just stupid and positive-natured enough to like.
Elevator to the Gallows (Malle, 1958)|||||7
Beware of a Holy Whore (Fassbinder, 1971)|||||6.5
