July 2009

July 2009

[REC]  (Balaguero/Plaza, 2007)     4.5

Not bad and better than I expected. It successfully becomes more intense as it goes along, and the climax is excellently atmospheric and despairing. The religious angle that is brought in all of sudden at the end is a bit too obligatory of Catholixploitation, and is ultimately rather simplistic oogie-boogie backstory, but the quasi-mysticism provides undeniable atmospherics and it offers the viewer a somewhat evocative little tale of religion's rose-colored exploitation of facts morphing into terrifying science, with the final menace being a specter of disconcerting biological, anatomical decay.

The Tenant (Polanski, 1976)     7.5

Not as visually eloquent and crisply dynamic in expressing visual ideas as Rosemary's Baby, but it is much more expansive thematically, with much to intimate about the selfsameness of experience - the experience here being alienation due to the pressures and hypocrisy of apartment-dwelling life. It reminded me a bit of Inland Empire, both being about psychotic emanations of shared emotional existences under specific circumstances (Inland Empire: method acting, The Tenant: apartment living, both: Polishness).  Well, by "Polishness," I really mean "foreignness," which I suppose only The Tenant is particularly about.

Eaten Alive (Hooper, 1977)     6

* Spontaneous Combustion (Hooper, 1990)     5.5

Escape from L.A. (Carpenter, 1996)     5.5

Brüno (Clark, 2009)     4.5

Good for what it is: an outrageous stunt film with, just barely, the rhetorical purposes of making gayness prominent in a piece of mainstream entertainment, as well as a cornucopia of other topical stuff like [talking penises, and] absurdist mock peace talks... all of it surely weak and little-researched (it takes a while to realize these films, Borat and Brüno, are actually not trying to be like classical documentaries - their "mockumentary" status is weak in a way because they're more like mocku-"diary films"), but strengthened by the sheer novelty and daring-do of Baron Cohen's schtick.

* Scream (Craven, 1996)     4.5

* Death Proof (Tarantino, 2007)     9.5

* Tobe Hooper's Night Terrors (Hooper, 1993)     6

* Dead-Alive (Braindead) (Jackson, 1991)     8

The Sentinel (Winner, 1977)     3

The Sentinel is occasionally beguiling - Chris Sarandon's sturdy but two-sided, ultimately prosecutable lover; the moment where Cristina Raines insists a book is inscribed in Latin when it's not - but this is quite the woefully misguided film, that only deals with its rather implicative religious tale in the manner a cheesy horror movie would. And this is undoubtedly a cheesy horror movie. It's quite the representation of holy callings, and what exactly is it's correlation between its innerly troubled super model heroine and the gauntlet she's forced to take up?  Sexual trauma as sure enough conditioning for the life of monastic diligence? SPOILER The final shot of this beauty Cristina Raines relegated to a habit and the suddenly weathered skin of the cloistered does ring with sort of tragedy.

* The Fog (Carpenter, 1980)     5.5

A beautiful-looking and strikingly photographed film, that boasts the creepiness desired by Carpenter who aimed to create simply an old-fashioned ghost story. But it's perhaps too modest for its own good, its small-scale, slasher film approach and prop-costume, smoke machine aesthetic being inadequate for its story about a town damned by its ancestors, and not matching up to the smarts it occasionally possesses. The film ultimately comes off feeling rinky-dink and frivolous, especially considering Carpenter's film in its original print ran so short, the opening campfire scene (a good scene, though) and the autopsy room walking-dead scare (a bad scene) were shot after initial wrap in order to pad out the running time.

* Escape from New York (Carpenter, 1981)     6.5

June 2009

June 2009

Ghosts of Mars (Carpenter, 2001)     5

Oh, this wasn't so bad. I thought the material ranged from not bad to fantastic: the characters, the screenplay, plot developments, dialogue, etc. I found it, actually, very dense and intelligent in its comic-book sociology. I was struck by how comprehensively Carpenter both adopted old Hollywood Western story elements with implicit deconstructivist commentary, but simultaneously never disfavors or pacifies the survivalist pragmatism of its cop/criminal characters, nor makes them any less than likable, as is the practice in the old-fashioned Hollywood action films of yore.

Carpenter takes this pragmatism and satisfactorily splays it, so as not to just be about "brave vs. cowardly" or "good vs. bad" as is conventional in the classical Western of pre-progressivist era. Now, Carpenter mixes in the push of societal shifts (the film takes place in a mankind under a new matriarchal order), modern urban upbringing, and the nitty-gritty of what gets a pure survivalist through the day (which includes here, most interestingly, the good and bad of recreational drug use). It was great seeing faces like Jason Statham and Clea Duvall playing characters not glamorized or de-glamorized, instead ones that would usually be played by anonymous background actors. I was really struck by the Ice Cube-Henstridge interplay, too.

But, despite that, in the end, this is definitely not an improvement on Assault on Precinct 13, which also offers an open look at criminality and which this film is practically a remake. Carpenter's directing has always been characterized by its flat beats and mechanical, no-less-than (or, arguably, more-than) efficient style, but before it was in service of really careful sequencing and often lovely mise en scene. Here, his cinematic vocabulary seems to have disappeared and he's speaking like a thorough layman. The film has its formal idiosyncrasy, though. The rhythm of the film and its use of dissolves is particularly effective. It's too bad Carpenter was content with the film's cheap-looking production design and villain costuming, which go a long way in sinking the film. I think the film is very competent. It's just Carpenter sets his visual standards so freaking low here for some reason.

Friday Night (Denis, 2002)     8
Martyrs (Laugier, 2008)     6
* Full Metal Jacket (Kubrick, 1987)     9
4 Months, 3 Weeks, 2 Days (Mungiu, 2007)     7
* Prince of Darkness (Carpenter, 1987)     5.5
The Ruins (Smith, 2008)     5.5
Brief Crossing (Breillat, 2001)     7
The Game (Fincher, 1997)     6
Beau travail (Denis, 1999)     8
Claire Denis' technique isn't quite as polished as I like to see in my films - in fact, I'd call it almost sloppy at times - but deliberateness and authorial command definitely come through, with stunning elegance at numerous times, even if Denis' style of impromptu visualization leads to too many moments utilizing the grace of a slowly crawling camera to little effect. I wasn't with the film beat by beat - as a story told with explicit fragmentation and a willful avoidance of continuity and clarity, I can't help but feel we don't understand the two central characters as much as we should. But it's a preferred trade-in for what the film does so elliptically evoke concerning the legionnaire life, environment, and what it nurtures. This thoroughly expressionistic but finely detailed sketching of masculine regimentation is even more impressive and daring knowing a woman is behind the camera.

About the last scene, while it's certainly very affecting, I can't help but wish there was some context given to it, which might lend it a certified reality. I find I need to think of it as a moment that actually happens and not just as a fantasy scene if I want to appreciate it fully. As something that happened, it means he could dance. As a fantasy scene, it's inexplicable and just something Denis would throw in mid-filming when she found out her lead actor could dance.

UP (Docter, 2009)     7

Bram Stoker's Dracula (Coppola, 1992)     6

Sam Raimi's Drag Me To Hell would have been an achievement much in the same way Francis Ford Coppola's Bram Stoker's Dracula is, if Raimi had made Drag Me To Hell, you know, better. The two films even have similar slam-bang openings and shock, tactile title cards (which never fail).

As Raimi wishes to throwback to certain old-school schlock, Dracula also takes a classical-type story burdened with lots of codings and de-codes them using overt artificial style, Coppola throwbacking majorly to silent film aesthetic and storytelling beats.

Bram Stoker's Dracula is an uneven film that gets increasingly tiresome once Helsing and the men start actively seeking out Dracula, leading to a very weak climactic act, but there's too many great moments here to completely dismiss, especially in the first half of the film. The number of gleefully bizarre moments only Coppola's capable of is unbeatable, such as the extravagant visual feast that is Harker's first entrance into Dracula's castle and the shot of the spectacularly made-up Giant Bat form of Dracula moping out of sight when Mira catches him in the garden with Lucy, complete with a practically slapstick iris out. The characterization of the Lucy character takes on a particular poignance, her chipper and giving personality seemingly irrepressible even as all her vitality is slowly being sucked from her - perhaps Coppola's way to undermine our expectations that the vapid sex kitten is always easily susceptible to the draining of inner character, as the whole film serves to re-evaluate the Victorian era and its gentrified sexual mores, drained of the true, potent, and certainly blasphemous passion that Dracula embodies.

Fight Club (Fincher, 1999)     8
Se7en (Fincher, 1995)     5.5
* The Funhouse (Hooper, 1981)     7
Beyond Therapy (Altman, 1987)     7

Yeah, Altman lyricism is just too irresistible for me, even if the film makes very little in the way of concluding, transcendent statements and this film probably shows off the worst of Altman's tendency for puerile caricature. There's too much silliness here to make the film work dramatically, but if that final scene (starting with the hilarious "shoot em up") doesn't tie things up nicer than I'd expected. Glenda Jackson is fantastic and hilarious.

May 2009

May 2009

Star Trek (Abrams, 2009) 7

Drag Me To Hell (Raimi, 2009) 5

Orca (Anderson, 1977) 3.5

Recommended Reviews: Film Freak Central on Orca

Snatch (Ritchie, 2000) 4

Sleeper (Allen, 1973) 6.5

Love and Death (Allen, 1975) 6

Adventureland (Mottola, 2009) 6

Body Bags (Carpenter & Hooper, 1993) (TV) 4

Irreversible (Noé, 2002) 5.5

The Piano (Campion, 1993) 9

Best demystification of hoop skirts ever.

Shocker (Craven, 1989) 3.5

Wes Craven is the showman of the horror auteurs. He's modish and trendy and he shows it in his horror films. He's also a goofball, though, and a sucker for novelty, and that shows most explicitly in Shocker. Mitch Pileggi, a face known to any X-Files fan, tries valiantly to be the next Freddy Krueger, rolling off one-liners in mid-slaughter. It would all be just dull if the film didn't benefit from Craven's dream logic-inspired, sight gag-inclined knack at inanity. The otherworldly presence of the dead girlfriend, who seems to appear with the alternating and counter-productive purposes of either assisting, turning on, or fruitlessly freaking the hell out the film's hero, is one of the film's stranger plot elements, in a film full of strange plot elements. This includes the entire high school football team helping out foil the killer's plot, and a lecherous psychopath body-jumping into a six-year-old girl. Amusing, but pointless.

Splinter (Wilkins, 2008) 5.5

JLG/JLG (Godard, 199 ) 6.5

Nouvelle Vague (Godard, 1990) 7.5

Passion (2nd) (Godard, 1985) 7

* War of the Worlds (Spielberg, 2005) 4.5

April 2009

April 2009

The Midnight Meat Train (Kitamura, 2008)     4.5

Passion (Godard, 1982)     7

Slumdog Millionaire (Boyle, 2008)     3

* Images (Altman, 1972)     7.5

Sauve qui peut (la vie) (Godard, 1980)     7.5

The Apartment Complex (Hooper, 1999)     4

Tarnation (Caouette, 2003)     5.5

* Tobe Hooper's Night Terrors (Hooper, 1993)     5.5

March 2009

March 2009

Four Flies on Grey Velvet (Argento, 1971)     6.5
* The Wicker Man (Hardy, 1973)     8.5
Smiley Face (fullscreen) (Araki, 2007)     4
* Quantum of Solace (Forster, 2007)     3.5
Saw IV (Bousman, 2007)     1.5
Tobe Hooper's Night Terrors (Hooper, 1993)     5
Sexy Beast (Glazer, 2000)     8
Tokyo Sonata (Kurosawa, 2009)     7
License to Live (Kurosawa, 1998)     7.5
Eyes of the Spider (Kurosawa, 1998)     n/a
Serpent's Path (Kurosawa, 1998)     7.5
A Scanner Darkly (Linklater, 2006)     5.5
Stuck (Gordon, 2008)     8
South Park: Bigger, Longer, and Uncut (Parker & Stone, 1999)     5
Week End (Godard, 1967)     7.5

February 2009

February 2009

Two or Three Things I Know About Her (Godard, 1967) 7
Coraline (Selick, 2009) 7
* Night of the Demon (Tourneur, 1957) 8.5
Milk (Van Sant, 2008) 7
Friday the 13th (Nispel, 2009) 2.5
Oh my God so fucking dull.
If this remake is of any conceivable use, it'll be making non-fans realize what relative (or absolute, if they really come around...) joys the 80s Friday flicks were. The 80s Friday's were stupid slashers, but they were eccentric stupid slasher films, where part of the fun was their lampoon of an eclectic set of stereotypes and caricatures.
Gran Torino (Eastwood, 2008) 6.5
* Night and Fog (Resnais, 1955) 8.5
Marnie (Hitchcock, 1964) 8
Culloden (Watkins, 1964) (TV) 9
Wendy and Lucy (Reichardt, 2009) 7.5
Contempt (Godard, 1963) 7.5
Emma (McGrath, 1996) 5.5
Zack and Miri Make a Porno (Smith, 2008) 3.5
First Kevin Smith film, so I wasn't expecting anything nor was I expecting nothing.  Likeable enough, I guess, but I did start feeling hostile towards the film once the ridiculous "Three months later..." card went up and the film completely gives in to irrepressible formula.
* Re-Animator (Gordon, 1986) 6
Vivre se vie (Godard, 1962) 8

January 2009

JANUARY 2009

* Birth (Glazer, 2004) 8.5
The Uninvited (Guard Brothers, 2009) 2.5
spoilers
Bleergghh. Bleeeergghh. That's the sound of me feeling physically ill while I watched this endlessly irritating, endlessly imbecilic movie. I'm usually very forgiving towards remakes, but just thinking about the artistry of A Tale of Two Sisters compared to this laughably cliched and awkward and visionless remake did make me want to puke. Throughout, I squirmed in my seat, groaned audibly, slapped my palm against my forehead, and broke into a drool of imitated braindeadedness, without fear of disrupting the movie-goers around me, mocking the film left and right.

That said, it does offer its own interesting spin on the big twist of the original. Its version of events is much more mean-spirited and psychologically subversive than Two Sisters', and actually gives the film some thematic cause for being such a sexed-up, teeny-bopper, American make-over of the more sober, adult Korean film. While that film dealt with budding biology through the mind of a main protagonist struggling to achieve a sort of adulthood and maturity, this remake consistently peddles and presents sex and sexuality with the attitude of a giggling school girl, through the eyes of a main protagonist wanting to cling to a childhood purity threatened by a wanton and whorish new stepmother. When the remake's secret is let out of the bag and the film reveals its message as some sort of variation on the old covenant "Get some nookie or let's go kooky," then it just all makes sense the film sexifies teen-star Emily Browning to such an extent it seems only possible in her dreams. Might there be some implicit critique made by the film, that all the overwrought CW shows and grotesque tween celebrity scene and Emily Browning in two-pieces are nightmare manifestations of the repressed psyche of bourgeoisie American youth? That if all teeny-boppers are as vapid as what this film hawks to them, then all youths in question are as subject to delusion and possible psychosis as the flittery, ill-"educated" young woman of this picture? Nah. There's much too much audience-protagonist identification throughout, instead of much-needed meta-irony.

* Breathless (Godard, 1960) 8.5
The Killers (Siodmak, 1946) 6.5
The Dunwich Horror (Haller, 1970) 5
aka Gidget Goes Date-Rape... For, Like, a Whole Week Straight. The serious issue that is date-rape aside, Daniel Haller's Sandra Dee-starring early 70s psychedalia horror-flick The Dunwich Horror is weird and amusing enough to make me appreciate it on some level. Likely the level that can imagine going whole hog with a really strung-out chick one smoky Woodstock night on the dewy green as Canned Heat played in the background. Poor Sandra Dee. This film is not good to her, or any of its women characters in general.

The film is not good, persay, but I for one appreciated its stylistic pretention. It's an example of a director, Haller, who was previously an art designer and now taking a turn as director. It is readily apparent: he has a great eye, a very lofty sense of style, and generally a great "art designer" sense of directing - but he can't quite get us to take it all seriously when he has to put his artsiness in the context of a story, and when no restraint is shown in cinematography so conceptualized it just seems made for a trip-out instead of a serious film. If this movie were made with the intelligent design behind Flaming Creatures or a Guy Maddin film, Haller would've been a genius. But in reality, this is just a very silly horror movie.

Die, Monster, Die! (Haller, 1975) 4
Snow Angels (Gordon Green, 2008) 7
Young and Innocent (Hitchcock, 1937) 6.5
Kung Fu Panda (Osborne, 2008) 5
* Little Otik (Svankmajer, 2000) 7
* Happy Feet (Miller, 2006) 9
The Haunted Strangler (Day, 1948) 5.5
The Beast Must Die (Annett, 1974) 4
* Strangers on a Train (Hitchcock, 1951) 7.5
Strangers on a Train is the first Hitchcock in a long time that I've come away feeling a bit underwhelmed (although, of course, it's not as if I have been watching what I assume are his least interesting works). It is surely an excellent piece of filmmaking, but I feel Shadow of a Doubt is a much more poignant picture about deviant personality lashing out against certain uglinesses of pompous normalcy. Strangers certainly has a lot of visual wit and biting undercurrents, but I think it is finally a case of Hitchcock's rigorous constructions and narrative tightness piling too thickly and overcoming subtextual insight. Even the much-touted merry-go-round finale seemed less "evocative imagery" than just a plot device (even though it is, of course, to some degree, visual evocation - I'd be fooling myself if I thought "Let's set the climactic fight on a merry-go-round!" was completely arbitary or completely a thin gimmick).
* School of Rock (Linklater, 2003) 6
* Dead-Alive (aka Braindead) (Jackson, 1992) 8.5
Dust Devil (Stanley, 1992) 4
The Saddest Music in the World (Maddin, 2003) 7
My first Guy Maddin flick. Maddin uncannily recreates the "silent film" look, and it's not just for cute aesthetic experimentation. The use of the silent movie look mixed with his non-sanitized characters, sensibility, and really wacky and inspired story really works with its theme on the irresponsible mixing-and-matching of emotionality (sadness and nostalgia and sociological representations) with the petty, insensitive, bawdy drama and business the main characters take part in. But on the con side, I also found Maddin's filmmaking generally rather ostentatious and indelicate. While his images are often striking and delicate, his editing and conceptualization is a bit flashy and frenetic. The film should have milked the competition and musical sequences more. Instead it was too plot-driven and a bit overly jokey.
Valkyrie (Singer, 2008) 5
The Crazies (Romero, 1973) 6.5
Paranoid Park (Van Sant, 2007) 8
* Disturbia (Caruso, 2007) 4
* Enchanted (Lima, 2007) 4.5