July 2012

July 2012

Death Race 2000 (Bartel, 1975)|||||4.5
* Fool for Love (Altman, 1985)|||||7
Black Belly of the Tarantula (Cavara, 1971)|||||4
Carnosaur (Simon, 1993)|||||4
Pretty good, so far as bad movies go.
The Dark Knight Rises (Nolan, 2012)|||||6
This is a sprawling and complicated, non-sided, amalgamating look at the issues of the world and of people, putting a laudable emphasis on the critique of all parties: the complacent moneyed, the disgruntled poor, the status quo cops and criminals. In direct view of the film's sad ambivalence is the specters of Western civilization, engineered revolutions, and the desperation of the terrorists. Broadly painted but with an intention to that, idealistic but in a way that achieves some degree of horizon-widening.
The Future (July, 2011)|||||4.5
The Hypothesis of the Stolen Painting (Ruiz, 1979)|||||6.5
The Chronicle of Anna Magdalena Bach (Straub & Huillet, 1968)|||||7
Empire of the Ants (Gordon, 1977)|||||4
Lola Montès (Ophüls, 1955)|||||8
Providence (Resnais, 1977)|||||8.5
Ganja & Hess (Gunn, 1973)|||||4.5
Monsters (Edwards, 2011)|||||4
Ted (Seth MacFarlane, 2012)|||||3.5
Ice Age: Continental Drift (Martino, Thermeier, 2012)|||||2
The Car (Silverstein, 1977)|||||4
La Chinoise (Godard, 1967)|||||8
Dark Shadows (Burton, 2012)|||||5
Gorgeous visuals, sumptuous design, dynamic directing, good horror show, bad comedy, diffuse screenplay. REC'D REVIEW: Ferdy on Film
Serenity (Whedon, 2005)|||||5
The Smiling Lieutenant (Lubitsch, 1931)|||||7.5
Discombobulating audaciousness - the most edge-of-your-seat musical romantic comedy I can recall. Stakes are high, you're on your toes, and a smiling line near the end is actually a barbed sucker punch.
The Love Parade (Lubitsch, 1929)|||||8
* Point Blank (Boorman, 1967)|||||8.5
* Lady in the Water (Shyamalan, 2006)|||||4
Shyamalan's an elegant stylist and idiosyncratic, humane voice, but also such a lamebrain. I appreciate him being around more than most seem to. Still hate The Sixth Sense.
Piranha (Aja, 2010)|||||2
Leo the Last (Boorman, 1970)|||||6.5
* In the Mood for Love (Wong, 2001)|||||7.5
Metropolitan (Stillman, 1990)|||||7.5
Beyond the Black Rainbow (Cosmatos, 2011)|||||4
An American in Paris (Minnelli, 1951)|||||7.5
The Avengers (Whedon, 2012)|||||5.5

June 2012

June 2012

Irma Vep (Assayas, 1996)|||||7
Ten (Kiarostami, 2002)|||||7
Blade Runner (Scott, 1982)|||||6
Brave (Andrews & Chapman, 2012)|||||7
Death By Hanging (Oshima, 1968)|||||8.5
The Lost Boys (Schumacher, 1987)|||||4.5
Predator (McTiernan, 1987)|||||5.5
* In a Lonely Place (Ray, 1950)|||||8.5
Black Death (Smith, 2011)|||||4
* Alien (Scott, 1979)|||||7
Forget Prometheus, what Scott needs to do is make another straight-up terror flick.
Venom (Haggard, 1981)|||||4
Moonrise Kingdom (Anderson, 2012)|||||6
The Dark (Cardos, 1981)|||||5
Kingdom of the Spiders (Cardos, 1977)|||||4
Diary of a Lost Girl (Pabst, 1929)|||||8.5
The Conformist (Bertolucci, 1970)|||||8.5
Prometheus (Scott, 2012)|||||5
* The Tenant (Polanski, 1978)|||||7.5
* Chinatown (Polanski, 1975)|||||8
Ghoulies (Bercovici, 1985)|||||4
La belle noiseuse (Rivette, 1991)|||||6.5
Groundhog Day (Ramis, 1993)|||||5
"Shokuzai" (Kurosawa, 2012) (5 episode mini-series) (TV)|||||7.5
21 Jump Street (Lord & Miller, 2012)|||||4.5
Les Bonnes Femmes (Chabrol, 1960)|||||8.5
* Döppelganger (Kurosawa, 2004)|||||8
The Weeping Meadow (Angelopoulos, 2004)|||||6.5
* Candyman (Rose, 1992)|||||7
* To Live and Die in L.A. (Friedkin, 1987)|||||7.5
Flight of the Red Balloon (Hou, 2007)|||||6.5

May 2012

May 2012

Scary Movie (Wayans, 2000)|||||3.5
Millennium Mambo (Hou, 2001)|||||6
* Airplane! (Zucker/Abrahams, 1980)|||||6
There's Nothing Out There (Kanefsky, 1992)|||||4.5
* The Elephant Man (Lynch, 1980)|||||6.5
May be one of the most exorbitantly compassionate and most touching films out there. That said, it itself is placated and, as a discourse, falters, along this line of utmost tenderness.
"The Cowboy and the Frenchman" (Lynch, 1988) (short) (TV episode)|||||++ / 6
* Eraserhead (Lynch, 1977)|||||6
La ciénaga (Martel, 2001)|||||6
The Sacrifice (Tarkovsky, 1986)|||||8
* The Cheap Detective (Moore, 1978)|||||6
The Woman in Black (Wise, 1989) (TV)|||||5
* Roman (Bettis, 2002)|||||5.5
The Pirates! Band of Misfits (Lord, 2012)|||||6.5
Silent Night, Deadly Night III: Better Watch Out! (Hellman, 1989)|||||3
On the Silver Globe (Zulawski, 1978/1986)|||||6.5
The Mother and the Whore (Eustache, 1973)|||||8.5
Horror Rises from the Tomb (Aured, 1973)|||||4
Hissss (Lynch, 2010)|||||2
* I'm Not There. (Haynes, 2007)|||||7
Days and Nights in the Forest (Ray, 1970)|||||7
Stavisky... (Resnais, 1970)|||||6.5
Fists in the Pocket (Bellocchio, 1965)|||||7.5
The Day I Became a Woman (Meshkini, 2000)|||||7.5
* The Woman (McKee, 2011)|||||7
Rango (Verbinski, 2011)|||||5

April 2012

April 2012

* Christine (Carpenter, 1983)|||||5.5
Happy Together (Wong, 1997)|||||6.5
Neverquiet (Film of Wonders) (Bragança, Meliende, et al., 2011)|||||5.5
The Cabin in the Woods (Goddard, 2012)|||||5.5
The horror genre spoofery is at a dissatisfying disjunction with the moral tale of a rotten worldly system. I felt some chagrin towards the film and its terribly comprehensive exposé of the horror genre as a hollow freak show (so yes, a personal hang-up there - this took a piss out of the genre I love so well I was offended!). But on the other hand, the film is affecting as an apocalyptic tale, an ode to the dead teenager.
So oddly enough, while I of course couldn't not enjoy the gonzo geekery of the climax, it was the previous/other stuff - actually feeling sadness and shock when one of the teens died, that match cut and the Final Girl's beating at the dock, the final nihilistic moment between friends - that makes me really appreciate the film.
Hour of the Wolf (Bergman, 1968)|||||8
* Bless Their Little Hearts (Woodberry, 1984)|||||6.5
When It Rains (Burnett, 1995)|||||+++ / 7.5
Quiet As Kept (Burnett, 2005)|||||+++
The Joy (Bragança & Meliande, 2010)|||||6
Le Skylab (Delpy, 2011)|||||5
Silent Night, Deadly Night Part 2 (Harry, 1987)|||||2.5
Film Socialisme (Godard, 2011)|||||6
* The Long Goodbye (Altman, 1973)|||||7.5
* Eggshells (Hooper, 1969)|||||4.5 / 5
* The Heisters (Hooper, 1964) (short)|||||+++ / 7.5
Boris Godounov (Zulawski, 1989)|||||6.5

March 2012

March 2012

Gas! (Corman, 1971)|||||6
The Deep Blue Sea (Davies, 2011)|||||8.5
The Woman in Black (Watkins, 2012)|||||3.5
The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie (Buñuel, 1972)|||||8.5
Spetters (Verhoeven, 1980)|||||8
First dick measuring scene. Real cinema.
The Diary of a Chambermaid (Buñuel, 1964)|||||8
L'Enfant (Dardennes, 2005)|||||7
Loft (Kurosawa, 2005)|||||7
* Toby Dammit (Fellini, 1968) (excerpt from 1968 film 'Spirits of the Dead')|||||7.5
The Blue Note (Zulawski, 1991)|||||8
In the Heat of the Sun (Jiang, 1994)|||||7.5
* Terror Train (Spottiswoode, 1980)|||||5
I think this is definitely one of the better 80s slasher flicks.
Moolaadé (Sembene, 2004)|||||7
Statues Die Also (Marker, Resnais, 1966) (short)|||||8
The Wind is Blowing On My Street (Riazi, 2010) (short)|||||6.5
Fugitive Love (Jenkins, 1992) (short)|||||7
Suu et Uchikawa (Carton, 2011) (short)|||||7
Daisies (Chytilovà, 1966)|||||6
Closely Watched Trains (Menzel, 1966)|||||7
Carlos Part Two (Assayas, 2010)|||||7.5
Simon of the Desert (Buñuel, 1965) (short)|||||7
* Duck Amuck (Jones, 1953) (short)|||||++
Coming Home (Ashby, 1978)|||||6.5
Written on the Wind (Sirk, 1956)|||||8
* Vivre sa vie (Godard, 1962)|||||8
The Last Wave (Weir, 1977)|||||5.5
Carlos Part One (Assayas, 2010)|||||7
Mosquita y Mari (Guerrero, 2012)|||||5
Tarrafal (Costa, 2007) (short)|||||7
Damnation (Tarr, 1989)|||||5.5
Hell Night (De Simone, 1981)|||||4

February 2012

February 2012

Le Bonheur (Varda, 1965)|||||8.5
"P.T.A. extraordinary general meeting" (Shokuzai, Japanese mini-series) (Kurosawa, 2012) (TV series)|||||7
Now, Voyager (Rapper, 1942)|||||6.5
"French Doll" (Shokuzai, Japanese mini-series) (Kurosawa, 2012) (TV series)|||||5.5
The House Where Evil Dwells (Connor, 1982)|||||4
* Au Hasard Balthazar (Bresson, 1966)|||||7.5
Elephant (Clarke, 1989) (TV) (short)|||||6
Everybody's Famous! (Deruderre, 2000)|||||3.5
Storytelling (Solondz, 2001)|||||6
* Tokyo Story (Ozu, 1953)|||||8
The Taking of Power by Louis XIV (Rossellini, 1966)|||||7
* The Changeling (Medak, 1980)|||||5.5
A Dangerous Method (Cronenberg, 2011)|||||7.5
A film about flailing intellectuals and their circuitous intellectual think, and aware of their desire to change the world and the ironies of their alternating successes and failures to do so. The ending is quaintly sentimental, but it's a wonderful way to end the film after all the film's proper restraint and historical perspective (without forgoing those things, just melding them with the film's ultimate melancholy).
* Bigger Than Life (Ray, 1956)|||||7.5
The Ruling Class (Medak, 1972)|||||7.5
The Wicker Tree (Hardy, 2010)|||||6
This is delightful. If you like your film-making dirty and 70s - spontaneous, non-cookie-cutter, not afraid of honest-to-goodness personality and film-making euphoria - you might be able to forgive the film its numerous failures and embarrassments, and rejoice that Robin Hardy still has the gleeful vision he imbued into The Wicker Man, if now with more outwardly camp goals and compromised [digital age] execution.

January 2012

January 2012

Psycho III (Perkins, 1986)|||||6.5
Excalibur (Boorman, 1981)|||||6
* Caché (Haneke, 2005)|||||7.5
To Sleep With Anger (Burnett, 1990)|||||7.5
Psycho II (Franklin, 1983)|||||5
Cold Fish (Sono, 2010)|||||6
Europa (Trier, 1991)|||||8
Germany Year Zero (Rossellini, 1948)|||||7.5
Albert Nobbs (Garcia, 2011)|||||4
War Horse (Spielberg, 2011)|||||5.5
The story is okay enough. Survey of war yadda yadda, which is fine and good, but always tilting towards retrograde in the hands of fuzzy, the-values-we-hold-dear, let's-keep-on-holding-them-dear Spielberg.
A Separation (Farhadi, 2011)|||||7.5
Blistering social observation, and an incredibly well-written dramatic tale of moral complexity.
Shame (McQueen, 2011)|||||5
Reverse Shot: "... that he’s gone further and weighed the already heavy film down with the most self-serious molasses-thick score in recent memory (even a habitual button-pusher like John Williams would cringe), is arrogance of the highest order."
Nanami: Inferno of First Love (Hani, 1968)|||||6
Exorcist II: The Heretic (Boorman, 1977)|||||6.5
The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo (Fincher, 2011)|||||5.5
* Zardoz (Boorman, 1974)|||||7
The Son (Dardennes, 2002)|||||7
That Obscure Object of Desire (Bunuel, 1977)|||||7.5
Bad Lieutenant (Ferrara, 1992)|||||7.5
S&Man (Petty, 2006)|||||5.5
Oh, Woe is Me (Godard, 1993)|||||6.5