September 2008

SEPTEMBER 08

Il Deserto rosso (Red Desert) (Antonioni, 1964)    6.5
L'Urlo (The Howl) (Brass, 1970)     5.5
* L'Eclisse (Antonioni, 1962)     8.5
* La Notte (Antonioni, 1961)     9
* The Return of the Living Dead (O'Bannon, 1985)     7
Blithe Spirit (David Lean, 1945)     6.5
* Night of the Creeps (Dekker, 1986)     5
* L'Avventura (Antonioni, 1960)     8.5
Forces of Nature (Hughes, 1999)     4
"The Decalogue": Adultery (Kieslowski, 1989) (TV)     8.5
The Girl at the Monceau Bakery (Rohmer, 1963)     8
What Dreams May Come (Ward, 1998)     5
Brewster McCloud (Altman, 1973)     9

August 2008

AUGUST 08

Office Space (Judge, 1999)     4
Cat People (Schreider, 1982)     4
River's Edge (Hunter, 1986)     7.5
* Hostel: Part II (Roth, 2007)     5.5
* Popeye (Altman, 1980) 7
* The X-Files: I Want to Believe (Carter, 2008)     7
* Carnival of Souls (Harvey, 1962)     7
The Stunt Man (Rush, 1980)     7.5
Pineapple Express (Gordon Green, 2008)     6.5
Spontaneous Combustion (Hooper, 1990)     6
Inside (Baustillo, 2007)     5
Straw Dogs (Peckinpah, 1971)     8.5

July 2008

JULY 08

The X-Files: I Want to Believe (Carter, 2008)|||||6.5
Bruiser (Romero, 2000)|||||5
The Dark Knight (Nolan, 2008)|||||6
Season of the Witch (Romero, 1978)|||||8.5
Immortal Beloved (Rose, 1995)|||||6.5
Belle de Jour (Bunuel, 1967)|||||7
Two Lane Blacktop (Hellman, 1971)|||||7.5
Wanted (Bembaktov, 2008)|||||3.5
Mission to Mars (de Palma, 2003)|||||5
Hard Labour (Leigh, 1976)|||||7
You Can't Take It With You (Capra, 1937)|||||4.5
Magic (Attenborough, 1976)|||||8
Noriko's Dinner Table (Sono, 2006)|||||7

June 2008

JUNE 08

Wall-E (|||||7.5
All That Heaven Allows (Sirk, 1954)|||||8
* Diary of the Dead (Romero, 2007)|||||7
Winchester '73 (Mann, 1955)|||||7
* Charisma (Kurosawa, 2000)|||||8.5
O.C. and Stiggs (Altman, 1986)|||||8.5
30 Days of Night (Slade, 2007)|||||3
Lonely Are the Brave (|||||5.5
Retribution (Kurosawa, 2006)|||||7
The Man From Laramie (|||||8
Cleo From 5 to 7 (Varda, 1956)|||||8
After the Thin Man|||||6
Syndromes and a Century (Weerasethakul, 2007)|||||8.5
The Happening (Shyamalan, 2008)|||||5
Hannah Takes the Stairs (|||||6.5
The Third Mother (Argento, 2008)|||||4
Crocodile (Hooper, 2000)|||||2

May 2008

MAY 08

Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull (Spielberg, 2008)|||||5

There's something bubbling underneath the surface of this one... I'm not surprised at various writers' attempts to extract something out of its clever self-reflexivity. There are striking considerations of the new era the series takes place in now: the depictions of youth, the use of knowledge for intimidation, the very pettiness of the quest, the occasional sense of vulnerability allowed its Commie villains (i.e. the drag race in the awesome opening credits, Blanchett's admirably emotive performance). The film also seems to be striving to distill the very nature of the Indiana Jones films, what with its plot points concerning academia and adventure, and the revisions and referrals to history (the adventure seems to amount to little more than an opportunity for Spilko and Jones to horde knowledge and combat their principles towards discovery, at the expense of the remains of cruel conquistadors and humble natives).

But yeah, otherwise the movie just isn't very good. Silly, inane, too glossy, and the end is the definition of anti-climactic predictability. I hate to say it, but the movie could've used some... stronger violence? Ray Winstone's last scene is mind-bogglingly strange. And the whole movie is just another victim of the CGI age.

Turbulence 2: Fear of Flying (TV broadcast) (Philippines) (|||||2.5
Smiles of a Summer Night (Bergman, 1948)|||||8.5
The Cook, the Thief, His Wife, and Her Lover (Greenaway, 1986)|||||8.5
* Pride & Prejudice (Wright, 2005)|||||8
Speed Racer (Wachowski Brothers, 2008)|||||5
Invaders from Mars (Hooper, 1986)|||||6.5
The Matrix (Wachowski Brothers, 1999)|||||5.5
Lifeforce (Hooper, 1985)|||||8

April 2008

APRIL 08

Standard Operating Procedure (Morris, 2008)|||||6.5

I got to see Errol Morris' new documentary Standard Operation Procedure at the SF International Film Festival with Morris in attendance and with Q&A. Morris' pedagogic approach is always a bit too lofty and post-modern chic, and this is no exception. Whether allegorizing his grand commentaries in character personalities, leaving his more barbed criticisms in the realm of semiotics (the film, when on the topic of his arrest, uses the act of slo-mo egg-frying to evoke the figure of Saddam Hussein), or restricting his film to the incessant blather of one particular perspective (here, those of the "bad apples" of Abu Ghraib, portrayed as clueless young'ns), Morris made his point about the irresponsibility of war-time systems much better in the Q&A than in the film itself. The film itself is rather droning and long-winded, spending too much time detailing in over-produced reenactments the crimes committed in the prison while his greater themes remain obfuscated by his love of creating irony through accessibility, but to the point of excess.
* Bonnie and Clyde (Penn, 1969)|||||8
* The Life Aquatic with Steven Zissou (Anderson, 2004)|||||7.5
* Killer of Sheep (Burnett, 1977)|||||9
Mr. Death: The Rise and Fall of Fred A. Leuchter, Jr. (Morris, 1994)|||||6.5
Rashomon (Kurosawa, 1950)|||||8.5
The Thin Blue Line (Morris, 1987)|||||7.5
* Punch-Drunk Love (Anderson, 2001) |||||6.5
* L'Avventura (Antonioni, 1960)|||||8.5
Gates of Heaven (Morris, 1976)|||||6.5
The 400 Blows (Truffaut, 1967)|||||8

March 2008

MARCH 08

Into the Wild (Penn, 2007)|||||8.5
The Shawshank Redemption (Darabont, 1994)|||||5
* The Royal Tenenbaums (Anderson, 2001)|||||6.5
The Ninth Configuration (Blatty, 1984)|||||7.5
Starship Troopers (Verhoeven, 1997)|||||8.5
Singin' in the Rain (|||||7.5
North By Northwest (Hitchcock, 1959)|||||9
The Convent (|||||4.5
* Cube (Natali, 1997)|||||6
Rescue Dawn (Herzog, 2006)|||||7
* Doppelganger (Kurosawa, 2003)|||||9