FOUR QUEENS. Via DVD, I caught this Argentinian film for the second time last night and it held up pretty well. It is one of those caper films like THE SPANISH PRISONER. There are some holes and implausibilities that I missed when I caught the film on its original theatrical run, but all in all an enjoyable film. Hollywood remade the film, lamely, with John C. Reilly, Diego Luna & Maggie Gyllenhaal. The director was Fabian Belinsky, the unfortunately late Fabian Belinsky, who also made the film THE AURA, which was released last year and would be on my top 10 list if I made a top ten list. Rating: B.

Kinky Boots
A fun and intelligent look at the world of shoe-making that just happens to involve a delirious transvestite. I had my share of laughs but it all seemed way too predictable.
6/10

La Moustache
WTF? What the hell was this about... Yes, it has some hints of existentialism but still it's practically pointless. It's so frustrating. A man shaves off his mustache and in hoping that his spouse notices it's disappearance he ends up becoming a paranoid and irrational being.
5/10

Farewell, My Concubine
A tedious look at Chinese Opera, dealing with confused gender issues and discipline. It's boring even though the movie is quite beautiful considering the cinematography which is superb.
6/10

Breathless
A bit overrated... Sorry, I just want to express my opinion. It's definitely a superbly made film but I just didn't find it to be as exhilirating and captivating as others have.
7.5/10

I finally saw Little Miss Sunshine yesterday through DVD. I thought it was pretty good and one of the better comedies of the year. I found myself often laughing throughout that film and I absolutely love the way Steve Carell runs in that movie--the thing he does with his arms is so funny. I liked the plot, writing, acting and especially the overall feel of the movie. I highly recommend it.

DAM STREET. A Chinese film about a high school girl in rural China who gets pregnant. Her boyfriend's sister, a doctor, delivers the baby and the mother tells her daughter the baby died during childbirth. Friends of the mother -- fellow teachers -- adopt the kid. The story then fast forwards 10 years later and the kid bonds with the mother and grandmother, who is his teacher. Only the mother, grandmother nor the kid know they are related. It is revealed that the kid was never given to the teachers by the doctor because she kept the kid. This all comes out in a convoluted way. The film steadily becomes a mess as the story jumps between the mother, the grandmother, the doctor and the kid. Rating: C.

ERASERHEAD. If PEYTON PLACE is the mother of all melodramas then ERASERHEAD is the mother of all midnight movies, though I didn't see the film at midnight. David Lynch's first film, I don't know how to describe it. Clearly Lynch has a fervid imagination that was working overtime on this one, but there isn't really a linear story. An interesting exercise from Lynch at the inchoate stage of his career, I couldn't recommend this one so I'll give it a D.

Jesus Camp
It's definitely a fascinating concept for a documentary even though I wouldn't consider a christian militia as being far-fetched. It's not a very good film because it uses is blatant politics and seperated religion to counterattack what practically is a mega force of uncontrolled and unrestrained religion (with politics as a benefactor) . It's actually quite repulsive. The hypocracy is substantial considering the amount of disbelief and the amount of faith.
Overall rating:
5.5/10

The Guardian (2006, Grade: C-)

The writing was total cliché left, right and center. My dad and I stopped the movie about an hour into it.

Letters From Iwo Jima (Clint Eastwood, 2006, Grade: A-)

First off, I'm undecided whether this film is an A- or a B+, but since it's leaning towards being my film of the year, I'll cut it some slack and return later if I'm BSing. To me, this is Clint's most-serious and artful film. His most-entertaining (and probably best) is The Outlaw Josey Wales (yeah, you heard it here first).

This film immediately leaps into the ranks of the greatest war/anti-war films ever filmed. Eastwood perfects the bleached pallette he and his cinematographer Tom Stern also used for Flags of Our Fathers. This film is harrowing, affecting, suspenseful and yet, quite humorous. Ken Watanabe provides a towering backbone as the General, but little-known Kazunari Ninomiya matches him as the "grunt" soldier/baker/husband/father-who-never-saw-his-daughter, who keeps turning up to the General.

The entire film is so powerful because it accomplishes a difficult task with seeming ease. The Bad Guys are the Good Guys, and vice versa. Then again, there are no bad/good guys because war is unfortunately a universal experience, and your enemy is MORE like you than they are different from you. All that differentiates us are governments, politics and religion. "Imagine", as John Lennon sang.

Glad you enjoyed FLAGS. That one is a keeper, though I don't know if I would go as far as say it is his best film since JOSEY WALES. I don't think you have to go back that far. Maybe go back as far as MYSTIC RIVER. One note about JOSEY WALES is that the original director on that film was Philip Kaufman (THE RIGHT STUFF, THE UNBEARABLE LIGHTNESS OF BEING among other things) and Clint was upset at the time Kaufman was taking to shoot the movie so Clint fired him, but Clint benefited from all the extensive preproduction Kaufman did on that film and it was Kaufman's involvement that elevated JOSEY WALES above Clint's other westerns from the 1970s.

COME BACK TO THE FIVE AND DIME JIMMY DEAN, JIMMY DEAN. Robert Altman made several box office bombs so he made this 1982 film in an attempt to break his freefall. Altman actually directed the stage version of this to less than critical acclaim so I'm not sure why he adapted it into a movie, but it is interesting, if not top shelf Altman. While the movie doesn't escape its stage origins -- it is set inside a decrepit Woolworth's Five & Dime in rural Texas -- the story focuses on several women from the town who gather for a 20-year-reunion: Cher is the town floozy; Sandy Dennis is a single mother, delusional, who insists her son was the result of a tryst she had with James Dean when he was nearby filming GIANT; and Karen Black is well I won't say because I would give away a plot revelation. Kathy Bates, then unknown, stole every scene she was in as part of the troupe in the Five & Dime. Rating: B-.

EVER SINCE THE WORLD ENDED. This is a microbudget feature that is barely getting a theatrical release -- one theatre in Manhattan with one screening a day -- is a film set in San Francisco. Some sort of plague has killed most of the population. Only 186 people are left in San Francisco. Real low budget, the film is a faux documentary as two filmmakers interview various survivors who attempt to rebuild their lives. Not great, not without interest. Rating: B-.

This message has been edited. Last edited by: ChrisFromAstoria,

I believe you misunderstand me. Even though Kaufman wrote and began directing The Outlaw Josey Wales, it's still Eastwood's most-entertaining flick, both what he's been in and what he "officially" directed.

Letters From Iwo Jima shows me a solemn Eastwood, yet the film is full of life and humor.

This message has been edited. Last edited by: mark f,

ALPHA DOG. Boy was I in for a surprise this afternoon. I didn't have high hopes for this one given its sub 60 score on metacritics.com and the fact that it was dumped into theatres in January, usually a graveyard time for studio films. But it received enough good reviews for me to view and I was completely captivated by the film. Inspired by and based on a real life case, the film focuses on some upper middle class wannabee gangsters in the Greater Los Angeles area. There is a dispute between a drug user/dealer Mazursky (Ben Foster) and another dealer Jimmy Truelove (Emile Hirsch) where Foster/Mazursky owed Hirsch/Truelove money. Hirsch and his crew -- which included Justin Timberlake (very good by the way) and Shawn Hatosy -- kidnap Foster's half-brother. The kid, whose parents are strict, decides he likes his captors and they like him so he is like a kid in the candy store hanging out and partying with them. He's in no hurry to escape or leave, but Truelove realizes that he could get a long jail sentence for kidnapping and used the old adage "dead men tell no tales" and has Hatosy off the kid. Just a terrific and disturbing film with great acting, great characterizations and a great deal of verisimilitude. A real surprise. Rating: A.

quote:

Originally posted by Everyoneanindividual:
Jesus Camp
It's definitely a fascinating concept for a documentary even though I wouldn't consider a christian militia as being far-fetched. It's not a very good film because it uses is blatant politics and seperated religion to counterattack what practically is a mega force of uncontrolled and unrestrained religion (with politics as a benefactor) . It's actually quite repulsive. The hypocracy is substantial considering the amount of disbelief and the amount of faith.
Overall rating:
5.5/10

This is interesting, because I thought it was about as unbiased a take as you could find. In fact it seemed the filmmakers were really trying to be fair and balanced more than anything else. Basically the only thing that tipped it was the ominous music that played during the freaky rituals. Heck, they cut out some of the worst stuff; look at the deleted scenes. I'm curious; is there anything in particular that you thought made Jesus Camp partisan?

***/****

I wasn't really talking about the film, I was talking about the camp. The "speaking in tongues" was a bit unusual, also the amount of experiences these children were missing is unbelievable. They practically isolate themselves from others unless these others happen to be a part of this ultra-christian outfit. I don't know why I didn't enjoy the film as much as you... I don't know. It almost seemed like it was the same thing over and over again (think about it, the film goes back from the camp to the radio station and so on). I do in fact think that the film did do a great job in portraying the opinions of the religious leadesr and the opposers of this new generation.

BORDER RADIO. From 1987, this one has long been on my want-to-see list and it finally made it to DVD and I finished this a.m. after starting it last night. Directed by Allison Anders & Kurt Voss, this is a low-budget, ultra-indy film, shot in black & white, that deals with the world of low-level rock 'n rollers, a world Anders and Voss know well (check out their criminally underrated film SUGAR TOWN). Basically, three guys who are in a band rob a safe at a nightclub and take a list of drug customers. The club owner sics three baddies after the rock 'rollers and one of them flees to Mexico. His wife tries to track him down and straighten out the mess and all ends well. The film was mediocre and Allison did much better work later on with GAS, FOOD, LODGING -- the film that put her on the map -- MI VIDA LOCA and the aforementioned SUGAR TOWN. Rating. C

The Great Silence (Sergio Corbucci, 1968, Grade: B-)

This is probably one of the best spaghetti westerns that doesn't have Sergio Leone's name on it. Although it does take some time to build up, what's immediately impressive about the film are the snow-filled photography and Ennio Morricone's melodic (yet still crazy...sitars?) musical score.

Based on true incidents, the story takes place in late 19th-century Utah, where some criminals are hiding out in the snowy mountains, but there's a price on their heads, so bounty killers, the most formidable one being Klaus Kinski's Loco, are everywhere, trying to earn their "bread and butter". However, the fastest gun in the area is Silence (Jean-Louis Trintignant), a mute who never draws first. Also on hand are a sheriff (Frank Wolff) who's sent by the Governor to try to keep peace until an amnesty is granted to the criminals, and a young widow (Vonneta McGee), who wants Silence to avenge her husband's death.

What turns this from a run-of-the-mill foreign western into something more powerful is the in-your-face violence, especially during the unpredictable ending.

Le Samouraï (Jean-Pierre Melville, 1967, Grade: B-)

Often considered the apex of Melville's career, this contains Alain Delon's iconic performance as a hitman, involved in a cat-and-mouse game with both the police and the people who hired him to commit a murder but now what to get rid of him. That is essentially the plot, and if that makes it sound like it's an action thriller, well it isn't. It's more of an existentialist tour of a Hollywood '40s flick (think: This Gun For Hire), but with state-of-the-art color cinematography, Paris locations and "cool style".

Now before anybody gets TOO upset with me over this rating, this is pretty much what I think of Melville. He makes highly-personal films, beautiful to watch in a minimalistic, yet cinematic style, but leaves you to fill in all the details which will make you love the film or not. Usually, he has long, drawn-out and quiet shots, which may or may not carry strong meaning for an individual. I can completely understand how someone would love his work because he IS unique, but I fall into the category that a little of him goes a long way.

Even so, anything a B- or higher is a thumbs up from me, and I've told my daughter, who has a short film she must finish by Feb. 1, that she needs to watch it before she shoots the rest of her film. I find this to be about on the same level as Le Circle Rouge and Army of Shadows, both of which I own.

Different strokes for different folks but I think Jean Pierre Melville is a master and I'd give all three of those films you mentioned A's or A+'s. A couple of other terrific Melville films are THE FINGER MAN with Belmondo and SECOND BREATH, rarely screened and unavailable on DVD, with Lino Ventura. I'd give those two A+'s as well.

Meanwhile more movies.

THE FIRST TIME I WAS TWENTY. A French period film, set in '65, the film focuses on a girl (Marilou Berry) who is homely, fat and Jewish and that doesn't make her too popular in high school. She is a terrific bass player, though, and auditions to join the all male jazz band. The existing band members all conspire to keep her out and then try to harass her into quitting after she wins the competition and joins the band. There is a darkness and meanness to the extent the other male bandmembers go to get her to quit: printing a swastika on her music; snipping the strings on her bass right before the band is scheduled to hit; inviting her to a meeting and then when she shows up they are all in the buff. She perseveres and wins over all but one of the band members. There is a lot of silliness regarding the girls' family and overall I couldn't recommend the film, though Berry, also very good in LOOK AT ME, gave a good performance. Rating: C-.

KILOMETRE ZERO. I had better luck with this French/Kurdistan production which focuses on the tension between the Arabs and Kurds in Araq. Set in the 1980s when Iraq and Iran were at war and just before Saddam unleashed his genocide on the Kurds, the film focuses on a Kurdish soldier who gets dragooned into the Iraq Army and is sent to Southern Iraq where he is enlisted to fight the Iranians, a fight he has no stake in. He then is sent on a mission, with an Arab/Iraqi driver, to return a coffin containing the remains of another Kurdish soldier to his relatives. Eventually, the Kurdish soldier goes AWOL to return to his wife and kid. Not much happens, but this is an interesting story that obviously has topical relevance today. Rating: B-.

ALONE WITH HER. I was dying to see this one after that hack, Richard Roeper of Ebert & Roeper fame or infamy depending on how you feel about the less than dynamic duo, panned the film (as did his guest critic who I had never heard of). Actually this film fared fairly well on metacritic.com and is real creepy tale where Colin Hanks -- yes he is the son of you know who -- stalks Ana Claudia Talancon. Hanks places a video camera in a gym bag, keeps it partially open and follows women. Often you as the viewer see what the camera sees. He finally settles on the lovely Ms. Talacon -- new to me -- and breaks into her apartment where he installs hidden cameras and mics in every room. He proceeds to then act as voyeur -- shades of Michael Powell's great PEEPING TOM -- watching Ms. Talacon in her, ah, more private moments. He then uses the information gleaned from listening in on her conversations to insinuate himself into her life so she will be attracted to him. She senses something is off with him, but is struck by all the nice things he's done for her. The attraction is plausible because Talacon is relatively new in Los Angeles is still is recovering from a broken relationship, so she is at a vulnerable moment in her life. Kind of an interesting little movie. Rating: B.

Talk to Her by Pedro Almodovar
A masterpiece of symbolism, innocence, and death. Pedro Almodovar is a spanish cultural phenomenon. He's one of the most eccentric directors today and of all time. His films may seem obtuse but Talk to Her is actually the latter. It doesn't seem quite as unusual as his other films, the concept is a "bit" out there but that's saying a lot considering the film's director. The film is about two women in comas, a crying lover, and a psychic male nurse. The cinematography is just beautiful and keeps the film at a gracious pace. One of his best films, Almodovar doesn't seem to even try to capture the soap opera-esque style he's known for. Talk to Her is a genuinely brilliant film that should be viewed by all lovers of foreign cinema.
10/10

I went and saw The Queen last night.

Awesome. Fascinating. Funny.

Helen Mirren is scary good.

A+

quote:

Originally posted by Everyoneanindividual:
Talk to Her by Pedro Almodovar
A masterpiece of symbolism, innocence, and death. Pedro Almodovar is a spanish cultural phenomenon. He's one of the most eccentric directors today and of all time. His films may seem obtuse but Talk to Her is actually the latter. It doesn't seem quite as unusual as his other films, the concept is a "bit" out there but that's saying a lot considering the film's director. The film is about two women in comas, a crying lover, and a psychic male nurse. The cinematography is just beautiful and keeps the film at a gracious pace. One of his best films, Almodovar doesn't seem to even try to capture the soap opera-esque style he's known for. Talk to Her is a genuinely brilliant film that should be viewed by all lovers of foreign cinema.
10/10

I agree with you 100%. He is truly one of the finest writer/directors working today and how that movie wasn't nominated for Best Picture is a huge snub. I am just waiting in anticapation for Volver to be available anywhere in my town, after the highly underrated La Mala Educación--which I also loved--I really want to see where Almodóvar went from there.

quote:

Originally posted by FragileKidA:

quote:

Originally posted by Everyoneanindividual:
Talk to Her by Pedro Almodovar
A masterpiece of symbolism, innocence, and death. Pedro Almodovar is a spanish cultural phenomenon. He's one of the most eccentric directors today and of all time. His films may seem obtuse but Talk to Her is actually the latter. It doesn't seem quite as unusual as his other films, the concept is a "bit" out there but that's saying a lot considering the film's director. The film is about two women in comas, a crying lover, and a psychic male nurse. The cinematography is just beautiful and keeps the film at a gracious pace. One of his best films, Almodovar doesn't seem to even try to capture the soap opera-esque style he's known for. Talk to Her is a genuinely brilliant film that should be viewed by all lovers of foreign cinema.
10/10

I agree with you 100%. He is truly one of the finest writer/directors working today and how that movie wasn't nominated for Best Picture is a huge snub. I am just waiting in anticapation for Volver to be available anywhere in my town, after the highly underrated La Mala Educación--which I also loved--I really want to see where Almodóvar went from there.

I'm going to go see Volver tomorrow, it's playing at a very small independent theatre just outside of my city. In an hour I'll be watching Pan's Labyrinth which I am extremely excited about!

Wow, I guess you will have a great day filled with the wonderful Spanish language.