Proof
I was disappointed with this film. The movie was directed by Jocelyn Moorhouse and stars Hugo Weaving and Russell Crowe. Weaving plays a blind man who takes pictures, so he can have proof that what people tell him is true. He then has to have someone he can trust to tell him what the photos show. Russell Crowe becomes his friend and there's sort of a love triangle with Weaving's housekeeper.

The film depended too much on the blind man/photographer idea to really get anywhere. It was forced. I think it was trying hard to be a really good analogy of life for everyone. The problem was that the characters weren't used to get there. Instead the quirky premise of the movie was used and that majorly limited the actors. 2.25/4

The American Astronaut
I really enjoyed this film, it was very well made on what I'm sure was a tiny budget. Shot in black and white with a score provided by the writer/director/star Cory McAbee, this western-space-musical was highly surreal, and thoroughly original! I don't want to say too much, but if you can find it, rent it! Highly recommended.

Harry Potter 4- I was very surprised by the maturity of this movie, though I was happy that the series is growing up. Action was great, though I didn't read the book I was confused at some times, but it was entertaining anywase!

I'll give it 8 out of 10

My ratings for the last 3 movies I've seen:

Cleo From 5 To 7 - 3.75/4
Blow Up - 3.25/4
Whale Rider - 3/4

These were all quality movies. Agnes Varda's film "Cleo from 5 to 7" is the best film I've seen in awhile. Cleo is a famous singer who finds out that she may have cancer. The movie follows her around as she waits to hear from her docter on her condition. She is sad that no one really sees who she is, even while everyone looks at her as she walks down the street. It's about a desire to be known and accepted.

Michelangelo Antonioni's "Blow Up" is a beautifully filmed movie. It's about a photographer who unknowingly captures a murder in one of his photographs. When he discovers this he must decide between this reality of death and the make-believe world of drugs and sex that society lived in. The movie has a very negative portrayal of women and of all people in general. The people that are having the most fun in the film are a bunch of mimes driving around in a truck. At one point they stop to play an enthralling make-believe game of tennis. During the game they hit the make believe ball out of the fenced in tennis courts and they wait for main character/photographer, who had been watching them, to retrieve it for them. After a few seconds of considering what to do he walks over and pretends to pick up a ball and throw it back onto the court. The game goes on. This movie has a rather sobering view of life.

Niki Caro's "Whale Rider" is about the clash between generations. The Maori community that has traditionally had a male leader must decide what to do when the eldest son of the chief only has a daughter. The grandfather is very against letting his grand daughter, Paikea, be their new leader. Paikea struggles between a love for her grandfather and a desire to break through the limitations that the community has set against females. This is a good family movie.

Kiss Kiss Bang Bang,
Very funny black comedy, intelligent witty dialogue, nicely paced, enough action, very nice
looking women and guns!
Val Kilmer and Robert Downey Junior at their best! Gotta be a sequel it's too cool not to have one. Go see it, you won't be dissapointed!

The Assignment [Christian Duguay, 1997, Grade: B+]

This is a rip-roaring action adventure, crammed with wit, about the attempt to stop terrorist Carlos the Jackal. Aidan Quinn plays the dual role of Carlos and an American naval officer who looks like him. The CIA (in the guise of Donald Sutherland) and the Israelis (in the person of Ben Kingsley) recruit/kidnap the officer and train him to do the dirty job of setting up Carlos. Duguay uses every cinematic trick to maintain intensity throughout, including long camera shots, offbeat perspectives, and razzle-dazzle (but not MTV-ish) editing to accent the strong screenplay, plus all the performances are top-notch. This is a cult classic waiting for a larger cult.

King Kong [Merian C. Cooper/Ernest B. Schoedsack, 1933, Grade: B]

This rating could easily be higher, but this archetypal film has passed into legend, and yes, maybe I'm getting jaded. Most of the film is wonderful, and I can't wait for Peter Jackson's three-hour version. Fay Wray was one of the most attractive females in film history, and Kong is certainly a wonderful match as the Beast to her Beauty. The sea voyage to Skull Island; the first ceremony; the kidnapping; Kong fighting the pterodactyl, T.rex, Triceratops and the snake; busting into the village, being shown off as the 8th Wonder of the World, tearing up NYC, and dueling the biplanes on top of the Empire State Building: The stuff that dreams are made of.

I'm also anxious to see Jackson's version of King Kong. I'd probably give the original Kong film an A-, always a favorite classic.

Walk the Line I really enjoyed this film. Joaquin Phoenix & Reese Witherspoon do a great job in singing like Johnny Cash & June Carter. Major plus with T-Bone Burnett as musical producer and doing the score. Other performances worth mentioning are Robert Patrick as Cash's dad and Ginnifer Goodwin as Cash's first wife, Vivian.

I watched three depressingly good films during the last two days.

Vagabond

Agnes Varda directed this film about a young woman who wanders from place to place never sticking around anywhere for long. The movie starts with a farm worker finding her dead body in a ditch. The film then procedes to show the last month or so of her life that led her to that ditch. I think the essential idea of the film, as described by the farmer in the film, is the struggle between being free and alone or being responsible and in a community. 3.5/4

The Virgin Suicides

This film was directed by Sofia Coppola and revolves around a family with five girls. The parents, especially the mom, are very strict. It stars Kirsten Dunst and Josh Harnett and could be your average teenage romantic comedy movie except that the film deals with teenage suicide. Many boys want to get to know this 5 sisters but the strictness of the girls' parents many times leaves them imprisoned in their home. Coppola's mixing of comedy with tragedy was the hardest part of the film for me to accept.

Still Coppola does an impressive job on her first feature length film. 3.25/4

Notes From Underground

Gary Walkow's adaptation of Dostoevsky's novel turned out to be a very quality piece of work. The story begins with a man speaking in front of a video camera explaining his reasons for his following confession. The man's brutal honesty leads to isolation as he can't live with other people. He needs control. The film goes back and forth between his confession and flashbacks to what he's confessing. The film still flows smoothly and is very engaging. 3.5/4

Walk the Line (James Mangold, 2005, Grade: B)

Standard, but very well-acted-and-sung biopic about Johnny Cash and June Carter. There's nothing earth-shattering in the story, screenplay or direction, but the music comes across very well, and there's plenty of historical info to pick up on along the way. Joaquin Phoenix and Reese Witherspoon will get Oscar nominations, not only for their performances but because they did such a good job of singing.

New Harry Potter Movie- In my opinion, the best of the four movies. It definitely wasnt flawless though. A couple things i didnt like were the not so smooth scene transitions and there were parts where they left details out so only people who read the book know what's going on. Other than those, it was excellent

Just watched Millions, a delightful little British film about faith and generosity that somehow manages to never be preachy. Danny Boyle takes a break from virus-ridden London and heroin addicts to fill this beautiful film with every imaginative film technique at his disposal (CG, tracking shots, inventive cinematography). And the lead, a little boy named Alex Etel, is simply one of the most talented and most natural child actors I've seen in years. It does go on a bit too long, but it is still an excellent movie that deserves to be shared. The sweet and sentimental ending will likely coax tears from even the stubbornest of eyes. Watch it with someone you love.

Grade: A

I just watched Pauly Shore Is Dead. I put it on my Netflix list a while ago because I thought it sounded stupid and, well, it didn't disappoint. It gave me a chuckle every now and then. The best parts are the cameos. Most of them dog him(Vince Vaughn is particularly funny), but Sean Penn(!) is equally funny saying how much he liked Pauly. Oh well, overall there was no permanent damage done!

Here's the last three I've seen:

L' Avventura

This is the second Michelangelo Antonioni film I've seen. I liked this film much better than "Blow Up" the other Antonioni film I've seen. L' Avventura is a love story with some idea of good in it. The premise is a woman, Anna, is dissatisfied with her relationship with her romantic partner. She disappears on a boat trip and very quickly her partner starts to pursue Anna's best friend. She tries to ignore or refuse his advances, but she slowly starts to give in. The film is in black and white and the language spoken is Italian I believe. Superb acting and an intriguing plot makes this one of my favorite movies. 4/4

Lost Highway
This David Lynch film is very hard to explain. If "Mulholland Dr" is confusing, which it is, then this movie is incomprehensible. This is a long shot at the theme behind the movie, but here goes. After a sexual encounter one of the two characters that Patricia Arquette plays walks away and tells Bill Pullman's character something like, "you'll never have me". This idea is juxtoposed with the idea that Arquette is also a porn actress in the movie. Let's just say the two men who run the porn business aren't treated too kindly by Lynch. So the message could be women aren't objects to be controlled.

That's my stab at the theme, but the plot is another story. Basically you just have to watch the movie. 3.25/4

Ordet

Carl Theodor Dreyer's film was released in 1955. The language spoken is Danish. The family focused on is patriarchal and Christian. There are three grown up sons. The oldest is delusional. He started to think he was Jesus after studying Kierkegaard. The middle son is married and has lost his faith. The youngest wants to marry a young woman who is also a Christian, but her family believes in conversion while his family is against that. I thought the movie did a good job of examining faith and what it means to people. 3.5/4

Shopgirl

There's a third person narration in this film that is so unnecessary. It points out things we either know or don't need to know. In those moments I felt the writer and director had no faith in the audience.
That said, I really enjoyed this film. It shines a light on how we can alter reality to better suit our needs.
Also, the uncomfortable moments ring so true.

****/5

I only caught one new movie this weekend, SYRIANA, which is in limited release and opens widely on Friday. Run, don't walk, when this one pops up in a multi-plex near you.

This one may be the best movie I've seen this year. It was directed by Stephen Gaghan, who wrote TRAFFIC and is structured much like TRAFFIC was with multiple characters and multiple storyline that are all deftly tied together. So, if you liked TRAFFIC I'm sure you would like this film.

One word of caution: pay close attention. I found I missed some dialogue due to a poor sound mix and there are so many characters and there is so much cross cutting between story threads that I found myself confused over who was who. This is a film that demands more than one viewing so you know I am going to buy the DVD.

Terrific casting in the small roles. Jamey Sheridan, an actor I've always liked, plays a CIA manager. The always interesting and perennially underused David Clennon is terrific as a Justice Department lawyer. William Hurt pops up as a retired CIA agent. Tim Blake Nelson has a small role as a right wing Texas oil man. It goes on and on.

One other film I already wrote about in the art film/foreigh section was DOWN TO THE BONE, which is ultra indie and in theatres now. If this one pops up in an art house near you, pounce. Not to be missed.

Arsenic and Old Lace (Capra, 1944, Grade: B+)

This frantic black comedy still holds up as one of the funniest films ever made. Cary Grant, as one of the "normal" characters ("Insanity runs in my family. It practically gallops."), often acts more-insane than his murderous brother (Raymond Massey, ostensibly playing Boris Karloff) and nice, poisoner aunts (Josephine Hull and Jean Adair). When you throw in such loonies as Peter Lorre as a shitty plastic surgeon, Jack Carson as a lousy playwright cop, and John Alexander, who thinks he's Teddy Roosevelt and keeps diggin' the friggin' Panama Canal in the basement, you know that you're in for some first-rate idiocy. I'm just happy that even after more than 60 years, it's funnier than 99% of the crap which passes for humor today.

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I caught a real dud yesterday called MRS. PALFREY AT THE CLAREMENT that starred the formidable Dame Joan Plowright in the title role. I went because it received a good score in the Metacritics' round-up, but should have gone with "The "New York Times" review, which was on the mark. The film was set in contemporary times, but the novel or story it was based on was set in the fifties. The director, Dan Ireland, said he didn't make it a period piece for budget reasons. The result was a movie with characters in some kind of hermetic universe that doesn't exist anymore, sort of like Woody Allen's New York City. I spent most of my time rolling my eyes saying to myself "You have to be kidding me."

The film is set in a residential hotel in London and deals with the friendship between Plowright and a young guy, who for reasons I won't explain here, poses as her grandson. The cast features the other "eccentric" residents of the hotel. I didn't buy this one.

I watched an awful video yesterday called FALL. I taped it because I always was curious about Eric Schaeffer who has made film after film, each onecastigated by critics and then disappearing from theatres almost immediately after release.

FALL was from '97 and Schaeffer, who starred, wrote, directed and produced, plays a cab driver who falls in love with a Supermodel, who reciprocates. The actress who played the female lead has not exactly become a household name. I have never heard of it.

The film is absolutely awful. Completely implausible film. And, of course, it turns out that the Schaeffer character isn't just a cab driver, but was a successful novelist who "dropped out" because he was losing himself to fame.

Syriana (Gaghan, 2005, Grade: B-)

Stephen Gaghan's film about oil and fanatacism (of all kinds) is certainly handsome and well-acted. It just doesn't seem to offer anything revelatory about the Arab world and how the U.S. manipulates the area for its own gain.

On one hand, conspiracy theorists will think the film is almost a documentary, while right-wingers will rank it with the works of Michael Moore. The stories told in the film seem old-hat to me. More than that, the way Gaghan edits the film together seems to dissipate any power the ending could've had. It's obvious, long before the climax, what's going to happen.

Much has been made about the film being somewhat convoluted and moving too fast. I don't agree with that assessment either. Everything seems to make sense, even when you're not sure exactly what's going on and why, you can easily piece it together. Also, I wouldn't say the film is fast-paced at all. I think the film is actually edited the way it is to give it a stronger sense of being complex and important because I thought the script was a bit underdeveloped, especially character-wise. But the acting makes up for a lot of this. I especially liked Christopher Plummer, George Clooney, and the scenes between Matt Damon and Alexander Siddig were quite good too.

So for me, it's a mixed bag. Some good acting and some attempt at examining an important subject, but just too laid back and predictable to completely succeed.

Chronicles of Narnia- I enjoyed it a lot, but i read the book, so i dont know what it would be like for someone who hasnt read the book. there were some obvious parallels to Jesus in the movie, but i think they were done very well. also, there was a pretty good battle scene (a little bit reminiscant of lord of the rings)