The Wolfman (2010)

Terribly wooden. Or woodenly terrible.

Skip it!

Film: Gamorrah, 2008 [Trailer]

Gamorrah.  Neapolitan gangsters run the f*^&* amok in the north of Italy. Guns, power, ego, macho posturing and tanning beds. Even the poster art is done with that shaking-a-fist-at-the-sky with a gun in your hand style that European graphic design excels at. The movie slowly bursts cinéma vérité style like a perfectly ripe beef steak tomato dripping all over your hand. Tangy, potent and better as you keep eating.

See it! ****

Film: Le Placard (2001)

On a lighter note.....

Why do the French always get things right....even silly rom-com's???!?

This film was the proverbial red carpet for when "gay" became cute! and fashionable! even though no one in it is really gay.

See it. ***

Film: The Princess (2006)

The Danes take on drama through anime.

The film was hardcore in a way that reminded me very much of how I felt the first time I saw The Professional. Yes, it's 95 % animated...but I think it was the only way they could depict some of the things that they had to depict. Kind of like a HAZARD sign or a NO CROSSING sign is animated. Just like that.

See it - but be warned it's rough and bravely takes on a subject most films in the US wouldn't touch with a 500 foot pole.

Valerie and Her Week of Wonders (Valerie a týden divu) (1970)

Wow. Polish take on Little Red Riding Hood plus Alice in Wonderland, throw in In the Company of Wolves and stirred with The Holy Mountain.

Some websites will get all crazy with the post-cold war symbolism of monastic virginal rebelliousness as proto-symbolism for capitalist hedonism. Maybe....but more like a cold artistic soul in Poland just got tired of the normative princess fairy tale, smoked a fat one and told his friends...you know what would be totally cool to film.....????

Be warned it's really crazy and I had issues with it bothering me for a while. I didn't want to even post some of the more scary poster art - which you can find if you are industrious.

Director: Kathryn Bigelow

 

(Photos by Frazer Harrison/Getty Images)

CENTURY CITY, CA - JANUARY 30: Director Kathryn Bigelow poses with her Feature Film Award for 'The Hurt Locker' in the press room during the 62nd Annual Directors Guild Of America Awards held on January 30, 2010 in Century City, California. First time in the history of cinema this award was bestowed upon a female director...mayhap it was better the event wasn't televised as some of the comments that were made will make you question what century her male colleagues were speaking from. Bigelow handled it with characteristic grace and aplomb.  

"Bigelow and [James]Cameron were widely considered the frontrunners for the award, which has gone to the eventual winner of the Academy Award for Best Director all but six times since the DGA began handing out honors in the 1940s. Afterwards, Bigelow called the award "extraordinarily gratifying and thrilling," but had trouble answering a question about how she felt to become the first woman to win the award.

"I suppose I like to think of myself as a filmmaker," she said, "and it's truly extraordinary to be honored by this amazing directorial body."

Film: Madeinusa (2006)

Peruvian enchantment and debauchery in the highlands. Claudia Llosa (one of THE best of the wave of young genius female South American film makers) successfully chronicles what happens when indigenous villages in Peru mix Catholic dogma and their bacchanalian ancestral practices. Watching this film made me feel like I was looking through one of those hand decorated panoramic Easter eggs made of sugar. Beautiful to look at, a tragedy to eat.

****
See it. Also looking forward to seeing her new film, La Tete Asustada (2009). NY Times writeup.

Film: The Headless Woman (2007)

I love director Lucrecia Martel. Love her.  La Ciénaga, her most famous film besides Headless Woman is THE epitome of Argentinian new wave and is possibly, a perfect film. Nothing is given to you. Each minimalist frame feels like you are about to uncover enormous boulder-like secrets from people scurrying through their lives going the wrong way.


Headless Women is no different, but I didn't love it. Perhaps I found the actress too bemusedly solicitous, the disparity between the indigenous and the bourgeois class too obvious, the characters too muddled (If you want a better contrast...see my review of Madeinusa).  I had to turn the film off at some parts because I became too frustrated with it. Definitley for those that don't mind a 5 minute tracking shot and if you read this blog...you know I adore them...just not here.


 

Film: The Hurt Locker (2009)

There were several times during this film when I felt distinctly uncomfortable and unsafe and the ending does nothing to assuage that . Director Kathryn Bigelow accomplished this, as well as eliciting a  multi-hued tonal performances from Jeremy Renner. From the interviews I read, she took the best approach in directing and that is to get a very good (read: nuanced) actor and let him completely flesh out the character on his own without getting in the way of his creation. Many other directors should take note. The film was practically a directing clinic.

However, in terms of story, I didn't think the arc was fleshed out enough and the ending fell a bit short for me. It was a little too hammered on - the script was written by Mark Boal who himself ran around with EOD squads in Iraq. Other than that, pretty much, this film is the Platoon of our generation. I've never been more in awe of the things our military has to do....for a war I'm not sure why we're fighting.

See it.

****

BBC Mini-Series: North and South (2004)

Sigh!!! If you love BBC mini-series (Pride and Prejudice anyone??) you will love this series as well. Infinitely darker, colder...dare I say better acted?

Here is the wiki synopsis which does it justice.
See it!

****

"North and South is a British television drama serial, produced by the BBC and originally broadcast in four episodes on BBC One between November and December 2004. It follows the story of Margaret Hale (Daniela Denby-Ashe), a young woman from southern England who has to move to the North after her father decides to leave the clergy. The family struggles to adjust itself to the industrial town's customs, especially after meeting the Thorntons, a proud family of cotton mill owners who seem to despise their social inferiors. The story explores the issues of class and gender, as Margaret's sympathy for the town mill workers conflicts with her growing attraction to John Thornton (Richard Armitage)."
- Wiki

Film: Up in the Air (2009)

Umm. Ok. It took exactly 15 minutes of friendly convincing for me to see this film. I wanted to know exactly why again, should I pay ten dollars to watch George Clooney act like George Clooney....(?) In the end, I have to admit it was good. Several times in several scenes you see George attempting to grow a heart/emotion and one time...I actually saw him tear up. (!)

That aside, what director Jason Reitman successfully chronicled was the endless, grey, commercial land of airports and office buildings that comprises the crumbled business landscape of America. Not once was there mountainous green or even really a potted office plant. Soul-sucking commercialism at it's most intimate and deadening. The scenes of real people who had just gotten fired were a nice touch...the helplessness was sickening.

See it only if you want to get REALLY depressed about the state of America. :)

****

Film: Avatar (2009)

Unless you are living in a dark, dank mountain cave on the borders of Afghanistan and Pakistan, you will have heard of and probably seen(twice!) James Cameron's Avatar. This is fine with me because while the plot might as well be (at times) Disney B-reel, the scope and hubris of the graphics and design left me speechless. That never happens.

See it!!!

*****

Film: I am Curious: Yellow (1967)

"Nudity, explicit sex, and controversial politics kept this film from being shown in the US while its seizure by Customs was appealed."- IMDB"

If your in the mood for watching a flick all the way through on fast forward because it is too boring for any and all normal viewing and you just want to see the good [banned in America] parts....this is the movie for you. Keep in mind I am a huge fan of Swedish cinema from the 60's [Ingmar Bergman holla!!] it's just that this "experimental" and "cutting edge film" was just really bad...and way to self aware in a silly film school-boy way. You can literally hear the sucking sound of the directors emotional vacuum. The one cool part was during one of the many 1960's Swedish political commentary scenes an actual taped interview with Martin Luther King Jr. was shown. Not very long - but still. Maybe the only redeeming factor.

Skip it!

Film: The Girlfriend Experience (2009)

You will want a cigarette and possibly a razor blade after viewing. Singularly affecting in terms of cinematography and the hushed, lushed interiors of upscale New York cloistered pied-à-terres, the film takes you firmly in silken-hand and leads you to one conclusion; everyone is a prostitute in some way or another. This film is obviously not for the Oceans 11 fans but for the fans of Bubble and Sex, Lies and Videotape. Sasha Grey, new age porn star extraordinaire, leads the film as a “high-high price call girl” trying to get to that “upscale…beyond(!)” league in what I would say is either a brilliant or emotionally stilted performance. You decide. The men she services, including her boyfriend, are increasingly prostituting themselves to make more and more money to just maintain the “lifestyle they are accustomed to” in the continually referenced current economic downturn. Instead of steamy sex-scenes, the film portrays the face of the wealthy elite’s intense insecurity and anxiety about their place in the world, and the vanishing of it. See it. ***

Film: The Island

I would say this film is possibly life-changing. Each scene so naturalistically constructed that the viewer is quickly submerged into a world of bleak frozen winter in the hinterlands of a Russian monastery. I laughed, I cried and I saw true genius.

See it.
*****

Film: "Silent Light" 2007 [Stelet Licht]

Instead of writing about this film, I will just point you to it's official website here and advise you to make up your own mind about seeing it. The movie itself is breathtaking and as the NY times so aptly put...each character seems lit from within.

Carlos Reygados directed it and the movie is about a man in crisis in his Mennonite community in Chihuahua, Mexico.

Profoundly dreamy and affecting but not sure what the heck to think about the ending.

***1/2

Film: New Moon (2009) Twilight Saga

Ok, first of all don't hate. Secondly, I saw and enjoyed this movie - though I am not a fan of the first one. The acting and the melodrama was painful to watch at some points however in others - not too bad - and possibly...entertaining??? A friend said it's basically girl porn and I have to agree. That said, Michael Sheen stole the show...as he did in Underworld and Frost/Nixon ...and oh, everything else he's been in. What really impressed me was the soundtrack. Possibly one of the best mixes in years. Thom York and Lykke Li threw in some tremendously haunting music. Me like.

Get the soundtrack. Skip the film unless you're a Twihard.

Film: The Wolves (1972)

In my continuing Japanese obsession, I stumbled upon this dagger of a film which was one that Tarantino cut his teeth on as a child. Minimal dialogue, haunting soundtrack, sex, sake, samurai's and of course, yakuza. On the cusp of being genius, and with some scenes decidedly so, this film is for those that love tragi-dramedy's. My favorite part was the most deadly assassins of the film were two delicate woman sheathing their daggers in their umbrella holders.

Nice. See it if you like this kind of thing. ***1/2

Film: Paranormal Activity (2009)

I was pretty much scared out of my mind and had to sleep with 5 lights on. Make sure you see the version with the alternate ending - one of the few cases when ghost producer Steven Spielberg and Dreamworks makes a movie actually way better.

I've been scared by only about 4 movies in the past 4 years. This was number 4.

See it ****

Film: La ville es tranquille (2000) (The Town is Quiet)

Whoa. I was totes destroyed, devastated and needed to buy a puppy after this French flick Makes the film Traffic look like a PBS special. This film is about interconnecting stories in the broken down craziness that is the modern day port of Marseilles, France. Styled in the likes of La Petite Lieutenant; slow to unwrap and difficult to swallow.

See it!!

****

Film: Fear and Trembling (2004)

So much promise! Tries a little too hard - but still brings the funny. Amelie meets Haiku Tunnel meets Lost in Translation. Good to very good if you like all things Japanese.

***

News: Cinematheque Astra Film Sibiu 2008 - Women

So i might be late with these films/docs but whatever. They're still badass.
Check it.

Film: Summer '04 (2006)

Sigh......!!
European art house neo realism does it again. This film kicks all kind of ass with it's script, acting and minimalism. Germans just do it better? (they have better windows that's for sure)...and with this film at least, progressive liberalism seems to get the better of one family.

When I read the opening synopsis line:

Staunchly progressive couple Miriam and her partner Andre find their lassez-faire values shaken to the core when their sons libertine
12-year-old girlfriend disrupts the family summer holiday.

I knew it had to be good. It did not dissapoint and was a subtle yet finite clinic depicting German intellectuals distaste of religion, Americans and morality.

See it.

**** 1/2

Film: Eskalofrío (2008) (Shiver)

Nothing saddens me more than Americanization of European cinema. This horror flick was eaten up with it. The first half was good - scary even. AMAZING photography work filmed in Catalonia, Spain. And it's always good when your protoganist is some kind of outcast - in this case he's allergic to the sun. But then it gets all disney-scooby-doo-caper crazy and you are left with eye rolling plot turns and over the top acting.

Skip it

**

Film: Kâbê (2008)

TEARJERKER!!! This flick jerked my emotions all over the place. I mainly saw it because Tadanobu Asano my favorite Japanese actor in the world!!(...Japan) is in it...and I was pleasantly surprised at what a great film it was. Dare I say tender?? Dare I say heartworming?? Ugh. But true.

See it if you are in the mood for some Japanese world war II daily living drama.

*** 1/2

Film: Le petit lieutenant

About 2/3 of the way into this slow moving but perfectly done film I knew I was going to be devastated. Nothing can devastate the way a well crafted french neo-realism film can and this was no exception. NOTHING is said. EVERYTHING is said. If every crime drama was directed this exquisitely I would actually watch CSI! (possibly...heh)

Winner of a César Award at Cannes, 2006, Nathalie Baye, Best Actress

See it.

****

Documentary: The Great Happiness Space

"Meet Osaka's number one selling Host. "

You start off thinking these guys are complete geniuses. Hot women. Unlimited drinks courtesy of said hot women. Flirting, cuddling, drinking, flirting, making out, buckets of flattery, and more money and all within the confines of a cozy booth in a pub aptly named: Stylish Cafe Rakkyo (here is their actual website).

As the very well done documentary progresses, we start to understand the inner workings of the girls paying for the services and why they would do so...and the whole thing begins an emotional unravel of the first order.

*****

See it!

Film: Inglorious Basterds

The best thing about Inglorious Basterds (not to be confused with The Inglorious Bastards, 1978 [below]) besides Brad Pitt and Christopher Waltz was Eli Roth.

Eli Roth, best known as the writer/director for Cabin Fever, Hostel I & II. Vengeful, Angry. Jewish. Swarthy. Bostonian. Hot. His eyes burned my retinas as he brutalized Nazis with a baseball bat. I personally feel this film was comedic genius and a love letter to all pre-war cinema. Any true auteur will love it. Period.

*****

See it.

Film: District 9

Epic. Awesome. Shaky. Violent. Emotional??

See it.

*****

Film: Gadjo Dilo

Don't even bother reading Gadjo Dilo's plot because you seriously don't need it. Just throw it out the window like a ciggarette butt. Understand it is about gypsies and understand that gypsies are their own cultural subgroup. Also understand that Romain Duris stars and that with an actor of his caliber, merely walking down the street can be as study in aloof transendence. He's just really good. This gem (albeit with a crazy ending due to budgetary constraints) is great only if you are also a cultural glutton and just like interesting characters.

Also - go ahead and see The Beat that My Heart Skipped It's soo fantastic/frenetic. I think Romain Duris is one of the handful of actors in the world who can hold their own in any genre with anyone. Apparently he didn't sleep for the entire shoot of the film. I'll be reviewing more of his films fo sho this month. In terms of important po-mo french modern acting work (within the last decade) I also highly recommend Vincent Cassel, Oliver Martinez, Gaspard Ulliel, Louis Garrel, Daniel Ateuil for the men. In terms of impressive French actresses; Marion Cotillard, Julliette Binoche, Sandrine Bonnaire, Isabelle Huppert, Elsa Zylberstein and I will add Charlotte Rampling and Kristin Scott Thomas to the list because while neither are French born yet they have added a considerable amount to French films in the last decade (see I've Loved You So Long, and Swimming Pool). I know a lot of people are going to give me shit for not adding Audrey Tatou...but comon....she's like the Tom Cruise of French film.

****

New Release: The Baader Meinhof Complex (2008)

(The above movie poster was created by Shepard Farley's Studio Number One)

Released in Germany last year - Oscar contende; opens friday finally in Manhattan....not sure when it's coming here but I will be in line fo sho!!!!!!!!!!!

Synopsis from Netflix:

The Baader Meinhof ComplexDer Baader Meinhof Komplex(2008) R
Uli Edel directs this Best Foreign Language Film Oscar nominee charting the birth of West Germany's Red Army Faction, a radical left-wing terrorist group formed in the late 1960s amid a climate of revolution and a fallen generation. Staging a series of bombings, kidnappings and assassinations, the RAF waged a war against fascism with a direct assault against the powers of American imperialism and the fledgling German democracy.

Film: Vengo (2000)

An interesting if highly romanticized film depicting gypsy living and feuding in Andalusia, Spain. I’m still not completely certain this WASN’T a musical. I keep wanting to write that the acting was over the top, the dialogue excellent if explosive, and the ending insane…but from my research I gather that this is pretty much the way to sum up gypsy life in the first place. A good idea to know something about Flamenco, the types of Flamenco, gypsy culture, Spanish culture before watching this film as it is highly specialized. Not bad.
*** See it

FIlm: The War Zone

If you've been patiently waiting for a film that will make you hunt for a dull razor or spoon with which to sluice out your blackened heart, this is the one for you. I stopped watching films completely for two weeks after seeing this, so polarizing and disturbing and magnificent it was. Actor Tim Roth (Resevoir Dogs, Rob Roy, Pulp Fiction, etc etc) directed this in the style of the Norwegian masters. Cold, minimal, effecting. I can see why it won so many awards.

***** See it

Films: Flesh, Trash, Heat, Blood for Dracula, Flesh for Frankenstein

WARNING:

Not sure if I can adequately describe these groups of extremely RRRR rated films - arguably the most famous pieces Paul Morrissey, one of Andy Warhol's director du jour's starring his favorite questioning male hearthrob, Joe Dellasandro. I'll just link the posters and let you come up with your own conclusions as you research.

Blood for Dracula (1974)and Flesh for Frankenstein (1973) were genuine camp-ish fun and I possibly recommend them if you are into that sort of thing - the sort of thing were if someone's arm falls off and then the dog runs off with it, is kinda funny. Kinda.

Leave the kids at home for these as some are a milimeter above porn in many cases....and get your remote ready to fastforward "improvised" dialogue in the Flesh (1968), Trash(1970), and Heat (1972) trilogy.

I have to say I felt sick after watching the above 'films'....and when I say watched i meant fastforwarded through most of it. Andy Warhol produced some of the darkest stuff of his day. I won't watch these again.