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2010 Screening Log
What are these ratings?
2009 Log, 2008 Log
(s)
= short film
* = Recorded on DVR
8/8
Play Dirty (Andre DeToth, 1968)  1/2
DVD, 4th DeToth film
8/6
Toy Story 3 (Lee Unkrich, 2010)
Theater, 4th Unkrich film
8/2
The Natural
(Barry Levinson, 1984) 1/2
DVD, 8th Levinson film
8/1
Dinner for Schmucks (Jay Roach, 2010)
Theater, 5th Roach film
Black Girl
(Ousmane Sembene, 1966) 1/2
DVD, 2nd Sembene film
7/31
Bamako (Abderrahmane Sissako, 2006) 1/2
DVD, 1st Sissako film
7/30
Crashing (Gary Walkow, 2007)
DVD, 1st Walkow film
7/24
The Flowers of St.
Francis
(Roberto Rossellini, 1950)
DVD, 9th Rossellini film
7/21
Get Him to the Greek (Nicholas Stoller, 2010)
DVD, 2nd Stoller film
7/18
The Kids Are All Right (Lisa Cholodenko, 2010) 1/2
Theater, 1st Cholodenko film
7/17
Inception (Christopher Nolan, 2010) 1/2
Theater, 6th Nolan film
7/10
Predators (Nimrod Antal, 2010)
Theater, 1st Antal film
7/9
Predator (John McTiernan, 1987) 1/2
DVD, 4th McTiernan film
7/8
MacGruber (Jorma Taccone, 2010)
DVD, 1st Taccone film
7/6
Robin Hood (Ridley Scott, 2010)
DVD, 9th Scott film
7/5
Valhalla
Rising
(Nicholas Winding Refn, 2010) 1/2
DVD, 2nd Refn film
7/4
Cyrus
(Jay & Mark Duplass, 2010) 1/2
Theater, 1st Duplass film
7/3
The
Love of Jeanne Ney (G. W. Pabst, 1927)
DVD, 3rd Pabst film
June 2010
Splice (Vincenzo Natali, 2010)
Theater, 1st Natali film
Bronson
(Nicholas Winding Refn, 2008)
DVD, 1st Refn film
Bluebeard
(Catherin Breillat, 2010)
DVD, 5th Breillat film
Youth in Revolt
(Miguel Arteta, 2010) 1/2
DVD, 1st Arteta film
I like that it grounded
its quirkiness in a reality with true consequences. Cera's
more extreme actions can only be laughed off for so long before they
catch up with him. Overall, it had a bit of a Hal Hartley vibe with its
star-crossed lovers, ornate dialogue and off-kilter pacing, so while
it's certainly hit-or-miss, it's one of the year's nicer surprises.
Strange Circus
(Sion Sono, 2005) 1/2
DVD, 3rd Sion film
Wild
Grass
(Alain Resnais, 2010)
DVD, 11th Resnais film
The Messenger
(Oren Moverman, 2009) 1/2
DVD, 1st Moverman film
The Devil's Rejects (Rob Zombie, 2005) 1/2
DVD, 2nd Zombie film
Layer Cake (Matthew Vaughn, 2004) 1/2
DVD, 2nd Vaughn film
Date Night (Shawn Levy)
DVD, 1st Levy film
Turning Gate (Hong Sang-soo, 2002) 1/2
DVD, 8th Hong film
5/31
Run Lola Run (Tom Tykwer, 1998) 1/2
DVD, 2nd Tykwer film
Record of a Tenement
Gentleman
(Yasujiro Ozu, 1947)
DVD, 8th Ozu film
5/30
The Second Circle (Aleksandr Sokurov, 1990)
DVD, 6th Sokurov film
5/25
Streets of Fire (Walter Hill, 1984) 1/2
DVD, 5th Hill film
As taut and sharply
edited as anything Hill has made - every cut
expressive or propulsive, explosive through movement and actions, not
simply literal explosions. It's pared down to the essentials, yet the
musical interludes create a bit of breathing room while still remaining
thrilling in their own right. Pare was actually quite magnetic in his
stoic presence and of course Dafoe had the perfect blend of goofiness
and fearlessness in his unhinged villain. But really, it's nearly
impossible to not love a film that follows up a one-on-one sledgehammer
fight with a live performance of "I Can Dream About You." Classic.
5/23
The Fireman's Ball (Milos Forman, 1967)
DVD, 6th Forman film
The Secret in Their Eyes (Juan José Campanella, 2010)
Theater, 1st Campanella film
Not quite as awful as
Boner suggests (but he can’t help but be too
hard* on films sometimes), though this certainly does its fair share of
feigning profundity. Its focus on glances is puerile, which is fitting
for its elementary school approach to love: males obsessively staring
at their loved ones in pictures, sexual tension made so overt the
characters might as well have had outwardly throbbing hearts a la
Looney Tunes characters, etc. The protagonist’s attachment to the case
is reminiscent of Zodiac
- the difference being that case was actually interesting, nearly
unsolvable and rendered with a remarkable attention to detail by
Fincher and Co. whereas Eyes’ case leaves no room for error or
imagination and Campanella does a poor job establishing why it remains
so haunting. No, this film is too interested in its vapid central love
affair, which plays out predictably through many, many, many flashbacks
where the two exchange one “fuck me” glance after another to the point
where you begin to wander if Esposito is some sort of social retard.
Not grating enough to hate, but nothing really works in this one.
5/19
American Pop (Ralph Bakshi, 1981)
DVD, 1st Bakshi film
I’m somewhat torn on
Bakshi’s mixture of fluid animation and
naturalistic sound design with the central characters and the
excessively crude backgrounds and secondary characters. My annoyance
with technique however was greatly heightened by the sheer ineptitude
of its script to develop any depth in its characters or genuine feel
for the various eras it portrays. Instead, it haphazardly leaps from
one character to next in its Dreamgirls-esque tour through the decades,
though thankfully it never achieves the level of awfulness that one
sinks to. As the music is mostly unoriginal tunes appropriated by the
films characters, it doesn’t even offer new songs, only the tired
clichés of drugged-out rockers and the rise-and-fall story we’ve
seen a
thousand times before. I’d be willing to give Bakshi another shot
though, since the script is clearly the weak link of this one. I was
unsurprised to see the screenwriter’s next writing credit was an
episode of Baywatch ten years later. Now there’s a rise-and-fall story
I can get behind.
5/16
My God, My God, Why Hast
Thou Forsaken Me?
(Shinji Aoyama, 2005)
DVD, 2nd Aoyama film
While the central conceit
of Aoyama’s film is similar to Pulse – here,
the “Lemmings Disease” causes people to kill themselves - yet where
Kurosawa’s film looks outward towards the social and technological
causes, Aoyama’s is almost completely insular, spending much of the
film lingering on the noise music experiments of the central
characters. That the outbreak leads to an inability to distinguish
those infected and those simply depressed remains a secondary concern
as Aoyama gleans the surface creating a dense and increasingly desolate
atmosphere always teetering on the edge between meaning and
meaninglessness, much like the musicians who create for the sake of
creation, filling the void with sounds that some will love and others
hate, which may cure the disease or may, as the protagonist suggests,
hasten its effects. A flawed, but fascinating little film.
5/15
[The Complete] Metropolis (Fritz Lang, 1927)
Theater, 4th viewing (1st of this cut)
5/13
Fahrenheit 451 (Francois Truffaut, 1966) 1/2
DVD, 13th Truffaut film
5/11
Zulu (Cy Endfield, 1964) 1/2
DVD, 1st Endfield film
5/9
Strike (Sergei Eisenstein, 1925)
DVD, 7th Eisenstein film
5/8
Iron Man 2 (Jon Favreau, 2010) 1/2
Theater, 2nd Favreau film
5/7
Gunga Din (George Stevens, 1939)
DVD, 6th Stevens film
5/4
City of Hope (John Sayles, 1991)
DVD, 5th Sayles film
5/2
Hausu (Nabuhiko Obayashi, 1977)
DVD, 1st Obayashi film
5/1
The Good, the Bad, the
Weird
(Ji-woon Kim, 2010) 1/2
DVD, 1st Kim film
4/29
Strangers With Candy (Paul Dinello, 2005)
DVD, 1st Dinello film
4/26
The Prisoner of Shark
Island
(John Ford, 1936)
DVD, 11th Ford film
4/21
Tetro (Francis Ford Coppola, 2009)
DVD, 11th Coppola film
4/18
Kick-Ass (Matthew Vaughn, 2010) 1/2
Theater, 1st Vaughn film
4/17
Boogie Woogie (Duncan Ward, 2010)
DVD, 1st Ward film
4/15
Panic in the Streets (Elia Kazan, 1950)
DVD, 6th Kazan film
4/13
The Terence Davies
Trilogy
(Terence Davies, 1984) 1/2
DVD, 5th Davies film
The first part covers a
lot of exposition and territory that's so familiar
(strict British secondary school, Catholic upbringing, etc.) and while
it contains some flashes of Davies' stylistic flourishes, it's not
until the next two parts that he really comes into his own and
transforms from kitchen sink realism to a cinema of portraiture. The
sense of Catholic guilt, particularly in relation to Tucker's
homosexuality, is overwhelming and Davies explores this dichotomy
through powerful juxtapositions of church interiors with perverse
conversations (the 360-degree pan of the church during the comical
phone conversation where Tucker pleads to have his penis tatooed is
equally hysterical and unsettling) and fading memories with a
now-decaying body that still yearns to fulfill its physical desires.
Uneven, but more than worth slogging through Part 1 to some genuinely
wonderful sequences in the last two parts, particularly for fans of the
director.
4/11
Humanity & Paper
Balloons (Sadao
Yamanaka, 1937) 1/2
DVD, 1st Yamanaka film
4/10
Hot Tub Time Machine (Steve Pink, 2010) 1/2
Theater, 1st Pink film
4/8
Gattaca (Andrew Niccol, 1997) 1/2
DVD, 3rd Niccol film
Dramatically inert
not only because of the performances, but a poor
script that never follows through with the promise of the premise. The
voice-over is horrible and serves mostly to blatantly provide
exposition and explanations rather than allow the inner workings of the
world to come out naturally.
4/5
The Crazies (Breck Eisner, 2010) 1/2
DVD, 1st Eisner film
4/4
Greenberg (Noah Baumbach, 2010)
Theater, 3rd Baumbach film
4/3
Colossal Youth
(Pedro Costa, 2006) 1/2
DVD, 2nd Costa film
4/1
Trees Lounge (Steve Buscemi, 1994)
DVD, 1st Buscemi film
Trees Lounge
creates a fairly authentic lower/middle-class suburban milieu, but its
tendency to veer away from its troubled protagonist (Buscemi playing a
more alcoholic version of what you might consider the prototypical
Buscemi character) to briefly follow various bar patrons and
acquaintances only serves to disrupt the flow. When centered around
Buscemi's stagnant life, it occasionally reaches moments of tender
poignancy, yet overall, the film never comes alive, especially as its
only real insight into its protagonists struggles comes through a
clunky flashback device via his ex watching an old home movie. Fans of
Buscemi might find it worth a look, but otherwise, it's probably not
worth your time.
3/28
Martha (Rainer Werner Fassbinder, 1974)
DVD, 13th Fassbinder film
In
the Fassbinder canon of suffering women and martyrs of arcane social
restrictions, it’s hard to imagine one topping Martha, a woman who is
subsumed by those around her and ultimately engulfed by her sadistic
husband’s tyrannical rain. Fassbinder has always been masterful
at incorporating gaudy, even garish, set and costume designs into his
melodramatic set-ups and here, perhaps more than any other of his
films, the artifice is at its most damning and dehumanizing,
undercutting, every step of the way, Martha’s attempts at genuine human
connection, communication and compassion. It’s hard to imagine
anyone other than Margit Carstensen playing the role of Martha here,
her pale skin, skeletal frame and painfully naïve smile making her
tenderness and fragility all the more all the more palpable. Lest this
sound like a misery-fest, Fassbinder also demonstrates an acute and
rather dark sense of humor - the scene where as Martha mourns her
freshly murdered cat, she is pried from the floor by her husband who
simply must possess her, mirroring a similar encounter that occurred
after Martha’s mother’s failed suicide attempt, is as darkly comical as
it is wrenchingly heartbreaking. Fassbinder deliberately walks the line
between the authentic and absurd, never fearing to venture into
hyperbolic territory be it through nearly every woman’s addiction to
tranquilizers or his remarkably complex camera moves. He is
clearly dealing with universal emotions and struggles, but opts for the
broad, expressive palette of Greek drama as opposed to raw realism. The
characters’ fears and desires play out vividly on the screen, leaving
their imprint behind as Martha’s identity slowly disappears. And
man, that smile, perhaps the only reminder of Martha’s simple yet
unattainable dream of happiness, is eerily like that of the Cheshire
Cat. Sometimes it really seems like the smile might stay and the
rest of her will fade away into the background.
3/27
Jarhead
(Sam Mendes, 2005) 1/2
DVD, 4th Mendes film
Deakins'
cinematography is often great and I like the concept on
focusing on the boring aspects of war, the waiting and the obsessive
need to put one's training into action. What I didn't like,
particularly in the first half, is how the film tries to play both
sides in playing up the sense of displacement and isolation and the
camaraderie and macho bonding of the soldiers. The near-celebration, or
at least embracing, or the latter never geled with the former, often
undercutting it and thus making the film seem confused about what it
was really trying to convey about the wartime experience. Had there
been a few more truly compelling sequences, there might be enough to
recommend, but ultimately it was too wishy-washy to really be all that
effective.
3/25
Scanners (David
Cronenber, 1981)
DVD, 13th Cronenberg film
3/22
The
Strawberry Blonde
(Raoul Walsh, 1941) 1/2
DVD, 5th Walsh film
3/20
U.S. Go Home (Claire Denis, 1994) 1/2
DVD, 7th Denis film
Only
Claire Denis could make a film where nearly half consists of people
dancing and almost no dialogue, yet still be utterly gripping. In
just over an hour, Denis poingantly examines the fragile emotional
state of a young teenager attempting to lose her virginity. More
linear and direct than anything she's made since, aside from the
wonderful Friday Night, Denis
once again shows her talent for expressing her vision simply through
bodies in motion rather than plot or dialogue. Vincent Gallo's
10-minute cameo is quite impressive and leads into a beautiful, though
perhaps a bit too pointed, final shot.
The
Ghost Writer
(Roman Polanski, 2010) 1/2
Theater, 9th Polanski film
3/18
Hearts & Minds (Peter Davis, 1974) 1/2
DVD, 1st Davis film
With
all of the Vietnam films released in the past 35-40 years, I was
genuinely shocked that a film could not only provide more significant
ammo against our involvement and do so with such emotional
potency. The editing is particularly remarkable in weaving
together various perspectives and types of footage as well as
juxtaposing several remarks from members of the military with damning
evidence that contradicts their statements. The additional
footage of the high school football team would be misguided and
superfluous if it weren't so perfectly paralleled by the attitudes
engrained in so many of the war's ardent supporters. Obviously
it's not meant to be an objective examination of the war, but in
presenting its arguments against it, it remains well-rounded and
accepting of the complexity of the reasons we were over there.
3/15
She's Out of My League (Jim Field Smith, 2010) 1/2
DVD, 1st Smith film
3/14
Those Who Love Me Can
Take the Train
(Patrice Chereau, 2000)
DVD, 2nd Chereau film
3/11
Where the Sidewalk Ends (Otto Preminger, 1950)
DVD, 12th Preminger film
The
narrative shift at the end of act one is quite remarkable and
unexpected as Preminger takes this film from pot-boiler noir into
near-Bressonian depths of self-recrimination and redemption.
Beautifully shot and Andrews continues to impress me, especially under
the guise of Preminger.
3/8
The Lovely Bones (Peter Jackson, 2009) No Stars
DVD, 8th Jackson film
Jackson's
increasingly maximalist filmmaking has reached soaring new heights as
every frame is intensified by glossy, vibrant colors or painfully
choreographed moments of tension and drama or sweeping camera moves
that serve no purpose but to showboat and create a sense of fluidity
that is missing in the shallow yet overtly grandiose narrative or
hushed pontifications of the deep connection between a father and his
daughter of which this pompous 2+ hour shitfest grants 90 seconds of
screen time where the daughter watches her awkward father engage in his
nerdy hobby of building model ships in a bottle - a hobby he so
graciously wishes to pass onto her and which she begrudgingly accepts
because even though he's neurotic, he's also her father, aw. And that's
not to mention Stanley Tucci doing a Dr. Evil impersonation, Sarandon's
useless drunk character or the absurd Asian friend in Limboland who
likes gazebos as much as Susie does. I hate this film so much.
3/6
Moonrise (Frank Borzage, 1948) 1/2
DVD, 5th Borzage film
3/4
Gentleman Jim (Raoul Walsh, 1942)
DVD, 4th Walsh film
3/1
Hell is for Heroes (Don Siegel, 1962)
DVD, 5th Siegel film
2/28
Police, Adjective (Christi Porumboiu, 2009) 1/2
DVD, 2nd Porumboiu film
2/27
Harlan: In the Shadows
of Jew Süss
(Felix Moeller, 2010)
DVD, 1st Moeller film
2/26
House of the Devil (Ti West, 2009) 1/2
DVD, 1st West film
2/21
O Sangue (Pedro Costa, 1989)
DVD, 1st Costa film
2/20
Shutter Island (Martin Scorsese, 2010)
Theater, 21st Scorsese film
Buchanan Rides Alone (Bud Boetticher, 1958) 1/2
DVD, 4th Boetticher film
Scott's performances is a
bit of an anomoly here in that he's
light-hearted, even jokey at times, smiling in the light of the
multiple threats closing in on him, yet the film still tackles some big
issues and crosses into the moral gray area, particularly with the Agry
family members who run the town, that Boetticher tends to feel
comfortable in. It's quick as a whip, quite funny without diverting
from the seriousness of the situation and features some of Boetticher's
most impressive shots that I've seen so far.
2/19
In Harm's Way (Otto Preminger, 1965)
DVD, 11th Preminger film
2/16
The Spy Who Came in from
the Cold
(Martin Ritt, 1965) 1/2
DVD, 2nd Ritt film
2/14
(s)
The
Smiling Madame Beudet
(Germaine Dulac, 1923)
DVD, 2nd Dulac film
(s) The Last 15 (Antonio Campos, 2007) 1/2
DVD, 2nd Campos film
2/13
36 Fillette (Catherine Breillat, 1988)
DVD, 4th Breillat film
A Prophet
(Jacques Audiard, 2010)
DVD, 3rd Audiard film
2/12
The Imaginarium of Dr.
Parnassus (Terry Gilliam, 2009) 1/2
DVD,
12th Gilliam film
2/9
Brothers
(Jim Sheridan, 2009) 1/2
DVD, 3rd Sheridan film
2/7
Still Walking
(Hirokazu Koreeda, 2009)
DVD,
4th Koreeda film
2/5
Bad Boy Bubby
(Rolf de Heer, 1993) 1/2
DVD, 1st de Heer film
2/1
Big Fan
(Robert Siegel, 2009)
DVD,
1st Siegel film
1/31
The Tall T
(Budd Boetticher, 1957) 1/2
DVD,
3rd Boetticher film
The Sun
(Aleksander Sokurov, 2009)
DVD, 5th Sokurov film
1/30
Edge of Darkness
(Martin Campbell, 2009) 1/2
Theater, 2nd Campbell film
1/29
Walker
(Alex Cox, 1987) 1/2
DVD, 3rd Cox film
1/28
The Box
(Richard Kelly, 2009)
DVD, 3rd Kelly film
1/26
The Invention of Lying
(Ricky Gervais & Anderson, 2009) 1/2
DVD, 1st Gervais/Robinson film
1/25
This Sporting Life
(Lindsay Anderson, 1963)
DVD, 4th Anderson film
1/23
Sita Sings the Blues
(Nina Paley, 2009) 1/2
DVD, 1st Paley film
1/21
The Roaring Twenties
(Raoul Walsh, 1939)
DVD, 3rd Walsh film
1/18
The Naked City
(Jules Dassin, 1948)
DVD, 4th Dassin film
1/17
Mala Noche
(Gus Van Sant, 1985) 1/2
DVD, 11th Van Sant film
1/15
The Little Shop of
Horrors (Roger Corman, 1960) 1/2
DVD, 3rd Corman film
Brute Force
(Jules Dassin, 1947) 1/2
DVD, 3rd Dassin film
1/14
A Bucket of Blood (Roger Corman, 1959) 1/2
DVD, 2nd Corman film
1/12
Crazy Heart (Scott Cooper, 2009) 1/2
DVD, 1st Cooper film
1/11
The White Ribbon (Michael Haneke, 2009) 1/2
DVD, 10th Haneke film
1/9
Daybreakers
(Michael & Peter Spierig, 2010)
Theater,
1st Spierig Bros. film
1/1-1/8
Bright Star (Jane Campion, 2009) 1/2
DVD,
5th Campion film
Midnight in the Garden of Good & Evil
(Clint Eastwood, 1997)
DVD,
13th Eastwood film
The Beaches of Agnes
(Agnes Varda, 2009) 1/2
DVD, 4th Varda film
35 Shots of Rum (Claire Denis, 2009)
DVD,
1st Hager/Bilu film
Revanche (Gotz
Spielmann, 2009)
DVD,
1st Geffen/Keret film
Previous Screening Logs:, 2008, 2007,
December 2006, November 2006, October 2006, September
2006, August 2006, July 2006, June 2006, May 2006, April 2006, March 2006, February 2006, January 2006
|
Cinematic
Reflections