Jerry Johnson, how many great moments should there be in a movie before it qualifies as a “great” movie?
In my recollection, Elevator has some holes in the plot, maybe even some big holes in it. Something problematic about the way the murderer casually destroys the elevator while imprisoned it that dispels the notion that he might actually get away with murder after all. I also remember (though not specifically) something fishy about the way the elevator moves when it starts moving again. I believe it had been going up when it stopped, but when it starts up again, it goes down. But maybe French elevators would work that way? In any case, it’s an above average movie overall. More satisfying and philosophically deeper as entertainment than most thrillers of any age.I appreciate intelligence in movie-making. I would give it at least a high 8 out of 10.
I found Potter’s Tango Lesson to be her best work, nothing wrong with self-indulgence.
self-indulgence = exclusivity
01:31:26
Pedro: I don’t know where I come from nor where I’m going.
I’m afraid I’ll disappear.. without leaving a trace.
01:31:41
Sally: Perhaps that’s why we met.
I.e. I will immortalize you in film, if you will be my lover.
That is terrible shit…unless she was being funny, in which case, that is terrible shit.
It takes all kinds I guess
and " I will immortalize you in film, if you will be my lover." is fascinating to me in “fiction” (and I like when Potter plays with doc and fiction, and loved the process of the dance). It’s also occasionally fascinating in casting couch porn but that is another story
Io sono l’amore (2009)
7.5/10
Goodbye Lenin! (2003)
7/10
True Grit: 4/10
I’m a huge fan of the Coens, but this is not a good film at all. Matt Damon was worse cast than I’ve ever seen him. The film is emotionally empty, without the fun factor characteristic of the Western genre or the intellectual interest factor characteristic of Coen films. The film just kind of goes through the motions of a typical Western plot, and ends up being profoundly boring.
Il Divo: 9.1/10
Beautiful and funny. Toni Servillo gives a superb performance as the excentric and thoughtout PM of Italy. But it takes some background knowledge to get the full experience of the movie. Great piece of film nonetheless!
@Jirin well you nailed Animal Kingdom (I think it was you) so I’m listening. Sounds disappointing.
@Jirin
There’s a thread that Ari started (I think it was Ari) on True Grit. I hear what you’re saying, but I don’t feel as strongly as you do about the emptiness of the film. There’s a link to an article about the film that is somewhat interesting (although I don’t really agree with it much :)
Alle Anderen (2009)
10/10
double post..
sorry
Unthinkable 7/10
Saw 3d VII 2/10
Punch Drunk Love 9/10
Baghead 2008
DIR Jay Duplass, Mark Duplass
PROD John E. Bryan, Jay Duplass, Mark Duplass, Jen Tracy
SCR Jay Duplass, Mark Duplass
84 Min
Form over content: Scary shaky-cam & Greta Gerwig reprising her fleshy slut of Greenberg.
Kind-of-like Chinese food – good while it lasts, but leaves you hungrier later.
6/10
Robert: I agree with your assessment and rating. But, technically, Gerwig can’t “reprise her fleshy slut” role since “Baghead” came out before “Greenberg.”
I think that’s called a prereprise.
Or maybe just a preprise, a term that could be useful given the odd way films become available to watch with later films often put out before earlier ones.
127 Hours- 9/10
127 Hours- 9/10
Jodorowksy’s “Fando y Lis.” Again. I adore the bombed-out cityscape through which Fando y Lis travel in the first part of the film—the pianist playing stoically in the rubble, all of it resembling a nuked Fellini set—but, I have to say, my attention wanes once they get into the sparse nothingness of the mountains, populated by caricatures.
Whenever I watch “Fando,” I think about the riot that broke out at the film’s Mexican film festival debut. It hardly seems so incendiary. It’s a little sad to me that we live in an age in which entertainment is no longer so provocative. Where are the cineplex riots we were promised?
7.75/10
From the last week …
Keane (2004) – 8/10
Latcho Drom – 7.5/10
Playtime (1967) – 7/10
Les rendez-vous d’Anna (1978) – 7.5/10
The King’s Speech – 8/10
Great acting all around.
I saw the Coen Bros’ True Grit and I thought it far surpassed the 1969 Henry Hathaway/John Wayne version. I give it 8/10.
Dreams(Bergman). well acted and photographed, familiar Bergman themes such as the difficulty of love, familial strife, cruelty etc but they are neither explored as effectively or memorably as they are in later works. It’s better than i expected though, and certainly not a dud. a decent film, nothing more, although i must say i really enjoyed the performances, especially from the two female leads 6.5/10
Blue Valentine 5/10
There’s nothing technically wrong with the movie, and it might be read as a grownup version of 500 Days Of Summer. The narrative itself is a bit cliche. It’s a very archetypical anti-romance story with a trendy production style.
Sans Soleil ? / 10
This will probably be a 9 or a 10 for me, but I’m realizing now I probably should have watched it with the english voice track. It’s hard to track both the complex narrative and the complex images at the same time when you’re forced to stare at the bottom of the screen the whole time.
Bringing Out The Dead 5/10
Strong start, then gets kind of all over the place.
In retrospect I’m warming more to True Grit. When I was watching it the thing that struck me the most was the tone of artificiality and the lack of the ‘Fun’ I expected from it. And I felt they were trying too hard to make you think the little girl was cool. Now I keep mentally making these Leon The Professional comparisons that make me see it in a different light.
Balzac and the Little Chinese Seamstress 2002
Xiao cai feng
DIR Dai Sijie
SCR Dai Sijie, Nadine Perront
116 Min
Script: borderline maudlin & predictable
Cinematography: boring
Little Chinese Seamstress: Having won several best actress awards Zhou Xun has no stage presence in this film. Was it intentional, or is it the camera work or script?
2/10
Videodrome (David Cronenberg, 1983) – 7/10
Never Let Me Go (2010) – 8.5/10
Rushmore (1998) – 7/10
Terribly Happy 7.5/10
Breaking the Waves (Lars von Trier, 1996) – 8.5/10
Salem Kapsaski
“This may be the best film of 2010”
The Thumbs up from John Waters and Den… Need to watch “Joan Rivers A Piece of Work” asap.