GAME CHANGE – 4/5
The HBO film about the disastrous McCain/Palin campaign — with Julianne Moore doing stellar work as Sarah Palin. Moore nails every little tick and “you betcha!” but never crosses the line into caricature — there are some devastating moments of Palin clearly in over her head and trying to cope. Moore’s depiction of Palin’s sheer abject terror before the dreadful Katie Couric interview is really impressive, and oddly moving, as are a couple of desolate moments of Moore’s Palin watching Tina Fey’s brilliant satire of Palin. But never fear — there’s no hint of whitewashing, however, remarkably so.
The cast is admirable all round, but Ed Harris for some reason plays John McCain with a real dignified gravity that the real John McCain never displayed on the campaign trail. There’s none of the twitching or grimacing that made him such an ordeal to look at.
Midnight in Paris 2011
Woody’s patented dreck
5/10
Link
Easy Rider – 4 stars
It’s a rewatch but a beauty. I’m trying to get through this BBS box set and this film is one of the best.
Take Shelter – 9/10. Really incredible performance from Michael Shannon.
L’amant 1992 The Lover
Love among the rice paddies
8.9/10
Link
Putty Hill – 9/10
I’ve not seen more naturalistic performances. Keenly observed and pitch perfect.
Jeff, Who Lives at Home – 3 stars
Better than I expected. Cyrus was an annoying disappointment and while the Duplass Bros keep that awful mumblecore aesthetic intact, the film is cute and quaint enough to enjoy. If it weren’t for all the pop zooms, I’d give this film another half star.
Headhunters (Morten Tyldum) 2011
Implausible contrived convoluted mishmash but not unlikable mainly due to Aksel Hennie
7/10
Headhunters (Morten Tyldum) 2011
Implausible, contrived, convoluted mishmash but not unlikable mainly due to Aksel Hennie
6.5/10
Ed Wood’s Plan 9 From Outer Space
my rating: F
Kenji Mizoguichi’s Ugetsu
my rating: A+
Ed Wood’s Plan 9 From Outer Space
my rating: F
Kenji Mizoguichi’s Ugetsu
my rating: A+
Chronicle 7.5/10
-Really good, short, to the point found footage superhero origins story meets high school outcast story. Would have ranked this higher if not for some of the found footage aspects going out the window in the third act (which admittedly was very compelling). The effects are pretty seamless and there are times when the ‘found footage’ or use of the video camera is actually kind of cool to look at than being cinema verite jerky (though it has those moments in spades). It’s kind of the teenager’s Unbreakable. Drake DeHaan and Alex Russell definitely have futures ahead of them.
My Week with Marilyn 3 out 5 stars
MEPHISTO — 9/10
Szabo’s fine film about an actor who sells himself to the Nazis. Still works.
Kings of the Road 9/10
There better be a better reason for this being unreleased in America than just the clips from porn films.
CHILDREN OF PARADISE 2/5
There goes whatever credibility I might have. I know I’m in the most minor of minorities, but this film meant absolutely nothing to me. At all. Projected on a big screen, faultless restoration, and I just don’t see what all the fuss is about. Entirely adequate in every way, the time passed mostly agreeably. I wanted to like it, I expected to love it, and I did neither.
Tokyo Drifter – sorry, I couldn’t even finish it. :(
Puncture: Chris Evans plays a drug addicted lawyer fighting a multinational medical supplier for stopping his client’s retractable syringe from being used in hospitals. It was entertaining enough while I watched it but the fact that Evans had a buff gym body made his portrayal of a drug addict seem less credible. Apart from Evan’s unconventional protagonist Puncture is a fairly pedestrian court room drama. 5/10
After Hours 5/5
After Hours 5/5
The Moderns
Alan Rudolph’s zany mashup.
8/10
Link
“Godzilla” (1954). Ah, I see. The monster is a metaphor. 7/10.
Unforgiven (1992) 5/5
Martha Marcy May Marlene (2011) 3/5
Incendies 9/10
-Still a haunting political parable the second time around.
@Jonas Silgalis
Unforgiven, such a great film. Gene Hackman’s finest hour. I also found MMMM pretty “whatevs”
KICK-ASS (2010) 4/10
I expected this to be terrible but in the beginning it actually wasn’t bad, it was striking a chord that is very hard to hit between being genuine and charming, and being too “over the top”, campy and satirical. The second half of the film tanked pretty hard though, once it started taking itself “seriously” and going all in on it’s “action” sequences it lost me.
@Jonas
Wow, Unforgiven was amazing.
I thought MMMM was freaky stuff, I gave it an A-
Roger Corman’s Little Shop of Horrors
my rating: B-
Kenji Mizoguchi’s Sansho the Bailiff
my rating: A+
@Cait
I rated Incendies 5/10. It was the most popular film at Vilnius IFF and I went to see it with high expectations, but was SO disappointed. It looked so artificial and dragged. I felt like watching a nicely packed soap-drama.
@AxelUmog
I expected so much from MMMM.. What a disappointment. I can’t say that the film was bad. It actually had some very good moments, but it wasn’t a successful attempt on targeting mental problems of troubled youth.
And yeah, Unforgiven is amazing! Can’t believe I saw it for the first time yesterday.
World on a Wire – 4 stars
A masterpiece. The best Criterion discovery I’ve had in years.
Ari
“But surely the reverse is true for youngsters who prefer the later trilogy—they prefer those films because they’re a better fit for their own paradigm.”
Certainly. And I’m in full agreement with those who despise the new ones. I just don’t think the original trilogy should be placed on such a high pedestal.