Robin Hood Reviewed at The Cinematheque

Another overblown Ridley Scott film.  'nuff said, but go ahead and read my review anyway - and enjoy the pic of an inept, blowhard, once promising director telling his much more talented actors what they should do to be heard over the excruciatingly obnoxious bombast of his latest movie.  Not much it seems.

Read my review of Robin Hood at The Cinematheque.

The Runaways Reviewed at The Cinematheque

Another in my ever-decreasing array of catch-up reviews from my sabbatical time. (P.S. - almost caught up).  Also, to shout my own praises (I don't care what Will Rogers said dammit!!) I would like to highlight a certain line from my review because I really thrilled myself by writing it.  It is "Stealing every scene she's in with an understated brooding manner (a la Brando with breasts!) Stewart proves that she is more than just the ashen-skinned Olive Oyl to a vampiric Popeye and a lycanthropic Bluto."  It may very well be pretty damned cheesy, but I can't help enjoying it.  Anyway, go ahead and read the entire review now.  Thanx.

Read my review of The Runaways at The Cinematheque.

Vincere Reviewed at The Cinematheque

Although a new movie, Marco Bellocchio's Vincere reminds one of not only the art cinema of the fifties and sixties, but also of the early Soviet cinema of Eisenstein, Dovzhenko and Vertov.  This seems to be some sort of cinematic roadblock for the uninitiated among filmgoers - many of them calling the film brash and loud and overly dramatic.  Of course these are the very attributes that made this film so enjoyable for yours truly.  Ah well, you can't please everyone - nor should you want to.  Anyway, my review is finally posted over at The Cinematheque (weeks after seeing it) and it is one of many reviews that were waylaid by my sudden (and quite unexpected, even by me) sabbatical during March and April.  And it is also one step closer to me finally catching up on all those "lost" reviews - a thing that should happen very soon now.

Read my review of Vincere at The Cinematheque.

My Quest To See the 1000 Greatest: City of God (2002)

City of God is #568 in  

My Quest to watch the 1000 Greatest Films 

Screened 12/07/09 on DVD from Netflix

Ranked #620 on TSPDT

"If you run you're dead...if you stay, you're dead again. Period."
  

It has been more than six months since I first watched City of God but certain images stick with a person long enough to still talk about it as if it were as fresh as a newborn peach.  Of course considering the suffering rampant in this film (and in the real life ghettos portrayed in said film) and the despicable actions of its street fleet full of non-actors (many actual residents of the ghettos shown in the film) that is one goddamn bruised peach we are talking about - and one goddamn bruised movie too.

Cinematically revolutionary at the time of its making and release (2002), City of God is the story of the youth of Brazil and the challenges of growing up in what are considered to be some of the worst ghettos in the world.  Gang warfare, drug running and a general disregard for human life (both others and their own) bathe the film with an ugly, vile light.  This harshness is made even harsher by the ultra-realism embedded into the filmmaking style of the dual directing of Fernando Meirelles & Katia Lund.

With quick edits and revolting close-ups, sudden, disorienting shift changes and a hi-def hyper-reality, City of God is both a breathtaking remarkable film and a disturbing socio-economic repugnance.  A tale where the strong don't even survive.  City of God is a film that takes the daring experimentations of Glauber Rocha, Brasilia's very own enfant terrible (as well as the aesthetic found in much of third world cinema today, especially the work of Kiarostami and his ilk) and mashes it up with the in-your-face, post millennial cinema of the no consequence Zero Generation of the likes of modern day French provocateurs such as Gasper Noe and Bruno Dumont.  A movie of hatred and self-loathing that is simultaneously luscious in its execution, City of God is a motion picture of vile pulchritude indeed.

The Secret in Their Eyes Reviewed at The Cinematheque

I have always felt rather lackadaisical about the films chosen for the Best Foreign-Language Oscar (as opposed to by thrill at what wins Best Pix each year!? he said ironically).  They are usually the most middle of the road choices and this past year was no exception.  The Argentinian film The Secret in  Their Eyes is wonderfully acted but lacks any real passion to make it anything other than mediocre and/or middlebrow at best.  The real shame is the potential this film had to be another in the vein of the recent The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo.  Unfortunately the director never pushes the proverbial envelope and thus, the film fails on most parts (other than the stellar main performances).  

Read my review of The Secret in Their Eyes at The Cinematheque.

North Face Reviewed at The Cinematheque

Yet another in a long line of catch-up reviews from my sabbatical of March and April.

Read my review of North Face at The Cinematheque.

The Taste of Blue Velvet

I must admit to committing a rather peculiar act the other day.  You see, besides being a (world famous!?) film critic and a (still relatively novice) film historian, I also run, along with my lovely wife, a small arthouse cinema in my hometown of Harrisburg PA.  In connection with our local film festival, we play a few midnight movies each and every Memorial Day weekend.  This year, one of the films was David Lynch's brilliantly subversive Blue Velvet.  I have never seen BV on the big screen (my first viewing was on VHS way back in 1987) and here it was right in front of me - and on 35mm to boot!

Now every time I would venture back to the projection room (we had the print in our grubby little possession for three days) I would run my hands over the film.  Now this is not the peculiar part of my story.  Really, it's not.  I love the feel of celluloid - always have - but when I would touch, nay, when I would rub, nay again, when I would caress that print of Blue Velvet, it took on a somewhat more, shall we say, erotic nature!?  Perhaps I was channeling Frank Booth (Dennis Hopper passed away sometime during this whole scenario) or maybe I was subconsciously dreaming of Dorothy Vallens - who knows.  All I knew was, something had possessed me.  But again, this is not the peculiar part - or at least it is not the most peculiar part.  Just wait.

 You see, at some point, don't ask me when, I came to the conclusion that caressing was just not enough.  I wanted more.  I needed more!  I had to have more!!  So, of course, I took the next logical step.  I licked that 35mm print of Blue Velvet.  You read that right - I licked it.  It was just a tiny lick mind you, but a lick nonetheless.  My wife once contemplated licking a Picasso at the Guggenheim in NY, but the beefy, burly guards had scared her off.  Alas, there were no beefy, burly guards back in that projection room, so I gave it a lick.  A gentle, loving lick.  The lick of a born and bred cinephile.  The revolutionaries of the sixties may have chained themselves to the cinematheque doors, but how many of them actually licked those films they adored so much?  None I bet - none!  Okay, this may seem quite strange - and indeed it may very well be - but there you have it.  I licked Blue Velvet.

I suppose this story could have gotten a lot weirder (think Jason Biggs and a certain apple pie that mom was told had been eaten) so perhaps a mere lick (okay, two licks dammit!!) is not the worst thing that could have happened.  Of course, then after all that was said and done (and licked) I sat down with a crowd of unsuspecting moviegoers and watched Blue Velvet up there on the big screen.  I couldn't really tell which few frames had been licked and I am sure no one else would have even fathomed such a thing had even occurred, but I believe it brought something more to the already luscious viewing on that big screen, amongst all those poor unsuspecting fellow viewers.

A brilliant film - licked or unlicked - and it was beyond a thrill to see it on 35mm and projected on the big screen for a crowd filled with mostly first-time viewers.  Most seemed to enjoy it (though some of the younger crowd seemed to laugh at the more melodramatic parts) and the screening was a great success - even if no one had any idea that I had gotten to second base with the movie earlier that evening.

Hopper 1936-2010

"And with a whimper, I'm fucking splitting, Jack."

R.I.P. ya big fucking freak.  We'll miss U.

City Island Reviewed at The Cinematheque

Who would have ever thought I would one day be praising an Andy Garcia film.  Always rather lackluster in my opinion (the poor man's Pacino perhaps - for better or for worse) I was surprised, nay, I was shocked when I realized that I actually enjoyed his latest work, City Island.  Yet, that aside, it is Julianna Margulies who steals the show.  And damn, is she ever looking fine these days too.  She plays the part with some sort of transfixing, desperate, white trash sex appeal - and I mean that in the most complimentary way.  The woman is smokin'.  Anyway, I digress (or digest, in the words of Peter Griffin) and must repeat again how much I enjoyed this film.  Sure, it is far from a masterpiece, but it is miles above what I had originally expected.  And did I mention how smokin' hot Julianna Margulies looks here?  Yea, I suppose I did.  Anyway, check out my review over at my main site (linked immediately below in case you did not notice) and check back for more reviews coming soon for such films as North Face, The Runaways, Bluebeard, The Secret in Their Eyes, Harry Brown, The Prophet, The Ghost Writer, Everyone Else and (FINALLY) Martin Scorsese's Shutter Island, which should have been reviewed two plus months ago but was way-laid due to my unexpected sabbatical of sorts.  Anyway, check back soon - or better yet, put my blog in Google Reader beeatches! 

Read my review of City Island at The Cinematheque.

The Girl w/ the Dragon Tattoo Reviewed at The Cinematheque

Yet another extremely late entry in the ole review pile.  Just posted at my site, is my review of The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo.  Anyway, 'nuff said, go there and read it dammit - I have more beleaguered past-their-prime reviews to write up and post before the day is done. 

Read my review of The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo at The Cinematheque.

 

Kick-Ass and Iron Man 2 Reviewed at The Cinematheque

In finally getting around to posting those pesky little reviews I missed posting while I was on sabbatical (aka buying and fixing up a house and being generally engrossed in all that jazz) here are two more to add to the checked off list.  They are two superhero adaptation movies with less than superheroic reworkings.  No more need be said here, just read the damn reviews.  Oh yeah, and it feels damn good to be back in the proverbial swing of things once again. 

Read my review of Kick-Ass at The Cinematheque.

Read my review of Iron Man 2 at The Cinematheque. 

Greenberg Reviewed at The Cinematheque

Not to worry true believers.  I said I would return and just like MacArthur on that Filipino shore - I have.  So go ahead and begin the fanfare, get the ticker tape ready cause the Canyon of Heroes is waiting.  Seriously though, I have been quite neglectful in my critical duties as of late (the first throes of home ownership had me out of the so-called loop for a bit) but I am back at it kids.  My first review upon said return is for the latest Noah Baumbach film, Greenberg.  I won't waste anymore of your precious time though with my (half) faux narcissistic prattling.  Thus, without further ado, click on the link and read the review for yourselves.   

Read my review of Greenberg at The Cinematheque.

More reviews will be spewing forth over the next week or so (both new and some fill-ins from when I was awol), including looks at such diverse fare as The Runaways, North Face, Kick-Ass, Fish Tank, Clash of the Titans, Iron Man 2, The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo, The Joneses, Vincere, Robin Hood, The Secret in Their Eyes, The Girl on the Train, The Ghost Writer and The Human Centipede - as well as my long-delayed review of the best film of 2010 so far, Martin Scorsese's Shutter Island.

I Shall Return...I Promise...

In case anyone was wondering where I have been for the last month or so (and you would be crazy to not wonder!?) do not worry (and I know you were doing that too!!) because I will return to my regular duties reviewing films of both today and yesteryear.  Right now, my lovely wife and I are busy buying our very first house and therefore I have taken a sabbatical of sorts until we close and move in.  I am still watching movies of course, but will not be posting any reviews until early May sometime.

Until then, here is a review of Alice in Wonderland to tide all you true believers over.  I have chosen a picture from the animated version though, since nothing from Mr. Burton's cover did anything for me.