Sunset Story

An emotionally gripping and often funny documentary about the friendship between two elderly women in a retirement community for free-thinking elders. Irja is upbeat and optimistic, Lucille dry and cynical. The documentary humanizes old people--a group that our society seems perfectly content to stow away in retirement centers and ignore--and shows that they still have much to offer.

Sunset Story

Score: 70%

The Vicious Kind

Sure, it's another indie film about a dysfunctional family. How original, I know. But I like dysfunctional. And I like self-destructive characters. The Vicious Kind is pretty basic, story-wise. Nothing new to see here, I suppose. And there are issues with the script, to be sure. But the movie's magic comes from its characters, the bulk of which can be attributed to Adam Scott’s turn as the "vicious" self-destructive misogynist, Caleb Sinclaire. The rest of the cast is also very good, but this movie is nothing without Scott.

It's not a great film, but the performances make it a good film and definitely worth watching, especially if you enjoy dark comedies.
 
The Vicious Kind
Score: 62%

The White Diamond

Visually impressive documentary from the incomparable Herzog, The White Diamond begins as a scientific exploration but then transforms into a spiritual one. Herzog often documents humanity's struggle with nature, sometimes with tragic results. Although the film is a little aimless at times, Herzog's The White Diamond is still a poignant and beautiful film, capturing natural wonders at their most breathtaking, and mining the depths of his subjects' souls.

The White Diamond

Score: 77%   

Inglourious Basterds

I've never been a big fan of Quentin Tarantino, so QT lovers can stop reading now. Not that I plan to tear down your idol, but I will not be hoisting him up high as so many others seem to, regardless of what he makes. Inglourious Basterds is certainly his best film since Jackie Brown, but doesn't say much in my opinion, since those films ranged from crap to slightly entertaining.

Tarantino has a flair for dialogue, but can no longer discern the difference between good and bad anymore. The same can be said of his direction and editing. It's as if the voice(s?) inside his head just keeps saying "that's brilliant," or "yes, more of that." His love for his own dialogue and his self-indulgence drag out the film and are, at times, terribly boring. Case in point is the bloated run time of 2 hours and 32 minutes for what is essentially a B-movie revisionist history action film where Jews get to kick some Nazi ass and take out Hitler.

The movie has some amazing parts, but as a whole isn't all that great. It just doesn't deliver fully; we're left with only moments, some great scenes, but wishing for a whole lot more.

Inglourious Basterds

Score: 60% 

Broken Embraces

Not his best film, but a very enjoyable experience and head and shoulders above most of the films Hollywood craps out. Broken Embraces is visually and aurally stunning, well-acted, and, in typical Almodovar fashion, effuses an enormous love for movies and moviemaking. A film lovers filmmaker.

And then there’s Penelope Cruz. In her Hollywood films, she is merely cute, an inconsequential actress making inconsequential films. But with Almodovar, and most specifically with his last two films, Volver and Broken Embraces, Cruz has been inducted into the pantheon of luminous European actresses.

Score: 78%

Ponyo

Ponyo, like all of Miyazaki's films, is beautifully drawn and visually impressive. But where the animated artwork soars, the script is the anchor tied to its legs, pulling it back down to earth. This is one of his more kid-friendly films, and children will undoubtedly love it. But for adults and fans of Miyazaki, this is a lesser work that could have used a few more rewrites to tighten up the story.

Score: 65%

The Beaches of Agnes

Score: 84%

Black Dynamite (2009)

 
Black Dynamite is at its best when played as a straight up blaxploitation film, the parody a hit and miss affair. A genre notable for accidental humor, one doesn’t need to overplay the parody to get plenty of laughs; and the good news is, Black Dynamite mostly plays it straight.

The film nails the look and feel of those 70’s grindhouse flicks, complete with cheesy stock footage, boom mics in frame, sloppy edits, porn-style music, etc…. The movie offers up its share of gratuitous nudity and kung fu action, and White as Black Dynamite is spot on, with Billy Dee Williams charm and Richard Roundtree’s badass-itude.

The downside to Black Dynamite is that by being faithful to its influences, it suffers from the flaws of those films. And by the hour mark, most people will have had their fill and will undoubtedly feel the movie is over long way before the credits roll.

With all that said, Black Dynamite is a flawed but funny and entertaining film, that (for good and bad) captures the essence of the blaxploitation films of the 70's. 

Black Dynamite
Score: 68%

Dark Days (2000)

A stylishly shot grainy black and white documentary, Dark Days tells the stories of some of the homeless living in the subway tunnels beneath Manhattan. 

The director actually spent two years living in the tunnels. The friendships he formed not only allowed him intimate access to their lives, but also gave him a much needed film crew, as most of the film’s subjects also assisted in the making of the film (one of them even built a dolly for tracking shots).

It is an unsentimental telling, each person sharing their humor and honesty, pain and pride. It is an eye-opening portrait of humanity, of a community formed in the unlikeliest of places, of survival, and of independence.

My only real complaint is the lack of a follow up as to the whereabouts of each person at the conclusion to the film. This information is available in the DVD supplements, but should have been used to end the film. Without the supplemental material, the ending feels inconclusive.


Dark Days
Score: 72%  

Quick Hits

Memories of Murder

Score: 82%

Good Hair

Score: 69%

Kick-Ass

Kick-Ass is pure mindless fun. Sure, it attempts to say something and mucks that all up, but who is looking for deep pools of meaning in such a movie? I don't have a problem enjoying a movie that totally lacks substance. After all, isn't superficial entertainment pretty much the Hollywood paradigm? Of course, most of those films are complete failures in terms of having any value. Kick-Ass at least entertains. And sometimes all we want as moviegoers is good, stupid fun.

Kick-Ass

Score: 66%

Greenberg

Greenberg, the character, is a narcissistic misanthrope; or to put it crassly, he's an asshole. And yet we come to empathize with this character, a tribute to Baumbach's script and Stiller's performance. The acting all around is very good, especially Gerwig and Ifans. The script and mis en scene are wonderfully detailed, drawing the viewer into a world that seems lived-in and not merely a set piece. Baumbach's films are not mainstream, Hollywood-friendly fare; they are cynical and dark, character-driven comedy of manners films with influences from some of the great directors of the 60's and 70's. And in Greenberg, Baumbach goes one step further with his influences by paying a direct homage to Fellini’s La Dolce Vita, gathering his vapid party-goers around the pool to gaze at a dead, unidentifiable animal floating in the water.

Greenberg
Score: 74%

Ramin Bahrani

Goodbye Solo

Score: 79%

 

Chop Shop 

Score: 81% 

  

Man Push Cart

Score: 70%

Quick Hits

The Runaways

The Runaways is not nearly as wild as it should be and lacks depth, its paper thin story leaving the audience wondering far too much about what isn't being told. On a positive note, the film captures the look and feel of the mid-seventies, with solid performances from Stewart, Fanning and Shannon. 


The Crazies

A remake of Romero's 1973 film of the same name, Eisner's Crazies never really gets under your skin. It telegraphs most of its scares, and too much of the movie is spent in typical horror movie fashion: running and hiding. It has its moments, and as far as remakes go, it's better than most, if that's really saying much.


Summer Hours













Summer Hours is a hauntingly beautiful and bittersweet film with excellent performances by the leads. This is not a character or plot driven film, but a thematic one, meditative and philosophical and evocatively told.  


Harvard Beats Yale 29-29 

Effective and simple, this 2008 documentary intersperses game footage with interviews from some of the players and people who lived it, suspense slowly and surprisingly building toward an improbable conclusion, even though we already know the outcome.


The Runaways
Score: 60%

The Crazies
Score: 55%

Summer Hours
Score: 79%

Harvard Beats Yale 29-29
Score: 68%

The Friends of Eddie Coyle

Click on the titular link and watch the Criterion "trailer." It's a clipped scene from the movie that, among other things, tells the viewer the story behind Eddie's nickname. If this scene doesn't hook you and make you think, "Damn, I need to check this movie out," then what could I possibly say that would change your mind?   

The Friends of Eddie Coyle
Score: 72%

Micro Reviews

Thirst had a lot of promise but fell far short of it, and at an exhausting length. This movie is about 30 minutes too long. Park Chan-Wook tries to mix too many genres; the result is an incoherent mess that only works sometimes and misses as a whole. It begins with the promise of an artistic, intellectual vampire story but sadly devolves into a shock-for-the-sake-of-shock style horror story with farcical humor, that along with the mishmash of genres, just seems incongruous with the earlier tease of something smarter.

Revanche is a movie I was looking forward to seeing, and it didn't disappoint. It is the type of film that made me a lover of cinema in the first place; but sadly, films like this rarely get made anymore. Spielmann directs with great control and economy, drawing wonderfully understated performances from his actors. In the opening scene, something makes a splash in a pond, sending ripples across the still water. Revanche takes a lot from this opening shot, the quiet of the woods disrupted by a loud splash, the stillness of the water broken and the ripples that this creates. But there is also the reflecting nature of the water's surface, and the murkiness beneath. Yes, I'm deliberately being vague; and I (as usual) recommend skipping the trailer and opting for a pure cinematic experience.

Thirst

Score: 52%

Revanche

Score: 79%

Three Micro Reviews

Moon, an intelligent sci-fi film with a great performance by Sam Rockwell, doesn't shy from its influences, 2001: A Space Odyssey and Solaris (not to mention a few other 70's and 80's sci-fi films). It is far from perfect, but a good movie and one that deserves  a larger audience. Note to first time director (and son of David Bowie) Duncan Jones: when stationed on the dark side of the moon, the earth is not visible. But I understand the power of that shot.

Where the Wild Things Are is not a movie for kids, but for adults reflecting on what it was like to be a kid...especially those adults who read Maurice Sendak's amazing book. The movie captures the tone of its source wonderfully, and is visually impressive. But the movie does suffer some from a middle that drags: the very part of the story where Jonze and Eggers had the most freedom to expand on the original material, to show us the wild side of their imaginations. Overall, an enjoyable film, albeit for a specifically-targeted audience...thankfully one that includes me.

A Christmas Tale is a wonderful display of controlled chaos with a great ensemble cast. It is a dark comedy about a dysfunctional family that comes together at Christmas. Despite a running time of 150 minutes, I never tired of watching as the family clashes and comes together and clashes some more. The director clearly loves his characters, and not despite their imperfections, but because of them. After all, humans are nothing but imperfect. Why not embrace the flaws?

Moon

Score: 71%

Where the Wild Things Are

Score: 68%

A Christmas Tale

Score: 79%

The Headless Woman

An enigmatic and brilliant film from Argentinian auteur, Lucrecia Martel, The Headless Woman invokes Bunuel, Antonioni and Lynch, yet remains unquestionably the work of its creator. But to be fair, this is not a film for everyone. Average moviegoers will not enjoy this film. Even at the Cannes Film Festival, the audience booed and/or walked out.

I can't argue with someone who doesn't enjoy this film from a subjective point of view, but anyone who dismisses the film entirely is without justifiable evidence. Nobody can say this movie is not visually and aurally stunning and masterfully executed. Martel creates more with just sound than a lot of directors can visually. Shot in wide screen and with a soft focus that blurs the background and periphery, the viewer is forced to share the point of view of Vero, a bourgeois dentist, as she meanders through her daily routines in a state of shock following a hit-and-run accident, where she may or may not have killed a young boy. The soft focus works wonderfully in this film, not only to create the hazy confusion that is Vero's mental state, but also as a subtle visual divider. Adding to the confusion is the lack of establishing or transition shots, leaving the viewer to piece the puzzle together as the film unfolds. And Maria Onetto is excellent as Vero, in a role with very little dialogue.

Martel tosses the audience into the film without any knowledge of who Vero is, or more importantly, who she was prior to the accident. This is a complaint by some critics who feel we should know who she was in order to understand how she has changed post-accident. Despite the fact that there are subtle (and not so subtle) hints about who she was, it is also quite clear she is not herself. She seems almost amnesiac, walking through life as if in a waking dream. She doesn't seem to even  recognize the most familiar of things, such as the names of her family, or even that they are her family.

The lack of a resolution to the mystery of whether she killed a young boy is probably the reason why many people reacted negatively to this film; but the film is not about finding a resolution to the mystery. It is about examining Vero and her family's reactions to it and the choices they make when dealing with the consequences of her actions. Most viewers want their films to wrap up neatly at the end, to have all the questions answered for them; but this film provokes us to seek our own answers, to confront the ugly truths about our world and ourselves.

The Headless Woman
Score: 80%