#97 of 2010: Paper Moon

Maybe it's the fact that the biological relationship between the characters Addie and Moses is tenuous that allowed Tatum O'Neal to so totally break out of the shadow of being the male lead's daughter in real life. After all, this wasn't just a case of an actor parent supplying their own child to play their character's child. This isn't an easy case of "just act like i'm your dad, but in a different setting, and call me a different name". This is a real role, a lead role, really. But calling her a "supporting actress" allowed Ms. O'Neal to become the youngest person even to win an Oscar (she beat out her co-star Madeline Kahn's comedic performance for it). "Historical Awards Wins" and "Incredibly Young" aside, the younger O'Neal's gravelly voice and locked scowl, her androgynous grit and youth and supposed poverty of "sentiment", smoking in bed, scheming for affection, smarts, everything she is, down to how her hair is cut and how she walks (even in the dress she wanted but won't change for, she'll wear but won't inhabit, because her clothes don't make her), contributes to the beautifully filmed steely grey edge on everything. It's an edge made of a lot of dust but it's still reeeeal hard looking, which might be the only way to ensure the preservation of soft, old-fashioned fondness.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paper_Moon_(film)

#96 of 2010: Inception

"thought it would be all about the visual, but it's more about the feel of it" -ariadne (ellen page)

no, ms. architect. you are mistaken. any feeling that "Inception" conveys is built primarily on visuals. in fact, not just the feeling, but the meaning and the narrative of the film are rooted much more firmly in aesthetics than in verbal poetics or hard logic. and i don't have a problem with this, because it made for incredible watching. that "waking up from 50 yrs of fantasy building" bit, where marion cotillard suicidally contemplates a knife in front of a positively glowing red vegetable on a cutting board- simple, stunning photography. and the dream world training run with ariadne was like a wonderful over-the-top magic stage routine during which you forget to keep track of the performer's hands. most of the movie is like that, if "the performer's hands" is seen as a metaphor for "the meat and bones of the story". of course, i'm not willing to let everything slide for the sensuality of the movie. one thing that annoyed me was how the male team members had to rely almost entirely on their ethnicities and quickly exemplified "special abilities" to provide distinction amongst them. their personalities were all but nonexistent. another gripe was the undue portion of the weight of the story that seemed cast on ariadne "accidentally" forcing her way into cobb's unconscious. and seriously, "ariadne"? the lovely, smart female student who dresses almost exclusively in obvious layers is not only the architect entrusted to build the dream worlds, but also the guardian of cobb's fragile secret and basically broken emotional composure? *her namesake is the thread girl who helped the youths get out of the labyrinth? then i don't understand why whoever was in charge of the soundtrack didn't make sure to play "dream weaver" every time the camera (playing the p.o.v. of cobb) turns to her.

although this short version of a review seems to lean towards negative, i have no trouble at all recommending "Inception". it is, in general, a compelling film and a legendarily beautiful parade of images.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inception_(film)

*i had ariadne and arachne confused. duuuh. but still. blatent mythology tie in to do with textile production.

#95 of 2010: La Femme Nikita

see "B13" review regarding the characters and plots of Besson. Nikita was pretty dynamic, but still fit in to that description. there was a strangely relatable undercurrent throughout the whole thing relating to the helplessness of people trying to occupy their own lives despite the hellish trap of constant obligation. the love is jumped to in the story, but sincere feeling. the violence is not especially graphic, but in context it is disturbing and stripped of logic or explanation (as it probably should always be depicted). overall, she's not all laid out as a natural bad ass or a victim overcoming her trauma, she's pretty emotional and kind of quiet, and she's not a "nice girl". that's a protagonist that we don't often get to see in action films. also i was sad when victor died purely because of leon. recommend.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nikita_(film)

#94 of 2010: Blackmail

billed as a thriller- and there were some suspenseful or downright thrilling parts- but more of a really really really dark comedy (no way that in any era all of those "knife gags" were intended to be straight scary). and intentional or not, it was a really good really really really dark comedy. recommended.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blackmail_(1929_film)

#93 of 2010: B13

the script was fairly shallow, with the white, male, compassionate, heroic ass-kickers bringing it from both sides of the "tracks" (or wall) with wonderfully choreographed flair. as with several of mr. besson's film projects, the characters are fairly strong iterations of recognizable stereotypes, the underlying message is thought-provoking, and the outcome is warm and right, even though the situations sometimes skirt absurdity without fully embracing it (a dangerous place to be). i found the little sister's story undeniably lacking and hurried and flat where it could have either contributed or been left alone. but i'll recommend "B13" overall for the parkour and solid action storyline.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/District_13

#92 of 2010: 10 Shorts by the Bros Quay

i couldn't stop writing while watching these. and "street of crocodiles" is perhaps the single most pressing motivation i can think of (ed's encouragement comes in at a close second) for me to make a film of my own (though it won't be animation). this short has been pivotal in my development of a more detailed and thought out theory of the ability of film to manipulate time like no other medium. and as much as i wish i had the focus and time to hash out everything i thought about even a single film in this collection (perhaps someday, after hundreds of viewings), i can't say anything other than find it and watch it.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brothers_Quay

#91 of 2010: Russian Ark

there were rembrandts. spectral guides. slices of history taken not from cultural climaxes or defining moments, but from the daily homelife of royals, the nondescript pain of common people, and the in-between and just-before moments that define a nation as much as the most recognizable pinpoints on timelines. the power of the film comes from the drifting, from the soundtrack that keeps the viewer uncomfortable, from the views, and from the feeling that we are actually stumbling- right along with the disembodied voice and his guide, the marquis- in and out of real history. "Russian Ark" is both breathtaking and subtle, incorporating the most intricate architecture and overdone period costume into a bare-bones non-narrative that pretty much amounts to a fantastically compelling and tantalizingly incomplete history lesson. sokurov has certainly made me crave information about Russia and renewed my desire to become more versed in general world history. major props to tillman buttner for his stamina and timing with the swooping pans.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Russian_Ark

#90 of 2010: Short Circuit

i thought i had seen this as a kid but i'd actually only seen "Short Circuit 2", which has the advantage of starring the most entertaining two characters (Johnny 5 and Ben) without the baggage of ally sheedy's horrible failing and painfully unnatural line delivery (disclaimer: i haven't seen the sequel since i was maybe 6 or 7, so i can't vouch for it really being good. i do remember a sweet scene in a bookstore or library where Johnny 5 devours all the books, which i have wished i could do ever since). the anti-military theme reminded me of "Real Genius", but with fewer academia-based hijinks and less concern for developing characters that a viewer can really give a shit about. still- somehow- "Short Circuit" managed to be surprisingly delightful. No. 5 was alive enough to make up for (almost) everyone else's glaring creative incompetence.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Short_Circuit

#89 of 2010: Five Easy Pieces

jack nicholson as Bobby claims to not feel anything but what that actually means is he feels a lot of shit and it doesn't feel nice because he's a total Guy In The Seventies and doesn't know how to balance doing "hard work" plus "having a good time" with being a sensitive pianist and a scared little boy on the inside. his well-to-do family of musicians include people who he generally ignores, though his sister is an incredible sweetheart (smart and a tad awkward, but full of feeling and good humor). strained relationships with dad and bro, no surprise there, and depictions of troubled masculinity throughout the movie- from the physical ailments of dad (stroke) and bro (some neck thing, now he can't play his violin), to the law hauling away Bobby's dim, giggling pal (who seems to represent self-satisfied, "settled down" blue collar america, the authentic version of what Bobby pretends to be). as the film's most prevalent on-screen plot complications (the family issues are established as having arisen before the time period which is the subject of the film) are Bobby's relationships with two different women (an emotionally dependent, intellectually simple, gaudily feminine pregnant waitress who is Bobby's mental inferior but moral superior; and a softspokenly delicate, independent fellow musician (and soon to be sister-in-law) who is Bobby's emotional superior and intellectual equal), it is important to note (and commend) the depth and variety of gender depictions presented in "Five Easy Pieces". overall, it seems like the women (sister, pregnant girlfriend, short-term love affair) come off as more stable, thoughful, compassionate, and rational people, though there are certainly negative female counterpoints (the "pompous celibate" and the almost intolerable [but hilarious] hitchhiker). the most likable male character is probably the nurse, who is little more than a hulking, whitewashed mass of comic relief and a chance for the sweetheart sister to demonstrate her full personhood through sexuality. i'd like to go on about the visuals, but i've spent so much time on the gender bit that all i'll say is: that bit after Bobby gets on a moving truck and plays piano up the exit ramp, the next scene, he's walking around in what basically looks like a George Segal from the late 60's/early 70's, and it is evocative in the same way, with the same economy of image and lack of (need for) verbal explanations. also, T. Bak pointed out to me the expressionist use of the oil derricks in the aforementioned run-in-with-the-law scene, which is a praise-worthy utilization (and transformation, from eyesore to emotional barometer) of that machine.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Five_Easy_Pieces

#88 of 2010: Micmacs a Tire-Larigot

Some large, uncomfortable and unsightly stitches hold together the endlessly pleasing visual gags of "Micmacs" and the films fairly heavy (complete with close-ups of photos of war-mutilated children) anti-weaponry message. One of these stitches is a prolonged montage where the camera watches people watch YouTube and sometimes skips the people and watches YouTube directly. Like other reviewers of the film, I wouldn't have minded the romance between the comedian and the contortionist taking up a bit more screen time, but, "Amelie" this is not. In the end, the sight gags worked, and I liked the movie, holes, hasty sutures, and all.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Micmacs_(film)

#87 of 2010: Daisies

they giggle, maniacally; they're thin and peppy in swimsuits, dresses, heels; they'll hang out with a rich old dude for a meal and entertainment. but after they get bored of teasing and frolicking, they'll light wads of crepe paper on fire in their room and cut phallic foods (pickle, sausage, crescent roll, banana) into tiny pieces with scissors to the soundtrack of a lovesick butterfly collector on the phone.

it might be possible to miss the feminism of this film- the message isn't militant or presented in an altogether serious fashion- but you aren't watching very closely if you do. "Daisies" continuously points out contradictions in society's opinions on propriety and feminine behavior [example: stylized drunkeness and suggestive dancing by a couple performers doing a flapper number are enjoyed by a chuckling, clapping audience, but the crowd is completely indignant when the two girls get drunk and dance for real. ACTUALLY having fun instead of faking a good time is NOT ok].

far from being a manifesto, or even suggesting how things "should" be, Chytilova's attention-getting early feature film is an absurd/surreal interpretation of the current (as of the 60's, and we can argue how far we've come since then) state of womanhood, which was and still is rather absurd on its own. this is the point. it is made with joyous, psychedelic, and well-paced deftness. and you should watch it.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Daisies_(film)

#86 of 2010: Forbidden Planet

Leslie Nielsen is totally being serious: there is some heavy shit going down on this planet. Oh but first we'd better make sure we decide who gets the sexy daughter. Ok, it's Leslie, NOW we can try to figure out what's up with people getting ripped apart by some huge, malicious, unconquerable force. This movie was made in 1956, and I'd be willing to bet that it inspired more than a few kitschy/futuristic mansions. Despite hindsight and shifts in decorating tastes, the film is a pretty incredible visual feat. Good source material, too. The action/suspense/thriller agenda moved out of the way to let a healthy portion (in 50's sci-fi terms) of epistemology and ethics come across at several points, and the solution to the "what's eating/disemboweling gilbert astronaut?" riddle is pretty smart and well explained, if not a total surprise by the time it's revealed. I feel like that kind of dramatic irony was more respected back then, the kind where you make the characters even more dumb than the viewer so as to appeal to a wider audience and make people feel special. Of course there are contemporary examples. Like in that fucking "Da Vinci Code" book when a professional cryptologist has to stare at a scrap of text for HOURS before he thinks to get out a mirror. Dude, it's the name of the book. Hint. Anyways, I recommend "The Forbidden Plant" for it's fully electronic musical score, it's well-developed hypothetical super-intelligent beings and explanation of human research of them, and images like this one:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Forbidden_Planet

#85 of 2010: Freaks

I don't feel like I have to say a whole lot about "Freaks". Someone who was into the fantastic margins of culture- long before I had realized how huge the margins are- told me to watch it years ago, just like someone probably told you to watch it years ago, and if you haven't yet, do. Even as it puts the characters (who are largely identical to the actors who play them, melodramatic relationship crises aside) "on display", the film somehow manages to use the same voyeurism that allows the performers to earn a living as "sideshows" and "monstrosities" towards an opposing goal: it makes us wish that more people were like them. Because there would presumably be a whole lot less marginalization, mistreatment, and self-pity in the world if more people were as accepting, thoughtful, and resourceful as the "freaks" are here.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Freaks

#84 of 2010: Rome, Open City

The setting (filming began only two months after the Nazis were driven from the country, the year after the story takes place) and concerns (with the responsibilities and risks, desires and decisions, the adaptability- for better or worse- of regular people in dire circumstances) of "Rome, Open City" are decidedly neorealist. Though not strictly faithful to that sub-genre, the scriptedness of Fellini's meticulous character development pairs wonderfully with the deft, professional, sincere, and sometimes even over-emotional (especially in Anna Magnini's case) acting, and the result is a perfectly distilled story with honest reality as a backdrop. As for the look of the film, Rossellini sure has an eye for composing a scene. Seen in context, after traveling through a story full of death-by-injustice, this final preparation is devastating:

As always, it is heart-rending to watch a truly good man (even a fictional one, though i'm sure the priest depicted here has historical counterparts) abruptly ceasing to exist at the hands of despicable forces. The visual composition here mangles the edges of the initial wound past the point of healing.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rome,_Open_City

#83 of 2010: The Curse of the Cat People

"Oh Kay, we're gonna do the short, short version":

Mr. Golly Gee/Dad (still attached to spurned, cursed dead wife) has effectively domesticated his former office buddy/new wife, or she has domesticated herself to the point that you wouldn't know anything about her past life as a working gal if you hadn't seen the previous film. They have an imaginative and solitary daughter, Amy, and in raising her, Dad takes his characteristically simplistic approach (play with other kids = happily normalized life, tell me what i want to hear = i've taught you a lesson, incredible truths = lies). There's a somewhat underdeveloped and maudlin interwoven storyline about an aging actress (with something akin to alzheimer's) and the daughter who struggles to care for her. Simone Simon is as charming as ever, and her singing to/interaction with Amy is a highlight of the story, alongside the young character's personality and openness to the world. The plot climax during a blizzard on christmas is a bit too much.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Curse_of_the_Cat_People

#82 of 2010: Cat People

"Cat People" has a lot in common with "I Walked With a Zombie" in terms of its ambiguity about what is really going on here. Both films utilize the exotic foreignness of non-American legend as a portal into the "unknown" and cross-examine seemingly supernatural phenomena (which is rarely evidenced visually) with the opinions of psychologists or doctors, and it is the viewer hirself who must ultimately judge whether disturbed minds or demonic curses are to blame for the trouble that transpires. In addition to ethnic and religious differences, "Cat People" also deals rather thoughtfully with the problem of defining love, as the storyline absolutely demolishes the lead male's simplistic ideals concerning the subject. So it goes like this: there are two beautiful, charming, decent women in the story. One is the delicate, dark (but still generally cutesy), sexually abstinent wife who possesses an undeniable, almost primal magnetism. The other is a peppy, self-assured office buddy who shares professional interests and skills (designing/engineering ships) with Mr. Golly Gee. After his marriage based on "I love you and you love me, even though I'm totally dismissive of your deeply held and life-guiding beliefs", he finds that (surprise) he's unhappy for the first time in his life- the bulk of which he describes as a happy childhood plus a great time at school plus lots of fun at the office. At this point is the scene during which office pal both describes a more solid (though still pretty idealistic) view of love and complicates the idea by professing the relationship between them to be a perfect example of it, but concluding the conversation without seeming to want anything decidedly romantic from him. I knew better than to get too hopeful about what a film made in 1942 might have to say about cross-gender friendships or acceptable gender relations, but (ultimate conclusions aside) "Cat People" was willing to engage the topic interestingly, and often in a way that demonstrated the weaknesses in patriarchal assumptions. I haven't even gone into the best part of the movie where the wife is following the office buddy down the street in the dark, but you gotta see it so WATCH THIS MOVIE.

#81 of 2010: Dear Wendy

most of the reviews you'll find of this are negative in one of two ways: either they rip the movie apart for being absurd and unfollowable, or they seem not to mind the movie except for the "obvious" loathing of America and Americans which all Lars Von Trier's creative output (supposedly) seeks to exude. a few see it as more complex, and i'll side with them as far as the first hour and five minutes is concerned. during that time, this whole "pacifism with guns" thing plays out interestingly, confusing in its paradoxical theory and clearly unsustainable as a way of life. plenty of narrative details are left out the whole way through, but other embellishments (mainly velvet or pearl or wood) are inserted in their place, and as all of the rising actions occur- the kids become truly happy in their committed (and impressively academic) pursuits, their concealed weaponry maximizes their confidence as worthwhile members of a dead-end society, their parents die off of apparently unimportant natural causes- everything looks nice enough, is fanciful enough, and develops a style enough to hold your attention. beware the dreaded plot climax. of course it's a showdown. how could it not be a showdown. but the premise for the shoot out with the law is completely brainless. built on a foundation of a few lines of shitty dialogue (it isn't Danso Gordon's fault that his character was saddled with being the bridge from "secret good times with friends and guns" to "fire-away suicide mission to deliver some coffee"), the scene that allows for the guns to "awaken" and serve their destructive purpose never tries to defend the protagonists' hitherto good-heartedness. the first kill has no discernible motivation beyond shutting up an annoying adult, which completely destroys any affinity i had for the kids. you can go back and forth all you want about whether or not this is satire, who is being caricatured, if Lars Von Trier makes movies exclusively to try and trick Americans into paying to see themselves made fun of (I don't feel like a target here, but apparently some people do? maybe the ones who have managed to befriend only named revolvers?). the way i judge a movie is by how well it holds together, how skillfully it does its own thing. this one disintegrated as it tried to figure out if it said that out loud or just thought it. watch it until 1:05:08, then turn it off and make up your own ending. and P.S.: you did a pretty good job, Mr. Vinterberg. the writing sucked way more than the things i feel like you had control over.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dear_Wendy

#80 of 2010: Moon

Sam Rockwell is, in general, fun to watch. The retro effects and costuming combine with the binary scenery (in the base or in the rover outside the base) and "British" filming to give the film a "walking with dinosaurs" style documentary kind of look into a time we can't see photographic evidence of. "Moon" is like a dramatization of the future, a recreation of what happens years from now, when the line between valuable life and expendable life rests in a different place than it does now (currently, corporations allow oil rig employees to blow up because safety hampers production. in the future that kind of abuse might be a little more flagrant). yea, the story wasn't air-tight. if it had been weightier, more emotionally demanding, i would have taken issue with the glaring moments of "nah-ah, no way". but the film was mostly sweet or funny or thoughtful rather than epic or conscience-shaking or heart-rending. its axe grinding was more akin to the main character's whittling (versus the extreme display of corporate greed in, say, "District 9"): it's not all that detailed, it simply beats sitting on your ass and forgetting about life's finer print (that is, what actually makes it matter, which people profess to care about, though not enough to read into it too deeply). what i mean is, Jones and Parker sort of indict LUNAR inc., but the story is more about being a human- and the "sarang" (the name of the base which i learned from wikipedia means "love" in Korean) that defines us, whether clones from a common source or simply fellow members of the species- than fighting "the man", or even picking out an "evil" "the man" to fight. "Moon" doesn't point fingers or seek violent comeuppance, it quietly asks us to consider the question of the opening credits: "where are we now ?" on the timeline that leads to the future depicted here.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moon_(film)

#79 of 2010: Hunger

i'm tempted not to say a whole lot about this. one reason is that i still can't be absolutely sure that it streamed correctly. but i'm fairly certain it did, so what i do say will be based on what i saw/heard (and didn't hear). most of the movie i saw was silent. if not silent, it was muffled except for the choice mic-ing of wood being shattered and water being splashed, etc. this may be what one critic meant by complaining about the film coming off as "scrubbed of political dialogue" or something to that effect. but the visuals were so audible, and the near-absence of "civilized sounds" like talking or music makes the minute or so of violin (beginning at minute 28:49) the most expressive audio possible at that moment in the film. also, any kind of vague politics or selectively-contextualized fault gets quickly re-embodied in individuals when nothing about those individuals is conveniently explained.

another reason that i don't want to say a whole lot is that this guy- http://www.donalforeman.com/blog/?cat=2 - already has, and i think you should read it. you should also see "Hunger" for yourself.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hunger_(2008_film)

#78 of 2010: The Notorious Landlady

first and foremost, i was surprised to find Jack Lemmon carrying himself more gracefully than Fred Astaire (who i kept wishing would break into a fit of irrepressible tap-dancing, but alas. . .). oh man, that scene where Jack's going downstairs to snoop around or get the scoop after he hears something, and down an entire flight of stairs his hunched shoulders and lowered brow both stay perfectly level, perfectly parallel to the floor. he just glides around. what a charmer. people (including me) say that the best actors aren't the drama mongers, the best actors are often the truly funny comedians. maybe they're the best dancers, too. Kim Novak was enchanting except for when she clung to Jack and bobbed her head and flung her eyebrows impossibly high, all alternately, robotically, and to some horrible rhythm. that was hard to watch, but it was over in a matter of seconds and she was her same slick, wide-faced whisperer once again. The crazy camera angles and light-speed panning and zooming at the moment of the movie-opening murder were notable, as was the coherence of the plot-driving mystery's resolution. it's a sexy romp and a sizzling suspense and might even be considered female-empowering. and if for no other reason, watch it because the guy who plays officer Oliphant is so. spot. on.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0056289/

#77 of 2010: Cria Cuervos

like "spirit of the beehive", "cria cuervos" is a movie about pivotal events during childhood, stars Ana Torrent as the central character, and allows children to be complex and/or uncomfortably (though realistically) amoral. the later film also echoes the earlier in the way that it treats fascism and political turmoil as secondary to the more immediate experiences of family life, but makes sure to demonstrate a strong connection between the socio-political situation of the time and the behavior of the adult characters, which in turn seems to offer insight into the behavior of the children. one thing I could have done without was the flash-forward adult Ana appearing on screen in several highly contrived scenes (she is basically a speaking bust that seems to be answering the unasked question "what was your childhood like?") where she explains how she felt at age nine. this could have been included to introduce some instability into the narrative, call into question what we've seen. after all, if the movie is taken as the telling of memories by the adult Ana, we can assume that a good deal of it is confabulation, and that would somewhat explain scenes like the strange mash-ups of arguments between parents, where the girl Ana circles and observes in a way that tells us that the scene is not literal, not meant to be understood as "what happened", and that the camera is not acting as a witness, but as a "mind's eye". still, i feel that the subjectivity of the visuals- the fact that we are meant to see the movie as a look into Ana's mind- was clear without the adult version applying her overarching conclusions retroactively. it might have simply been the lines in these scenes that i didn't care for, or the fact that a woman staring into a camera as if she is being interviewed by a psychologist (who happens to be more interested in studying What People Say About Childhood than Childhood Itself) is not as visually stimulating as seeing what a little girl thinks. regardless, the movie as a whole is a successful (moving, articulate, beautiful) argument for the differentiation between inexperience and innocence. watch it, and relish "porque te vas".

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cría_cuervos

#76 of 2010: The Celebration

"The Celebration" has been languishing in my DVD queue for months, hovering near the top but always being postponed in favor of a more recent recommendation. its turn finally came, and i was thoroughly blown away by it. i found out as the opening credits played that the film was the first movie made according to Dogme 95 requirements, and i was impressed with how polished and cohesive (in comparison to my only other experience with Dogme filmmaking, Korine's "Julien Donkey Boy") the whole thing turned out to be. i've said it before and i'll say it again: few things fill me with more admiration than financially resourceful executions of engaging visual storytelling. solid creativity can function on any budget, and this film exemplifies how much you can do with a bit of precise editing, some murky lighting, fantastic acting, and impeccable direction. the dream/drunk sequence towards the end was probably the most moving, most spot-on depiction of semi-consciousness that i have ever seen. also, while the plot revolves around tragic victimization, blatant/uncomfortable confrontation, and the struggle towards recovery within a family, it never feels like the "movie version" of something that happens in real life; it feels like the "real life version" (this from the perspective of someone who's never experienced anything like the film's premise first or second or even third hand). as a viewer, you're included as a guest at the table, you're a bystander trying to figure out how or if- once a horrendous act can no longer be ignored or denied- it might be possible to keep on existing.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Celebration

#75 of 2010: Together

besides the oblique jabs which consist of the inclusion of a "crazy hippie aunt" or "weird psychic/naturopath", i feel like movies in general shy away from critically examining political and social liberalism in a serious way (i'm not counting outright satires like Allen's "everyone says i love you"). bucking that trend (as i perceive it), "Together" offers a sizable helping of pros and cons concerning practices like communal living, political sexuality, and liberal parenting. Though aspects of radical counter-culture are introduced as stark theoretical oppositions to mainstream family values, the narrative allows a much more complex exploration of the left-leaning continuum to take place. By the still-uncertain (but happy anyway) denouement, we've gotten to know left-wing counterparts to every right-wing stereotype: the protective parent, the self-serving hypocrite, the political evangelist, the sheepish proponent of the most idealistic version of hir beliefs (in place of the right's "american dream" of freedom to prosper is the left's ideal of "harmonious equality" in which the group prospers because of the altruism of its members), and so on. all this anthropological/sociological documentary (the zooms, quick turns, and handheldiness of the camera work are reminiscent of early, possible-to-presume-unscripted reality shows) is part of a complete narrative package, with interesting and interwoven plot lines and a really great brother-sister-parallel-yelling-at-significant-others scene. the subtitles on netflix's disc were definitely shoddy, but who doesn't love listening to Swedish, even if there are big holes in the translation.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Together_(2000_film)

#74 of 2010: The Spirit of the Beehive

everything about this film- from the lighting, to the editing, to the dialog between sisters, to the fade-as-small-scale-time-lapse technique, to the loose narrative (almost without plot, as the word is conventionally defined)- combines to create the effect that we are travelling back into our own childhood minds as we watch. "The Spirit of the Beehive" is not so much a story about a single fictional child as it is a reminder that children, living in the same disturbing world as adults without any guarantee of shelter from loss or grief or disillusionment, have the ability to cope in incredible ways. it's hard to say much about this movie except that it was transporting, filled with the awe and discovery of being young without any condescension, and without forgetting that there is pain and confusion (right alongside joy and beauty) in living, from day one on.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Spirit_of_the_Beehive

#73 of 2010: I'm Not Scared

after reading some of the facts about the setting of this film (which were not made explicit in the movie), i get the feeling that there is more here for Italians than for the international crowd. it's like setting a film that's not about slavery in the 1850's in America: we're gonna automatically figure that historical moment in as we watch the specific story unfold. but in "I'm Not Scared"s case, i would have had no idea that the 70's was a particularly dangerous decade for Italy, when assasinations and kidnappings were relatively common. national implied history aside, the narrative is generally heartwarming, culminating in the main character (a ten-year-old who you couldn't convince me was less than twelve by the looks of him) demonstrating incredible altruism and compassion in defiance of the selfishness and violence of the adults in his life. there is a bit too much maudlin music and the slow motion hand grasp of the ending is sort of terrible, but the film breaks even overall, because it is SO much FUN watching the brother and sister gesticulate and bicker. i feel like children can sometimes act as lovable caricatures of cultural habits (after all, they are in the process of learning their own culture), and these kids do a fierce whole-hand point, a mannerism i've come to know as particularly Italian. "I'm Not Scared" ends up falling somewhere between recommended and not, so you decide.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/I'm_not_scared

#72 of 2010: Following

in several ways, Christopher Nolan's "Following" reminded me of Robert Rodriguez's "El Mariachi", another low-budget, home-grown, internationally distributed debut that was made in the 90's. the films were both written, shot, and edited largely by their directors, and both use less-than-entirely-convincing actors and public or borrowed-from-friends locations to tell truly compelling stories. "Following" is significantly more understated than "El Mariachi" in it's brand of suspense and it's visual composition as a whole (we're talking the difference between shoot-outs because of coincidences and meticulously plotted sneaking around, the difference between a black-and-white, grey-skied London and south-of-the border sun-drenched vibrance), but they are both commendable in their resourcefulness and in their effectiveness, and definitely demonstrate the potential (which is now being realized) of these directors. Even though "Following" isn't so impressive standing as a piece of art in a vacuum, disconnected from the history of it's maker and production, it's fast-paced (short too, only 70 minutes!) and intriguing and non-linear enough to be worth recommending.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Following

#71 of 2010: Lola

as i mentioned before, "Lola" is the genetically identical graft of it's Marlene Dietrich-starring predecessor, "The Blue Angel". still, in R.W. Fassbinder's hands, it certainly became it's own plant as it progressed. obvious comparisons to be made: a seemingly non-sexual older man in a socially respectable position is at odds with the people at work while he falls in love with a singer in the adult entertainment industry and is subsequently "corrupted"; the woman is financially dependent on men but finds plenty of other ways to be in charge of her own life; idealism doesn't have much of an effect, if any. basic contrasts: more developed rivalries; more circularity and interconnectivity amongst characters; this film is not only in color, it is in hyper-color, with tinted lighbulbs on screen and richly-hued stage-lighting to create giant planes of color which envelope characters or intersect. the second contrast, the interconnectivity, is elemental in developing the complexity of the woman around whom all the other characters orbit. Lola's scenes show her in different costumes (standard vocal performance stage-clothes, lingerie, her conservative and high-class sunday best, 20-something around-the-house wear, etc.) as she interacts with different combinations of friends, coworkers, clients, and family. she's casual at home with her daughter, mother, and friend/coworker Esslin; she's in her room at the brothel being fought over by Shuckert and Esslin while wearing her prostitute uniform; she's singing at a church in a modest (though head-turning) hat and dress while von Bohm sings beside her; she's at her wedding with all the women from work, her mother, and her new husband. but even as she changes costumes- presumably playing different roles in order to be what people want her to be- she has a consistent resilience, a self-reliance, and a kind of ambition that drives her to gather up love and admiration (and to withstand the abuse that comes with them) for her own practical benefit. she isn't attention hungry, she's business-minded, and she knows enough about how to survive in her environment that she allows herself to mix business with pleasure. her predicament (along with her perspective) is summed up well in her response to Esslin when he asks, rhetorically, "you want to live in a world that has lost all morality, where there's only evil and depravity and corruption?" she answers, "gladly. my only problem is that they never let me really join in." though she's left out when it comes to the distribution of clear-cut power, Lola has smarts, is willing to use what she's got, and is adaptable in the extreme. whether or not these abilities can also count as detriments is ultimately left up to each viewer's own system of priorities and moral evaluation. i love when flimmakers allow viewers the privilege of judging for themselves, and i'm starting to really love Armin Mueller-Stahl, so i'm recommending "Lola" highly.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lola_(1981_film)

#70 of 2010: The Blue Angel

i rented this specifically because it was mentioned in the blurb on #71 as an inspiration for that film. i'll save drawing connections for the next post. as for "The Blue Angel" on it's own, it has the distinct flavor of a 30's PSA-ish morality tale without demonizing the woman who "lures" the poor bastard to his "fall" from "respectable society". all those catch-words and -phrases are in quotes to convey the film's ambivalence about defining them. audiences could read the surface of the story as an indictment of lascivious living and wantoness in women (including this shallow super-text floating above the real story is an age old censorship-dodging trick), but if you're paying attention you'll notice that she never deceives him or pretends to be something she's not, and she doesn't pass judgement on him. it's the "fallen" male character who really gets dissected: his obsession with respectability and subsequent "descent" into impropriety, his silly (but destructive) clinging to scraps of the honor he never had, his grotesque inability to settle on a self. i'm not clear on the historical moment in Germany when this was filmed, but i feel like the professor makes a good stand-in for institutional hypocrisy in any era, and the film's real moral is that hypocrisy will tear you apart and leave you death-gripping your old desk in a hobo clown outfit.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Blue_Angel

#69 of 2010: Veronika Voss

the story itself and the exceptional acting certainly deserve praise, but the most striking thing about this film is how poignantly it reverses the light=good/dark=bad convention. though Fassbinder chose to shoot "Veronika Voss" in black and white and the story is built largely on the darker, more desperate and disturbing facets of humanity, i don't think it can be considered "neo-noir" for the simple fact that so much of the film is blindingly white- which in this case represents lack, unease (even torture), corrupt power, and decay. like Rembrandt's "hundred gilder print" depicting Christ with the greatest dimensionality possible for the medium (while the "bad guys" are punished by being made lightest, their forms constructed from the fewest and thinnest lines, barely worked on by the artist or visible to the viewer), Fassbinder shows the good people and places of this film in vibrant shadow and modulated light, while the rotten characters gleam. Robert and his extraordinarily devoted (though in no way inferior or dependent) girlfriend Henriette are the self-actualized, affectionate, honest, compassionate ones, and their truthful and openhearted interactions take place in spaces lit like this:

playing for the other (nasty, opportunistic, self-centered, avaricious) team is Dr. Katz, who swindles and makes addicts of Veronika and two elderly Holocaust survivors (who are probably among others not dealt with in the scope of the film). her office/home/trap is completely whitewashed, effecting the feeling that the only comfort or hope or life it can offer is contrived, flattened, and completely fake- and it is also inescapable. everything falls under the terrible whiteness' power, from the palm tree in the white hall

to Veronika herself, all bleached and washed out and sickly, even as she sparkles with the coldness of jewelry and ostentation.

the cleanliness and orderliness of her doctor's corruption eventually drains Veronika of even fake, drug-induced life, and one of the palest frames is the one that displays her demise.

I was stunned by this film on so many levels, but i'll refrain from going into any more of them and simply recommend that you watch "Veronika Voss" for yourself.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Veronika_Voss

#68 of 2010: Pirate Radio

i'm not going to go too far into this one because it would be a waste of energy to write all the mean things that could be said of it. the short version: "Pirate Radio" (aka "The Boat That Rocked" in the UK) packs a huge ensemble of half-baked, over-flattened characters and continually puts lame gags and cheap references to the fabled sexual freedom of the 60's ahead of meaningful story development. i didn't watch the deleted scenes, but reading recaps of them has me wondering why the character formulation was cut to make way for the two most horribly pointless plot-lines possible (both including stupid, fickle, pretty women scheming to get what they want by putting on coquettish little shows; both devoid of the possibility of an interesting outcome). i would have much rather seen the backstory on Felicity, a slightly more two-dimensional (though not "hollywood-looking") female character. or the backstory on any of the characters, for that matter, because they all seem to have arrived on this ship from out of left field. the truly enjoyable parts: all of Bill Nighy's acting, the rock'n'roll, and the totally contrived but joyous ending.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Boat_That_Rocked

#67 of 2010: The Body Snatcher

the nice thing about basing a movie off a short story (written by Robert Louis Stevenson, no less) which is based off historical events is that, as long as your screen adaptation knows where to cut and not to add anything significant (which this one does), you can focus on acting, lighting, camera setups, suspense building, music, etc. and if you DO focus on these things as much as you should for not having to spend the time coming up with a new story, voila! the movie is a creepy, shadowy thrillride/success! at every place where this film could have soured, it was its sweetest: the first murder to provide a body doesn't just happen, and it doesn't happen sloppily, and it isn't without enormous emotional significance for the viewer; rather, the entire scene is expertly crafted for the utmost suspense and gravity. mr. karloff's greedy eyes find his victim as she crosses paths with his recent guest. as the camera (playing his eyes) tracks her, we are fearful, but still have hope that this is just a temporary whim in his desperate mind. we keep repeating, "he wouldn't, he wouldn't, someone would notice, someone will know, he wouldn't" until his cab clops behind her into a shadow and her voice stops. "the body snatcher" is the kind of horror film that respects humanity enough to base the inspiration for our terror in reality. each death is heavy, and the emotions that conscienceless slasher movies would exploit are instead put to good use in confronting the malice that greed and "ambition" bring about in the real world.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Body_Snatcher_(film

#66 of 2010: Strictly Sexual

as a story it was decent, if strictly heterocentric and also improbable (but since when is improbable in itself a problem, right?). the title is ironic; the film actually offers some refreshing takes on love and sexuality (though it seems to lose any ground it gains during intercut "men on relationships" and "women on relationships" counseling sessions. on the other hand, this could simply be a reflection on how we are generally socialized to view the opposite sex and not the opinions of those who made the film. after all, what is said during this scene calls into question a lot of the simple binary assumptions we've been led to make about the four characters [2 men and 2 women], and the advice that is given is shown to be ineffective later in the movie. ok i've changed my mind, there is a net progress regarding gender stereotypes) i agree with the netflix reviewer who mentioned that a serious re-edit would do this some good, and i found some of the dialogue a bit "intro to fiction" sounding. some scenes, however, did achieve the recognizable realism that the entire movie was struggling towards: i.e. the scene where stannie describes his strained (now non-existent) relationships with his parents. it sounds convincing, his somewhat careful, slightly vague (but absolutely effective) in-a-nutshell description of why he and his family mutually opted out of keeping in contact when he was a teenager, and it lays a good foundation for our understanding of what happens to his relationship with donna. overall, though, this is another case of the movie being less interesting than the life of the movie - it has been released almost solely on the internet, streaming on netflix and hulu, and through those channels has managed to make 10 times it's production budget thus far. it may be a landmark in film distribution, but certainly is not one in filmmaking or storytelling. read the press on "strictly sexual", but skip seeing it unless you don't find less-than-good acting or hurried plot climaxes distracting.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Strictly_Sexual

#65 of 2010: I Walked with a Zombie

this film is deliciously ambiguous as a horror flick- full of speculations about the causes of the condition of the "zombie" in the story. each one twists the narrative further around on itself and refuses to provide an answer, only offering a possibility. the deftness of camera work during the first "walk with the zombie" is impossible to ignore, with perfectly (and dynamically) paced tracking shots. [my favorite: the few seconds where, after mostly following the actors, retracing their steps and trailing them around corners in the cane field, the camera jumps in front of them, reversing the shot so that we see the actors {paused momentarily to observe the creepy surroundings, the nurse's physical hesitation denoting doubt about the mission she's embarked on with her patient} squared in the center of the screen. when they start to move, the camera does as well, which highlights the fact that at this point, continuing is less about forcing ahead and more about being pulled in, regardless of inhibitions.] the love stories are left (appropriately) in the realm of rash decisions, and though the ending allows couples to "be together", it is certainly not an all-tied-up conclusion. the thoughtful ruminations on cultural differences don't end up favoring Western traditions over "other" ones: though the doctors scoff at the practices of villagers and mention "talking a little voodoo to get medicine down their throats", one of them is also convinced that she participated in a successful voodoo ritual; and the discussions of how the people got to this island usually expose the Westerner as a bit daft and uncompassionate, i.e. when the driver relates (with a troubled expression that only the camera can see) that everyone's long-ago mothers and long-ago fathers were carried here by the Hollands against their will ["chained to the bottom of the boat"], the nurse responds with an ignorant smile, "they brought you to a beautiful place didn't they". I could go on about interactions like this, but you should see the movie. it's short enough to watch without ever checking your watch (or the progress bar on the video player)!

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/I_walked_with_a_zombie

#64 of 2010: Fantastic Planet

visually interesting film, the narrative of which has some philosophical and political implications. it's short and easy to keep watching because of the occasional vignettes of Om and Tragg life (the "imaginations", the "meditations", the hunts and what seems to be a fertility ritual), which are left largely unexplained, which saves this from being one of those science fiction pieces that feels like a cheesy crash-course on quickly developing an impossible setting. though some summaries describe it as being set in the future, "Fantastic Planet" cleverly doubles as an earth-creation myth, in my opinion. wrap your head around it.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fantastic_Planet

#63 of 2010: Battle Royale

holy distopian microcosm of teenagers participating in a twisted, government-ordered, popularly sanctioned bloodbath. this story and director do a fantastic job of taking the viewer along on the emotional and mental rollercoaster that the kids are strapped to by way of their electronic collars. there are points where you're definitely gonna want to shut it off, and it'll be because of the obliteration of cinematic boundaries of "decency" that you're used to as an American. the movie itself stands as an attention-holding, thought-provoking examination of social issues, especially those that make complicated shitstorms out of the lives of many young people. it serves it's humor dark and absurd, and even though you get a little pulled out of the drama and chuckle, deep down, the part where the girl shoots-to-kill the boy and the boy tells her to run and save herself and she says "why?" and he says "you're so cute", that's gonna give you back the ability to see the characters as kids, which in turn is going to make it even more clear how scary and fucked up the premise requires this future to be. watch it when you get the urge to rent a slasher, but subsequently realize that you'd like your disbelief to be suspendable and your two hours to mean something (even if it's not precisely clear what).

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_Royale_(film)

#62 of 2010: Bram Stoker's Dracula

i have to start by calling out the use of the author's name for any publicity of this movie. it would have been more appropriate to call it "Coppola's Shitty Dracula". i'll follow that with what i saw as the movie's strengths: sweet costuming for the Vlad preface; decent acting (however wasted on the film as a whole) by Anthony Hopkins, Gary Oldman (guaranteed by the screen actors guild to astound as an over-the-top villian while introducing a faint glimmer of humanity), and [surprise!] Tom Waits; and financially conservative effects (including camera positioning, aesthetically pleasing fades, and interesting editing), which i always appreciate for their resourcefulness and creativity. now for the weaknesses. in my perfect imaginary world, any time that someone tries to turn a piece of innovative and culturally important literature into a porn that is not even a good porn, they should have to apologize to everyone who watches it all the way through. i won't bother waiting for that, since this is not my world and Francis Ford Coppola's iteration of this horror story already achieved blockbuster status. besides the performances mentioned, the rest were either totally bland or (accidentally, i hope, for the sake of any respect i might in the future have for this director) unentertainingly comical. if you feel you must watch this, try to focus on the mystery of dracula's shapeshifting and centuries-long history. the movie got this right while it let all of the other great suspense-building plot-points from the novel fall apart. ff when Winona and Keanu are on screen together to avoid going into a bored coma.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dracula_(1992_film)

#61 of 2010: Hero

The colors and drama are formulated as arduously as you would expect in a film by Zhang Yimou, and it pays off. Maggie Cheung and Tony Leung are, as always, beacons of emotional subtlety and masterful believability. Also, the CGI scenes worked: while highly (some might say preposterously) stylized, i found them tasteful and well-incorporated [as opposed to some of the tacky scenery in "Curse of the Golden Flower"]. Overall, an absolutely beautiful epic, a legendarily romanticized historical fiction that can hold the viewer's attention with spectacle alone, but that doesn't forget to tell a moving and somewhat didactic story.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hero_(2002_film)

#60 of 2010: Angels with Dirty Faces

James Cagney being on screen for a healthy portion of the runtime is reason enough to watch this or any movie in which he stars. his dancerly grace and the bad-kid-with-gusto/lovable-bully persona that he captures are undeniably winning, even when his character is doing what can only be described as despicable. still, that character, Rocky Sullivan, is more resourceful than despicable, and you can't argue that he doesn't have a strong and relatively just (compared to the crooked cops and greedy lawyer) personal code of conduct. but that doesn't mean we don't sympathize with Jerry (Pat O'Brien) and his position. like other gangster films of the era, this acts as a PSA in regards to at-risk youth. yet unlike films like "the public enemy" (another Cagney-full gem with a few legendary scenes) and "scarface" (i'm talkin the original), the anti-hero criminal at the center of "Angels" isn't simply a figure for us to pity, wishing it didn't have to be this way as he spirals down to nothing, whimpering and cornered or disposed of at the hands of rivals. Rocky never seems too far gone, and we know that he isn't because of the final scene. the grey area occupied by this character is ostensibly the same area in which children who tend towards criminality live, too beaten down for the ideals embodied by the priest, but too good to transform completely into hedonistic brutes; this unwillingness to strictly polarize good and bad, saved and lost, citizen and criminal, makes "Angels with Dirty Faces" a compelling entreaty.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Angels_with_Dirty_Faces

#59 of 2010: Real Genius

for all it's keen-but-shallow witty one-liners and teen comedy silliness (i.e. the hot braniac throws a sexy de-stressing "beach" party and invites a bunch of correctly-bodied and intellectually deficient "beauticians" from the cosmetology school up the road. plenty of offensive insinuations to go around), this movie packed a substantive bundle of ethics and life lessons. there's the triplet of past, present, and future "top-dogs", a kind of diagram of what can happen to a smart kid who doesn't balance- work with fun, break-through successes in the lab with a philosophically sound conscience, nurturing his abilities with challenging himself to work on or accept his weaknesses. i was especially impressed by the message (which Mitch gets from Chris, then subsequently has to reflect back to his mentor when Chris' sealed future comes undone) that above bragging rights, above grades, above salaries, above rivalries, it is the work we do that really matters (along with the our relationships with and responsibilities to the people who share in our endeavors). and, as everyone comes to find out the hard way, worthwhile work deserves to be thought- and felt- through. all the raw intelligence in the world is valueless, even harmful, without the moderation of the human soul. awwwwwww.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Real_Genius

#58 of 2010: The Lives of Others

netflix was right, i do give it that many stars. what a totally absorbing film brimming with narrative convolutions (which tighten up the suspense without feeling too contrived, except in the way that certain interactions between characters are contrived and based around a "subject/audience" relationship). besides being a studied observation and commentary on oppressive political systems (aren't they all), the movie also handles a very wide array of topics {art-making, patronage, patriotism, and ambition [good and bad kinds, for the sake of creative fulfillment and for its own sake]} in micro- they are dealt with to the extent that they fit into the specific story being told, which is one hell of an emotionally/historically dense slice of life. Ulrich Muhe is INCREDIBLE as the listener/interrogator, and his character's dual/opposing roles in the name of state security exemplify the kind of provoking dichotomies that arise less-than-manageably from the premise. there are clear villians here, and- in a move which movies with clear villians don't usually make- "Lives" exposes those men who would be tagged "evil" in more epic histories as simply immature, infantile even: hungry for attention and praise and control for no reason but to fan their little teenagesque egos. . . with disproportionately tragic though entirely possible consequences. watch this one, but maybe not right before bed.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Lives_of_Others

#57 of 2010: days of being wild

i can see how these premises and characters grew into Wong Kar-Wai's later movies (it's "sequels", "in the mood for love" and "2046", but also the chronologically-nearer "chungking express"). the whole film has a "learning" feel- in the content, people learn about how other people work, learn to move on, learn secrets, travel and learn new trades; through the visuals, the viewer must learn to translate darkness and the small, fragmented plains of faces or furniture or clothes that catch the light; after seeing the later films in the sequence, it is clear that the director is learning how to build and where to block characters, when they should enter and exit for greatest raw effect (rather than greatest/clearest contribution to narrative), and besides that, he is working for the first time with Christopher Doyle, no doubt entering into a relationship in which both parties learned from each other. if you haven't seen any Wong Kar-Wai, maybe start here and watch the "trilogy".

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Days_of_being_wild

#56 of 2010: Fritz Lang's M

l killer, fritz lang, german, otto wernicke, peter lorre, social problems, suspense

this "first-cinematic serial killer" film (that's how it's billed in the netflix summary) is much less polarized- in terms of "good v. evil", "victim v. villain", "justice v. retribution", etc.- than you would expect if you hadn't seen anything else by Lang. based on my limited experience of the director's work ("Metropolis"), I certainly wasn't predicting a cut-and-dry morality tale, but I was surprised at just how complex, how condemning and also redeeming of EVERY character/character-type, this movie is. it'll yank on your emotions but it won't tell you what you'd need to do if it was real. you'll see the good in bad guys but it won't hold up outside of present circumstances. you'll see the bad in victim-mothers, and you'll have a hard time placing the divisions between complicity and willful ignorance and helplessness. like any examination of morality with real depth, this movie forces you to judge yourself as you judge its characters.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/M_(1931_film)

#55 of 2010: Everyone Says I Love You

The best chemistry was between Goldie and Woody, for sure. Tim Roth played his part magnificently as well. I haven't actually seen that many Woody Allen movies (besides this, "Vicki Christina Barcelona" and "What's Up Tiger Lily"), but I get the feeling that they all have a similar air of cinematic transparency, that is, that they don't bother to ask for a suspension of disbelief, especially where dialogue is concerned. I prefer movies that are based on more absorptive writing, even when the acting doesn't hold up. personal preference. however, I do appreciate how Allen builds his heroines: they may all be beautiful (but so are the men, except for him, and who but beautiful people do we expect to populate movies that never claim realism), but they are also smart, independently thoughtful, fallible, and (perhaps most importantly) are distinguishable from each other in their priorities and views on love and life. the musical element here was fairly gimmicky, but the choreography was pretty wonderful to watch.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Everyone_Says_I_Love_You

#54 of 2010: Leon: The Professional

Sure, it's an action flick, plus a kid-in-trouble-saved-by-reluctant-loner storyline. that hybrid in itself is not what makes this film incredible. what DOES, is, well, it's frenchness: this is the international version of what was released in america as "the professional", and is, intact, much more emotionally rewarding than the puritanized iteration. yes, it is disturbing to watch a reedy preteen girl participate in contract killings. yes, it is somewhat uncomfortable to hear this young girl engage in a conversation with her older, male guardian which amounts to her asking him to sleep with her. but this movie is not an example of the creepy oversexualization of young girls that takes place in american media and retail. this is a 12-yr-old girl character in a crazy situation acting like a 12-yr-old girl in a crazy situation (p.s. i would be in love with Leon, too). that the movie had to be cleansed of this character's chance to demonstrate her inner thoughts (and learn from the response she gets) for the american release is a perfect example of the hypocrisy and oversimplification that have always allowed good, accessible, human art to take a backseat to low-brow feel-goodism in this country. thank you, The French, for being so ok with puberty, and for being willing to present uncomfortable images so that all the bad we bring to the table as viewers may be swept aside by the excruciating (and redemptive) depth of your characters.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Léon_(film)