#98 of 2010: Exit Through the Gift Shop

Some of the dialogue/monologue is hilarious, but the "this guy is a schlub" shtick begins to breach overkill right around the time that Banksy starts to really paint himself as the genuine article/overlord/golden standard of socially integrated art-making. Maybe he is, and I don't care to get into that, I just wish that he would have allowed some of the criticism of his modus operandi/aesthetic to fall on his own shoulders instead of re-routing the whole deluge of "can you really call this guy an artist and sell his work as art" in "Mr. Brainwash"'s bumbling direction (and setting up a pretty clear analogy to a certain Mr. Hirst). I really enjoyed the scene with the "forged" currency, how in the end, anonymity or not, the artist knows that there are limits, that you can't just do ANYTHING and still expect to work and make an impact, and I wish there would have been more of those "oops" moments, not just for comedic effect. As for the "hoax vs. docu" semi-controversy, I went into the viewing with the idea that the "real subject" was fictionalized, and I enjoyed the bulk of the movie from that angle. Overall I'll recommend it, especially for people (like me) who are unclear on the development of "street art" as a genre.

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

#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)

#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

#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