LogMar06.html

04. Aquamarine (2006, USA) Elizabeth Allen -

has redeeming facet

A perfectly harmless teen comedy about a pair of young girls who befriend a Mermaid and help her to woo the local hunk, this actually ends up being as air-headed as it sounds. Elizabeth Allen’s shoddy direction manages to distract from what is a genuinely warm-hearted story, her style of cutting upon every break in sentence is well suited for cable television, but deserves no place on the big screen. I suppose some credit should be given to the film for not so much as hinting of sex, which considering the recent trend in Lindsey Lohan teen comedies is a feat unto itself (sorry Dads). The only part worth remembering is the righteously camp ending that features some of the most glaring and unmatched cross-cuts between actual ocean locales and a soundstage water tank since TV’s Baywatch.

06. The Last House on Dead End Street (1977, USA) Roger Watkins -

worthless

07. Love Object (2003, USA) Robert Parigi [2nd complete viewing; no change in rating ****]

09. The Hills Have Eyes (2006, USA) Alexandre Aja -

has redeeming facet

Wes Craven’s original horror film was a below average movie, but it had a smart construction that lent itself to academic analysis (see Robin Wood’s incredible "An Introduction to the American Horror Film"). This updated version, which I confess I had high hopes for, takes the interesting Craven premise and turns it into one loud, unpleasant gore-heavy climax. No longer do we have two families, one a stranded family of WASPs, the other a feral band of cannibals, with the similarities between the two often surprising and disturbing us. In Aja’s version it is a simple story of good versus pure evil, and the feral family is reduced to a pack of prosthetic grotesqueries and are completely devoid of any sense of character (Christ, even TCM’s Leatherface had personality). Alexandre Aja knows his horror films and exactly how they should function (cf. the masterfully flawed Haugh Tension), but as a storyteller he is severely lacking. Not even Sam Peckinpah at his most intoxicated would release the ending of Straw Dogs as a feature-length film, and that is EXACTLY what this is. Gregory Nicotero’s kick-ass make-up effects are the only thing people will be talking about for as long as this film is remembered.

11. Riso Amaro (1949, Italy) Giuseppe De Santis -

a must see

13. Plan 10 From Outer Space (1995, USA) Trent Harris -

worth seeing

14. Innocence (2004, Belgium) Lucile Hadzihalilovic -

a must see

Not the surrealist masterpiece I was hoping for, Lucile Hadzihalilovic’s debut feature has to stand as the year’s best first film. Emerging from a small wooden coffin, a young girl finds herself the newest member of a mysterious institute populated by primped young girls clad in white uniforms and adorned with color coded ribbons. Nothing is definite at the institute and from the Marker-like opening, to the Lynchian soundscape of ambient mechanical rumbles, it is clear that we are occupying a world far more sinister than the title would suggest. Most closely resembling the meticulously crafted films of Matthew Barney, wherein the diegetic world of the film is approached like a sculpture rather than a narrative, Hadzihalilovic’s film is a boldly assured work of art. Benoît Debie’s scope photography speaks wonders and allows you to let your imagination run wild amidst the dazzling and dream-infused compositions (this is a film where a cigar is most definitely never just a cigar). Had it not been for a meandering middle passage where the film takes on different points of view and thus defeating much of the mood that was achieved prior, this may have been a masterwork, however that having been said, the final sequence is a knockout and marks Hadzihalilovic as a bold new talent in world cinema. The film is dedicated to Hadzihalilovic’s partner Gaspar Noé.

16. A History of Violence (2005, USA) David Cronenberg [2nd viewing; no change in rating ****]

17. Family Portraits: A Trilogy of America (2004, USA) Douglas Buck -

worth seeing [breakdown below]

Cutting Moments (1997, USA) *** [short] , Home (1998, USA) * [short], Prologue (2003, USA) ***

18. The Blob (1958, USA) Irvin S. Yeaworth Jr. -

a must see

21. Life is Sweet (1991, UK) Mike Leigh -

a must see

22. Humanity and Paper Balloons (1937, Japan) Sadao Yamanaka -

a must see

24. Blind Beast (1969, Japan) Yasuzo Masumura -

a must see

25. The Wild Goose Chronicles - Naked Reality (1996, USA) Trent Harris [short]

Yet another big screen comic book adaptation, this time from producers Andy and Larry Wachowski (The Matrix) who have bestowed a directorial opportunity upon their friend James McTeigue. It’s a story where the good guys are terrorists, the politicians are murderers (literally), and blowing up an important government building is a cause worth dying for. Sound a bit irresponsible? The Great Britain based film was originally set to premier on Novermber 5th of last year but was postponed after the tragic London subway bombings. All tastefulness aside however, the true problem with the movie is that it functions as a political film for 14 yr olds. Nothing is subtle; everything is spelled out loudly and stripped of subtext as McTeigue’s mechanical direction does all the thinking for you. I would give anything to see a real talent like Paul Verhoeven (Starship Troopers) take a crack at this story, but given that the Wachowski’s are not out to make a statement, an overly didactic moneymaking machine is the end result. Children take note, you have not learned a thing from this film, like a great politician buttering you up for a vote, V for Vendetta just wants to make you feel good about giving it your $8.50.

I wasn’t one of the people who went crazy for Roos’ 1998 debut The Opposite of Sex, and this is much of the same kind of material. Working with various interweaving plotlines and self-indulgent enough to include on-screen text to voice his omniscient screenwriter perspective, Roos has made a Sundance film through and through. The cast of well knowns handle their lines with considerable aplomb but much of the writing feels like crafty showmanship as opposed to anything approaching real emotion. The material is dark and fairly nihilistic at times -- the Ritter/Arnold/Gyllenhaal plot about a son who helps a girl seduce his father so he can remain ‘in the closet’ is the only one that really shines -- and ultimately Roos’ can’t escape the fact that his film is completely derivative of the type of movies that seem to be getting made in droves since American Beauty. I’ll see his next movie, but don’t call me eager.

Director James Gunn has made the perfect antidote to the recent trend in Saw-aesthetic horror with this campy, self-referential sci-fi horror film about a small town that is overtaken by mind controlling alien slugs. By omitting the grimy color-faded cinematography, the obnoxiously loud soundtrack with breakneck editing, and an advertising campaign that far surpasses the film’s budget, Gunn has come away with an exceptionally smart return to the genre films of old. Present here are actual characters, with an authentic feeling for small town life, and a story that is engaging even when the monsters are off-screen. Like Edgar Wright’s recent Shaun of the Dead, this is the work of someone who clearly loves and respects the type of movie he is making, and this confidence and lack of condescension on the filmmaker’s part goes a long way towards making the movie work and towards making the jokes funny. Simply put, I had a blast. (note: many reviews have made mention of influences like Cronenberg’s Shivers and Carpenter’s The Thing. Let me recommend Frank Henenlotter’s Brain Damage and Brian Yuzna’s Society. Two films that are genuinely closer in feel and execution to Slither. Cronenberg and Carpenter’s movies might have influenced the make-up effects, but their tone and underlying purpose could not be further from Gunn's film.)