soon to be... Master List (films I've seen since I've started this site, with original [mostly] outdated comments intact) currently [missing Dec. '04, Jan '05, Feb. 05, May '05, Aug 05]
Now adding by filmmakers... Masterpiece, Excellent, a must see, worth seeing, has redeeming facet, worthless [shamlessly curbed from D'Angelo/Sallitt formats]

• The Door in the Floor (2004, USA) Tod Williams - I have not read the John Irving story that this film is based on, but I have a hard time imagining that it could be as uneven as this movie is. The script is all over the place, beginning as a serious family drama and then inexplicably morphing into 30 minutes of comedy before quickly returning to drama for the final act. Kim Basinger and Jeff Bridges play Marion and Ted Cole, a couple grieving the loss of their children some years earlier. A young teenager shows up as Ted’s summer writing assistant (newcomer Jon Foster doing an admirable Timothy Hutton impersonation), but the poor lad spends most of his time fucking Kim Basinger and driving around Bridges’ who is fucking Mimi Rodgers. There is a very quick passage where Ted reads his “Door in the Floor” story that--no big surprise here--serves as the key to unlocking the big ending. * has redeeming facet (Theatrical screening) [08/04]

Down With Love (Peyton Reed, 2003)- **** Masterpiece [10/03]

• Duel to the Death (Ching Siu-Tung , 1982)- The first in a long line of martial arts flicks that I intend to watch in the wake of Kill Bill, Ching Siu Tung's Duel to the Death is a lot of fun. This Hong Kong film falls into the category of Wu Xia Pan or flying swordsman film, the basis for the style of Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon. The story revolves around a Chinese school of martial arts and a rival Japanese school who arrange a duel to prove whose technique is the best. I often had a hard time figuring out who was doing what to whom and why as I watched this film, but I didn't much care. The marvelous Scope cinematography and ass kicking choreography kept things thoroughly entertaining. *** [10/03]

Dune (1984, USA) David Lynch - **** Masterpiece [09/04]
Early Summer (1951, Japan) Yasujiro Ozu - **** Masterpiece [11/04]
École des facteurs (1947, France) Jacques Tati [short] - average
Eija-Lisa Ahtila: The Cinematic Works (1993-2002, Finland) - collected shorts, highly recommended! [05/04]
Elephant (1989, UK) Alan Clarke - **** Masterpiece (TIFF theatrical screening) [09/04]

• Elf (Jon Favreau, 2003)- Jon Favreau's half-funny Christmas movie should prove a heartwarming experience for kids of all ages. For me, this played like a 90 minute Saturday Night Live skit -- throw Will Ferrell in an elf costume and have him run around -- laughter will follow. The problem is that this would have worked better as an SNL skit and to make a film out of it, means inserting storyline between the gags and disrupting the flow of the humour. Fans of Ferrell's antics should find this enjoyable, me, I was never more than mildly interested. Zooey Deschanel, who seems to have no idea why she is in this movie co-stars. ** worth seeing [11/03] Theatrical screening

• Even Dwarfs Started Small (Werner Herzog, 1970)- Werner Herzog's second feature film also happens to be one of his best. This is not an exploitation film, but a surreal nightmare, equal parts terrifying and hilarious. When a band of dwarfs takes over the compound that rules them, a revolution of violent and destructive behavior ensues. The cast, composed entirely of dwarfs, seems of normal size by the end the film, with the oppressive world around them turning into an out of proportion grotesquerie. Not to be missed. **** [10/03]

• The Eye (The Pang Brothers, 2002)- In a recent interview, Quentin Tarantino stated that the only cinema that really interests him these days are the terrifying Horror and gruesome Yakuza films coming out of Asia. He's on to something there… The works of Takashi Miilke and Kiyoshi Kurosawa are pretty fucking awesome to say the least. You could also add Hideo Nakata to that list, the man who directed the original and far superior Ring and wowed me with the highly effective Dark Water earlier this year. I suppose that right now, you either (a) Have no idea who any of these people I just mentioned are but you've seen the American version of Ring or (b) You've heard of the aforementioned and would like to point out that I didn't mention Fukasaku, Suzuki, or any of the Ishii's. Either way, there is no denying the popularity of these directors -- even Blockbuster Video has jumped on the band wagon and has started carrying some Miike titles (in horrendous R-rated cuts) and there are currently FOUR! American remakes of successful Asian films in the making by filmmakers like Wes Craven. One of these is from a pair of Thai brothers, Danny and Oxide Pang, who have constructed a fairly effective thriller with The Eye. Despite some Sixth Sense trappings, the story is about a young girl who after a cornea transplant finds that she can see dead people, the Pang's create a genuinely terrifying atmosphere with some brilliant camerawork. This is not as good as anything by the likes of Miike or Kurosawa, but it’s a hundred times better than anything creepy that Hollywood has to offer.** [10/03]

• The Falls (Peter Greenaway, 1980)- Peter Greenaway's three and a half-hour avant-garde masterpiece has to be seen to be believed. This is a wildly inventive, encyclopedic experiment, that attempts to document the lives of 92 people who are victims of the VUE or Violent Unknown Event, and all of whom have a last name beginning with the letters FALL. Greenaway breaks his film into 92 shorts, each one shot in a different style, about the bizarre effects of the VUE on these people's lives -- such as why they all somehow take on bird like qualities or a fascination with birds. The results are frequently hilarious, highly surreal, and almost certainly unlike anything you have ever seen before. My favorite passages include a tale about a man who weds a turkey after his wife dies, only to have it shot by a veterinarian whom he in turn shoots, and a brilliant section about an Ornithologist who hypothesizes that Hitchcock is behind the VUE and studies the film The Birds for answers. Michael Nyman wrote the wonderful score. **** [10/03]

• Fellini's Roma (Federico Fellini, 1973)- Fellini's poetic reverie to the great city is what many consider to be the height of his anti-narrative film phase. I prefer Amarcord, which he would make two years later, but this film is still pretty damn enchanting. Working equally on the streets of Rome and in the studio, Fellini jumps from one exquisite set piece to the next, often ignoring reality to indulge his own guilty pleasures. Where Buñuel was fascinated with feet, Fellini was a lover of big bottomed, large busted women. As he recounts his experiences in brothels during WWII and a fantastic sequence featuring a dreamlike fashion show, these fetishes (among his many others) become overtly apparent. As always, everything is beautifully photographed as Fellini walks you through a world that is entirely his own. *** a must see [11/03]

• Footprints (1998, USA) Bill Morrison
  Like Morrison’s masterful Decasia, this small film also shows the filmmaker in all his found footage glory. Various snippets of cinema are sampled, starting with early Méliès and moving up to the modern 20th Century Fox logo. Essentially a film about cinema that tries to communicate via cinema-- its beautiful to look at and features an alluring sampled soundtrack, I’m sure there is more being worked out here than I was able to pick up on in my two viewings. (6 min. short, recommended) [08/04]

• Game of Death (1979, Hong Kong) Robert Clouse - Considering that Bruce Lee died almost 6 years before this film was released, it’s not quite as awful as you might expect. Director Robert Clouse uses a plot that has Lee faking his own death in order to hide from gangsters who want him dead. This basically requires that his character appear in disguises or big dark sunglasses, hence the Bruce Lee stand-ins aren’t as noticeably apparent. Unfortunately only about 30 minutes of this film is footage of the actual Bruce Lee, most of them appearing during a fight sequence with Kareem Abdul-Jabbar. The kung-fu finale that has Lee battling through five levels of villains, each of whom specialize in a different martial art, is really the only thing that makes this movie worth seeing. The American DVD unfortunately only contains 4 levels of fighting and those are apparently presented out of order (the fifth was edited by censors). Overall, a mildly enjoyable Kung-Fu film, however I have to question the morals of a director who would use footage from Lee’s actual funeral in his movie. Tarantino pays homage to the film’s famous yellow jumpsuit in his Kill Bill vol. 1. ** worth seeing [04/04]

• God of Cookery (1996, Hong Kong) Stephen Chow - ** worth seeing

  This is my first encounter with Stephen Chow, distinguished Hong Kong comedian with a decent worldwide following and acclaimed director of the recent films Shaolin Soccer and Kung-Fu Hustle. As an early outing for Chow as director, the direction is a bit creaky at times, perhaps because Chows comedy is far more developed than his skills as a director at this point. The plot follows the downfall of the “God of Cookery”—a powerful and arrogant chef (played by Chow) who is revealed to be a fraud, left in the gutter only to mount a killer comeback after studying martial arts cooking at Shaolin Temple. The jokes range from hilarious to pitiful and by the time the well staged ending rolls around it feels a bit too little and a tad too late. Still, as an entertainment, this film works just fine and I cant say I’m not looking forward to checking out the rest of the Chow oeuvre. [03/05]

• The Human Stain (Robert Benton, 2003)- A well acted but ultimately an enormous let down from director Robert Benton. Based on a novel by the talented Philp Roth (which I haven’t read), this tells the story of a successful college professor who watches his life go to shambles after a slip of the tongue brings about accusations of racism. He finds sexual reawakening in the form of a woman half his age (Nicole Kidman), whose life is an even bigger mess than his own, and things progressively get colder and more depressing from there. I found it hard to swallow that we are supposed to believe Anthony Hopkins in the role of an aging Jew, but the ludicrous denouement is potentially even more offensive. This kept my interest for a while, but eventually I couldn’t wait for it to end. Gary Sinese and Ed Harris co-star giving evidence that whoever cast this picture wasn't a complete jackass.* has redeeming facet (Theatrical Screening) [12/03]

• IYHuckabees (2004, USA) David O. Russell - David O. Russell really goes over the top in this one, and despite what you might hear elsewhere, he manages to make it all work. This delightful adult comedy follows the exploits of a group of lost souls, whom, frustrated with life and the unending search for its meaning, employ the help of the Existential Detectives—a pair of foppish philosophers (Dustin Hoffman & Lily Tomlin) who follow you around and help you sort out your life with their “Inter-connectedness philosophies.” Jason Schwartzman plays an environmental activist, loosely based on a young O. Russell, and Mark Whalberg plays his 9/11 inspired Other, a petroleum obsessed firefighter who upon arriving on the scene of a fire decides to take to watering a neglected lawn than to putting out the fire. There are quite a few inside jokes with regards to the writings of Kafka, Hegel, Freud, Plato, Sartre, and Lacan that are spouted off with a snobbish brilliance. If none of those names are familiar to you, don’t worry, the rest of the cast, which includes Naomi Watts, Isabelle Huppert, Tippi Hedren, and Jude Law (in his 450th film of the year) are dynamite as well. This is the kind of sharp-witted intellectual humor that often reminded me of the great Woody Allen of twenty years ago. *** a must see (theatrical screening) [10/04]

• Incident at Loch Ness (2004, USA) Zak Penn - ** worth seeing

  I have to admit that I’m a little pissed off that Herzog decided not to go through with the “real” Loch Ness documentary, but that’s not why this comedic sham fails to work. The idea is great—Werner Herzog sets out to make a documentary about the Loch Ness Monster while his Hollywood minded producer (Zak Penn) stages all kinds of elaborate hoaxes in order to spice up Herzog’s film. Before long Herzog catches onto Penn’s little tricks and the two clash, but not before possibly clashing with the real Loch Ness Monster. Given Herzog’s megalomaniacal reputation for pushing himself and his production crew to the very limit in his quest to capture the “ecstatic truth,” this had terrific comedic potential. In the end however, many of the great stories from Herzog productions past (the most famous of which has Herzog directing Klaus Kinski at gunpoint on Aguirre) wind up being too esoteric to stage lengthy jokes around, and to avoid having this lost on the viewer, the filmmakers reach out and try to walk the audience by the hand through the material, butchering the joke in the process. Another downfall is the presence of Zak Penn himself. Unlike Herzog who remains cool and totally convincing, Penn comes across as unfunny, thoroughly unbelievable, and even a tad obnoxious. Loch Ness on the other hand is completely gorgeous and the film remains compulsively watchable despite having failed as a comedy. Whether or not Penn and Herzog manage to succeed in their less obvious goal—to make a comment on the nature of truth in documentary filmmaking--remains debatable. [03/05], [rating raised to *** on second viewing]

• The Incredibly Strange Creatures Who Stopped Living and Became Mixed-Up Zombies!!? (1964, USA) Ray Dennis Steckler - It’s hard for me to articulate just how bad this movie is. In fact, I found myself watching this all the way through just to see if there was anything even remotely entertaining to be found in this unending piece of nonsense (the answer turned out to be no). For an 80 minute film there is a phenomenal amount of time spent on the dreadful musical acts and dancehall routines of the carnival in which the film is set. I can only suspect that these served as “make-out interludes” for the drive-in audiences of thirty years ago, as they serve no purpose other than to put this reviewer to sleep. Take my advice and avoid this at all costs. • worthless [10/04]

• Invaders From Mars (William Cameron Menzies, 1953)- William Cameron Menzies, who served as the genius production designer behind Gone With the Wind and Thief of Baghdad, directed this 1953 Sci-Fi B-movie, and it’s a hard film to shake. Chicago Reader critic Dave Kehr put it best when he said “I can't say it's a good film, but it's fascinating, one of those rare movies that seem to tap directly into the director's subconscious, bypassing every rule of dramatic logic and most of those of filmmaking.” We all know the story by now -- a young boy sees a flying saucer land in his backyard, his parents may have become aliens themselves, and of course, nobody believes him. The beautiful sets combined with the horrific acting, and heavy use of military stock footage screams Ed Wood Jr. which isn’t always a bad thing. *** a must see [12/03]

• Journey Into Amazing Caves (2001, USA) Stephen Judson - IMAX presentation
  Not much of a film, but there is a sense of a return to the idea of cinema as 'spectacle' and 'community experience' in the IMAX format that I find pleasantly invigorating. [04/05]

• The Leopard (1963, Italy) Luchino Visconti - *** a must see

  It’s not very fashionable to call Luchino Visconti’s widely praised epic anything less than a masterpiece, but in this case I feel like that’s exactly what it is. While the final hour is simply superb--shot, edited, and acted to sheer perfection, the film’s preceding two hours tends to overstay their welcome, perhaps a little too bent on achieving ‘masterpiece’ status. Visconti’s strict dedication to the literary source—the story of a dying Italian aristocracy in the face of a rising middle class—remains interesting, but it’s not until Visconti happens to confine his characters to the stifling ballroom in the finale that the real dramatic tension begins to take shape. It’s for this stunning 60 minutes of film alone, which confirms The Leopard as a major achievement. [04/05]

• Love Streams (1984, USA) John Cassavetes - **** Masterpiece

  How do I do justice to this 141-minute masterpiece, by one of the greatest of all filmmakers, in which every single bit of dialogue, every actorly flourish, every nuanced camera movement, seems worthy of extrapolation? John Cassavetes has created an achingly beautiful film, one that made me weep, made me laugh, and made me cringe in its brutal honesty of the human experience—this is one of those great works of art that stirs you to the very core, leaving you with a profound feeling of what it means to be alive. IF you’ve never seen a John Cassavetes film, then you are depriving yourself of one of the cinemas most truly rewarding experiences, and if you have seen his work, then you realize that every word I said can be applied to just about any of his films. [04/05]

• Mean Girls (2004, USA) Mark S. Waters - Despite having a trailer aimed at herding in droves of 14 year old girls, this film is infused with enough sharp wit to perfectly counterbalance its less appealing mainstream side—call it, mindless cheesy entertainment. Tina Fey, Saturday Night Live’s first female head writer, is responsible for the hilarious script based on a New York Times story. Fey seems right at home in the teen genre and even her role as a young teacher who wants to appear hip to her students seems dead on. The film never manages to bite off more than it can chew; its handling of teen homosexuality for instance is wisely glossed over rather than reflected upon. Mark Waters, the director of one of last year’s most entertaining teen comedies Freaky Friday, once again manages to work wonders with the popular Lindsay Lohan.The tongue in cheek cinematography seems to have noticed that the 17 year old has had some breast augmentation since her last role and is hardly shy in pointing this fact out--and possibly make a case for other members of the plastic cast. Over time this film may earn a place next to other great teen pictures such as Clueless and Fast Times at Ridgemont High, even if like a similarly themed The Breakfast Club, the ending is a total copout. *** a must see (theatrical screening) [05/04]

• Motorama (Barry Shils, 1991)- A 10 year old boy cracks his piggy bank, steals his father's Mustang, and heads out on an R rated cross-country adventure where he becomes obsessed with collecting promotional Motorama cards given out by participating gas stations. This is easily one of the most refreshing and original films I have seen in a while. Many people will be put off by the bizarre story, which might explain why it's taken me almost 12 years to catch up with this gem of a movie, but others should find it ingenious. This is light-hearted David Lynch in way, dark yet revealing and always original. A hard movie to track down, but if you get the chance to see it, don't pass this up for anything. *** [10/03]

• Mr. Vampire (1985, Hong Kong) Ricky Lau - A damn fun Hong Kong action/comedy, this set off a wave sequels and spin-offs in what became to be known as the “Hopping Vampire” sub-genre. A group of bumbling martial artists protect a small community from the invasion of a vampire plague by relying on an array of obscure Chinese mysticisms that includes holding your breath and something called “sticky rice.” The brilliant choreography is both a throwback to the classic Wu Xia Pan of the Shaw Brothers Studios and a zany live-action version of a Tex Avery cartoon. If you are new to this, like I was, I suspect you will be hunting down the sequels. Highly recommend. - *** a must see [11/04]

• My Little Eye (2002, UK) Marc Evans - Maybe one or two people can recall an unfamiliar face that was on the cover of Sight & Sound about a year and a half ago along with Mike Leigh and Lynne Ramsay for an article promoting a new wave of talented UK directors. The mystery man was director Mark Evans. To think they couldn’t come up with a third person for that photo (perhaps Jonathan Glazer was busy?) is utterly ridiculous. That image will forever be seared in my mind as the photographic representation of the current drought that British cinema is experiencing. My Little Eye is the film Evans made that earned him that magazine cover. The premise is interesting—5 people sign up for a web cam show where they live in a secluded house for 6 months—as long as everyone remains for the full amount of time, they win a million dollars. Outside influences, such as a letter informing that one contestant’s Grandfather has passed away show up, raising the question “Is this real, or just a trick to get us to lose the game?” Eventually a gun comes in the mail… It’s funny that no matter how creative and contemporary these digital age horror films try to feel, in the end they always regress into formulaic horror scenarios that have been around for decades. Evans directs the proceedings in a style not unlike the recent multi-screen experiments of Mike Figgis. This excess of style and an attractive young cast keeps the proceedings watchable, but the lack of substance and original ideas means you won’t be remembering this one a week later. - * has redeeming facet [10/04]

• Napoleon Dynamite (2004, USA) Jared Hess - For the past 6 years or so, a group of American directors have been releasing features that are distinctly their own. Wes Anderson, Vincent Gallo, Alexander Payne, P.T. Anderson, Sofia Coppola, Harmony Korine, and Spike Jonze are some of the names that spring immediately to mind. Jared Hess’s hilarious new feature Napoleon Dynamite is a love child to most of the aforementioned names—an independent feature of assured brilliance and deadpan wit. The biggest influence here is obviously Wes Anderson and this should become apparent the second you see the inspired opening credit sequence. If the films of Charlie Chaplin are comparable to the works of Da Vinci, then this film might constitute a daydreaming teenager doodling in his notebook during 5th period study hall—and I mean this as a compliment. This film seems to spring directly from Hess’ subconscious—everything about the costumes, the way that the characters speak, the year in which the film is set, and even the age of the characters themselves is indeterminate and instead exists as a hodgepodge of various 1970’s, 80’s, and 90’s pop culture clippings. The end result is a perfectly realized, utterly hilarious little film and best of all (many may not agree) it has a heart, something absent from almost every summer film thus far.*** a must see (Theatrical screening) [07/04]

• NEKRomantik (1987, Germany) Jörg Buttgereit - No film that features this much depravity can be entirely worthless; however just don’t ask me to enjoy it. Easily one of the sickest films I’ve come across, the loose narrative has a man who transports corpses for a living, bringing home a heavily decayed body so that he and his girlfriend can use it for wild sex. Director Jörg Buttgereit is obviously out to push our buttons. A man kills his cat, bathes in its blood, and masturbates with its entrails for Christ's sake! John Waters is a rumored fan of the film, which doesn’t surprise me since it basically one-ups him in just about every category (save shit eating). Despite being a hard film to watch, I have to say that anyone interested in the psychologies behind horror cinema can afford to miss this. Sure Buttereit flirts with pornography, he ends his film with a cum shot (albeit a bloody one), but is there really much of a difference between the two genres in the first place? * has redeeming facet [07/04]

• Night of the Living Dead (1990, USA) Tom Savini - Prolific make-up artist Tom Savini (Dawn of the Dead, Day of the Dead) made his directorial debut in this remake of George A. Romero’s 1968 classic. Scripted and Produced by Romero, this mostly comes across as a moneymaking project, despite a couple of interesting twists on the original film. I was most surprised that Savini, given his background, decided not to up the on-screen carnage. Rather than indulge in a few scenes of zombies feasting on flesh, Savini instead keeps the proceedings deeply psychological. The results, although rather unsatisfying, manage to rival the original in its dark view of social hostility. Savini speaks frequently about his experiences as a soldier in Vietnam and how he used to practice make-up effects by replicating the violence he witnessed everyday. If practicing gore was his way to deal with the horrors of the physical, the depressing undertones of this work suggest a means of working out the psychological. ** worth seeing [04/04]

• Possession (1981, France) Andrzej Zulawski - Starts off as a promising thriller about a husband driven mad by his wife’s infidelity, I was consistently reminded of Polanski during the first half of the film. What follows is a muddled mess of screaming fits, doppelgangers, detectives in pink socks, and a sexually active mutant creature. The inventive cinematography and the good looks of Isabelle Adjani kept my interests peaked throughout, but in the end this amounts to nothing more than a collection of interesting ideas that fail to coalesce into anything larger. ** worth seeing [02/04] -- Boy was this initial reaction ever wrong!

• Red Lights (2004, France) Cédric Kahn - *** a must see

  An interesting film for sure, part thriller, part masculinity crisis, you will no doubt be glued to your seat as this suspenseful tale unfolds. A husband and wife take a road trip to pick their children up from summer camp, while an increasing amount of booze and tragic foreshadowing mounts to an unforeseeable detour. Director Cédric Kahn has an innate gift for eliciting brilliant performances from his actors; his earlier film l’Ennui for example was one of the best-acted films of 1998. In this case, the performance by Jean-Pierre Darroussin is a tour-de-force, not just servicing the script, but actually breathing life into this character, and should make you question the validity of such soulless award ceremonies like the Oscars. Kahn is by all means a director to look up if you haven’t already done so. [03/05]

• Saw (2004, USA) James Wan - Average across the board for this one—from the hammed up performances and flashy direction, to the serviceable script and toned down violence. The premise of a single setting works well for horror films (as Cube masterfully demonstrated), but screenwriters Wan and Whannell are never confidant enough in their scenario to confine the events to such a small setting and frequently resort to cross-cutting and a flashback structure that I quickly grew tiresome of. The television series “24” and the ticking countdown recipe for suspense is, for better and for worse, the real inspiration here. ** worth seeing (Theatrical screeing) [11/04]

• Scarlet Diva (Asia Argento, 2001)- Asia Argento, daughter of Italian Horror maestro Dario Argento, wrote, directed, and stars in this deeply personal albeit highly uneven work. Like Fellini's 8 1/2, Argento unpacks her celebrity persona, often blurring the lines between fact and fiction. The rather loose narrative is shot on DV and has Argento playing a young actress stuck in the dark side of the film industry where sex and drugs rein supreme. There are a lot of abrupt tonal shifts into random fucking and attempted rapes that I found tedious, but the lighting and use of sound in the dream sequences share a sharp affinity with her talented father. At the beginning of the film there is a clip where Asia states, that after viewing this film "you may understand me better… but then again you may understand me less." I'll have to agree that in the end I was at a loss to explain what Argento was getting at. One scene however, of Asia examining her body in the mirror, applying make-up and eventually breaking down into tears, perfectly manifests the difference between the celebrity persona vs. the way she sees herself, suggesting evidence of a considerable talent. ** worth seeing [11/03]

• Scooby-Doo 2: Monsters Unleashed (2004, USA) Raja Gosnell - I watched a lot of Scooby-Doo cartoons as a child and for that I can appreciate some of this movie. I can’t for the life of me however figure out why they needed to alter the successful premise of the original series. The mystery gang is now world famous, complete with fancy clothes and elaborate mansions, and much of the childhood innocence from the cartoon series has been exorcised by pop cultural references. The Mystery Machine now comes equipped with fancy “Rims” and cameos by American Idol contestants makes this all seem superfluous. Add to the fact that Shaggy does a “whip-it” and a couple of jokes about homosexuality and pot smoking also show up. Just how old do the filmmakers think their audience is? I yawned and my little nephews laughed from beginning to end…go figure. * has redeeming facet (theatrical screening) [04/04]

• Shadow of a Doubt (1943, USA) Alfred Hitchcock - Despite the brutal nature of Producer David O. Selznick, who at this time was fighting a losing battle trying to break Hitchcock and rob him of his creative control, this remains one of the master’s finest achievements. Everything from the careful editing, to the fragmented lighting, right down to the hallucinatory soundtrack approaches sheer perfection. Most notable as the film that catapulted Hitchcock to godlike status for the young boys at Cahiers du cinema -- Francois Truffaut’s lucid essay on Hitchcock’s thematic use of “the double” remains one of the strongest pieces ever written about the director. For my money, you can’t talk Hitchcock until you’ve seen this at least twice. **** Masterpiece [05/04]

• Shark Skin Man and Peach Hip Girl (1998, Japan) Katsuhito Ishii - Japanese Yakuza films are pretty goddamn amazing these days. This one is only mediocre, although there are flashes of brilliance. The opening sequence is one of the best, featuring more stylized bad guys than I was able to count, each one posing for a photo shoot and modeling an array of kick ass suits and weapons --in a word, being “cool,” and that’s what this movie is all about. The plot is rather incidental, something about some stolen money and vengeful gangsters. A girl gets involved and things progressively move towards a large gunfight, which may I add is totally worth the wait. At only six years old, this film already feels a tad past its shelf life, however Katshito Ishii has proven himself as someone to watch out for. ** worth seeing [07/04]

• Shogun Assassin (1980, Japan) Kenji Misumi - In case you were interested, this is the movie that the Bride’s daughter watches at the end of Kill Bill vol. 2. One of the classics in the Samurai genre, this is actually an export for American consumption that is edited from three superior Japanese films. The Lone Wolf and Cub series is famous for its trademark geysers of blood and sharp widescreen compositions. All of that is evident here, however director Robert Houston has taken Kenji Musumi’s first three entries in the seven part series and robbed them of any interesting storyline. The results are a non-stop festival of carnage that is sure to arouse interest in even casual fans of the genre. I loved every second of it, even if I sorely missed Musumi’s carefully balanced storytelling. Dubbed in English. *** a must see [05/04]

• Sleepaway Camp II: Unhappy Campers (1988, USA) Michael A. Simpson - The absolute worst! I rent these stupid horror films because I have a weak spot for the genre and I find them easy to watch late at night when focusing on a serious film simply isn’t an option. At this point I’m thinking I may have exhausted the selection at my local video store. This “horror film” is never scary, contains hardly any gore, and even lacks that “it’s so bad it’s good” laughable storyline that makes some of these enjoyable. Hell on earth might involve marathon viewings of this piece of shit. • worthless [04/04]

Sling Blade (1996, USA) Billy Bob Thornton - 4th viewing; no change in rating, *** [05/04]

• Slumber Party Massacre (1982, USA) Amy Holden Jones - In many ways this formulaic Halloween spin-off is a minor classic of the genre. The title advertises the few gratuitous breast shots that help sell the film while diverting attention away from director Amy Holden Jones’ sharp feminist sensibility. Don’t think it’s a stretch of the imagination when you see the killer chasing these scantily clad girls with an enormous phallic drill muttering, “I just want to love you.” It is possible to psychoanalyze a film with a dead pizza deliveryman! The ending has a very unique Hitchcockian moment involving a blanket and also manages to turn the “final girl” syndrome on its head. Recommended. *** a must see [03/04]

• Spider-Man 2 (2004, USA) Sam Raimi - The difference between Sam Raimi’s latest comic book adaptation and something like Stephen Sommer’s Van Helsing is phenomenal. It’s like comparing Tiger Wood’s golf game to my own rather meager 15 handicap. This is because even though he displays exquisite control over the CGI effects, Raimi is not afraid to abandon them for a guerrilla style of filmmaking; one that fans of his earlier Evil Dead films should recognize in the form of the “battering ram -- aka Raimi” camera. I’m hesitant to say if this is better than the first film (I think the villain is not as good), but it is every bit as entertaining. Where the first movie was a parable for becoming a man, this one tackles the issue of economics. And once again Kirstin Dunst manages find her way into a soaking wet outfit. Oh darn. - *** a must see [B-] (Theatrical screening) [07/04]

• Super Size Me (2004, USA) Morgan Spurlock - This guy can't direct worth a damn. He's obviously very smart and his film delivers more than enough food for thought, however I am no smarter for having watched this and in the end, the only thing Super Sized in Spurlock's life is his wallet. - ** worth seeing (Theatrical screening) [05/04]

• Them! (1954, USA) Gordon Douglas - Released the same year as Godzilla, this is the first in a long line of Nuclear Age Monster movies—this time around it’s giant ants that have been mutated by Atomic testing and are threatening to take over America. What most impressed me about this able thriller was it’s ability to handle the story on a macro level. Instead of the usual insignificant and secluded town that became a cliché for this cycle of films (Tremors is a decent modern version of this), we get a threat of national proportions. Seen today, in a world where every TV show fantasizes about bio-terrorist outbreaks and containing the threat, this little film is able to speak wonders. Both speak to the fears of a country in the wake of a war, and personally I find giant ants more entertaining than Kiefer Sutherland. *** a must see [04/04]

• Thriller: A Cruel Picture (1974, Sweden) Bo Arne Vibenius - Sometimes referred to as They Call Her One Eye, here is an exploitation picture of the highest order—cheap, offensive, and wholly entertaining. Director Bo Arne Vibenius made this film under a pseudonym--even the cast was sworn to secrecy regarding his identity—and his intent was to make a quick dollar in order to fund something more “artistic.” Vibenius would go on to do nothing else, but his film would survive in various bootleg copies, eventually landing in the hands of a wide-eyed Quentin Tarantino who would base the Elle Driver character from his Kill Bill series entirely on this film. Technically, this is miles above similar rape-revenge films like I Spit on Your Grave, Vibenius has a striking sense for composition and the slow motion he adds to the aestheticized violence is highly evocative of Sam Peckinpah. Viewing the 100-minute extended cut, which includes shots of penetration for when the film screened in porno houses, has a fascinating effect of reminding us of the film’s various derivations while at the same time confronting us with our own social taboos. If you think you can stomach the subject matter, or if you are a fan of the work of Abel Ferrara, prepare to be blown away. *** a must see [10/04]

• Tokyo Ga (Wim Wenders, 1985)- By definition, German director Wim Wenders' earlier films can be described as stories about characters that seem to have wandered into a Sam Fuller or Nicholas Ray film. This 1985 essay film has the director placing himself in Tokyo and documents his failed attempts to find himself in a Yasujiro Ozu film. The results are distinctly German, with Wenders' imagery sharing in the existential malaise of his droll narration, but that’s not the point. This is less a film about Tokyo than it is an endearing tribute to one of the greatest filmmakers of all time. Wenders displays a passion that only a true cineaste can identify with and when Ozu's longtime cameraman begins to shed tears as he recounts his times spent with Ozu, we know we are bearing witness to something special. *** [10/03]

• The Toolbox Murders (2003, USA) Tobe Hooper - ** worth seeing

  It’s nice to see Tobe Hooper (The Texas Chain Saw Massacre) back and working with power tools again. His latest film, essentially a straightforward slasher flick, sees the filmmaker returning to his long absent fascination with cheap lighting effects and grotesquerie make-up. I never thought I’d say this, but it’s a tad refreshing to see a slasher film getting made. After the horror market became watered-down in the late eighties, slasher films essentially died off (as an aside, a quite similar trend is taking shape these days with imitation Japanese ghost stories), but taken in small doses these films can be quite entertaining. I wish there was more of a script here, but the execution is nice and there are quite a few gory indulgences. It has been posited before, but I must say it again—one has to wonder if Hooper and other filmmakers of his era (Romero, Craven, Carpenter) still take filmmaking very seriously. I know these guys are capable of better. [03/05]

• Twister (1990, USA) Michael Almereyda - Not to be confused with the Helen Hunt film of the same name, this eccentric and little seen comedy had me laughing my ass off from beginning to end. The story deals with a bizarre family, headed by father/playboy Harry Dean Stanton, who made millions in the Mini-golf and Soda Pop industry. His children all have problems – Suzy Amis plays Maureen, the alcoholic daughter who is sheltering her child and the always incredible Crispin Glover turns in perhaps his most bizarre performances as her wannabe musician brother. Worlds collide when Chris (Dylan McDermott) comes into town, carrying a twister on his heels, and a plan to rescue his daughter from the troubled family by winning back the heart of her mother Maureen. The humor is a strange mix of David Lynch, Hal Hartley, and the Coen brothers. How director Almeryda got everyone in sync with such a comedic recipe is beyond me, but the film is all the better because of it. A lightweight gem of a movie that deserves its own minor cult following. Don’t miss the terrific cameo by writer William S. Burroughs firing .45’s in a barn. *** a must see [05/04]

• The Ugly (1997, New Zealand) Scott Reynolds - * has redeeming facet [11/04]

  A very silly horror film from New Zealand about a serial killer recounting his murders in flashback to a criminal psychiatrist who is trying to determine if he is sane or not. Even if like yours truly, you find yourself getting the chills over the sight of a straight razor being run through human flesh, you won’t find yourself very shaken by any of this. All of the blood in the film is rendered to look like black ink—some kind of profound statement into the killer’s psyche that eluded me, and by the time the grand finale rolls around everything is wallowing in enough Dressed to Kill nostalgia to induce groans.
• The Unbelievable Truth (1989, USA) Hal Hartley - *** a must see [08/04]
  The first film from Long Island poet laureate Hal Hartley still has the director searching for a visual style, but his trademark dialogue is still in full effect. Hartley, who may be our country’s finest screenwriter, is noted for the Bressonian detachment he requires from his actors when reading their lines. Scenes consist of the actor’s ambivalent performances, with hardly any rapport amongst the players as they wax philosophy and prophesize the end of the world. Adrienne Shelly stars as an intelligent young girl with dreams of literature who is trapped by her mechanic father and his wishes for her future. Things get shaken up when Robert Burke’s character comes back to town after serving a lengthy jail sentence for killing two people years earlier. A love story develops and a great many people are “pushed” and deals are “struck” in between. Hartley’s script, as always, makes the proceedings compulsively watchable and at times deliriously profound.

Unbreakable (2000, USA) M. Night Shyamalan - * has redeeming facet [09/04]

• Uncle Sam (1997, USA) William Lustig
  If the name Larry Cohen is unfamiliar to you then I suggest doing your homework and checking out a few other films before viewing this. For those of you who are familiar with the hardworking screenwriter/producer/director’s work, then the recent DVD release of this Cohen scripted slasher film was probably a welcomed delight. The story deals with an American soldier, killed by friendly fire in the Gulf War, who comes back from the dead to kill unpatriotic anti-war citizens in a small community on the 4th of July. Like Bob Clark’s masterful and similarly themed horror film Deathdream, here is a contemporary take on the effects that war can have on the domestic household. By no means a great film--director William Lustig goes for an over the top, fireworks filled ending that I could have done without--it’s the disturbing themes underlying Cohen’s script that manages to keep this entertaining. *** a must see [08/04]

• The Unknown (1927, USA) Tod Browning - What can you say about a film where a man poses as an armless knife thrower in a circus, falls in love with a woman who is taken by his apparent handicap, and then cuts off his real arms in order to marry her, which also happens to be one of the most affecting and bizarre silent features I have ever seen? Director Tod Browning’s fascination with the macabre is in full effect and foreshadows his later masterpiece Freaks (1932). The ever enigmatic and equally macabre Lon Chaney stars. Easily one of the best films I've seen in a long time. **** Masterpiece [05/04]

• The Village (2004, USA) M. Night Shayamalan - A lot of the same stuff from twist ending provocateur M. Night Shyamalan, however some astute political undertones rises this one above the rest. As usual the script is shoddy and the characters are plagued with afflictions that serve as plot devices. Also customary to a Shymalan film is his flair for cockeyed framing, offscreen space and impacting sound to enforce impending dread. Everything grandly spirals towards the big twist ending, which in the case of this film, is quite a bit different from his usual works. In this case the horror is a reality that is our own, the effect of which is like waking from a dream only to find that it wasn’t a dream—a prospect ten times scarier than seeing dead people. *** a must see (Theatrical screening) [08/04]

• Werckmeister Harmonies (2000, Hungary) Béla Tarr - Every shot is a masterpiece. I was fairly certain of this after the first reel… 145 min. later I was speechless. This ranks amongst the greatest I have ever seen. Tarr is a filmmaker of assured brilliance and a master craftsman. More comments coming as I watch it again and again. **** Masterpiece [03/04]

Films Seen in June 2005

Films Seen in July 2005

Films Seen in September 2005

Films Seen in October 2005