Berlinale Journal, Day 2
February 9th, 2008
The second installment of my Berlinale Journal is up, covering Shine a Light, Wonderful Town, Leo, and In Love We Trust.
The Treasure of the Sierra Madre
January 13th, 2008
Occasioned by There Will Be Blood, this revisit was slightly disappointing. My childhood memories of this film were absolutely devastating — I’d probably never seen a tragic anti-hero before — but some of the changes the characters go through feel forced by contemporary standards. Walter Huston’s Oscar-winning turn as leathery gold digger is very amusing and certainly informs Plainview.
The Treasure of the Sierra Madre. John Huston, 1948. ****
The World of Henry Orient
January 15th, 2007
Two rascally girlfriends, New York City in the early Sixties, and Peter Sellers as frustrated lover: this movie should have been candy, but I couldn’t get over how ridiculously outdated it felt–the music, the “oh golly gees,” the “zany” humor. If I had come across it at the right age, I’m sure I would have loved this movie, but five years after Ghost World, it struck me as unbearably cute. Additional confession: I have very mixed feelings about Peter Sellers. When he’s great, he’s great (Dr. Strangelove, Pink Panther)–but his mannered obnoxiousness can also drive me up the walls, and not in a good way.
The World of Henry Orient. George Roy Hill, 1964. **
[tags]films, 2 stars, nyc, girlfriends, peter sellers, george roy hill, comedy[/tags]
Mulholland Dr.
October 8th, 2006
Had to watch this a few times after Inland Empire, just to regain a certain amount of sanity: it still makes a heck of a lot more sense than the latest three-hour freakout, especially if you take a look at some of the theories. Allen B Ruch’s “No Hay Banda” does a good job at teasing out some of what’s going on, and if that’s not enough, there’s an entire site dedicated to the film. I always thought that dreamlogic should stay dreamlogic, and while some of these theories go a long way toward making sense of Diane/Betty/Camilla/Rita (and even the Blue Box), Lynch included too many loose ends that will stick in your craw no matter how you try to resolve them. An astonishing movie that gets ever more astonishing the harder you try to unravel it. There’s a wholeness to it that I couldn’t see in Inland Empire after one viewing, and it looks stunning: it’d be a damn shame if Lynch really gave up film for DV.
Mulholland Dr., David Lynch, 2001. *****
[tags]mulholland drive, naomi watts, david lynch, hollywood, films, 5 stars, surreal, dreamlogic[/tags]
Volver
October 5th, 2006
Perhaps being force-fed wouldn’t be so bad if they gave you time to chew? The New York Film Festival is in its third week now, and I can feel myself getting numb. I still watch, but it seems harder and harder to get my head around the movies, or cram them into a few pithy paragraphs. Maybe it’s just the aftershocks from Inland Empire, I don’t know. In any case, I’ll leave reviewing Volver to Marcy and just say that it’s my favorite of the recent Almodovars.
Maybe I’ll put some clips from the press conference on YouTube later.
Volver. Pedro Almodovar, 2006. ****
[tags]nyff, films, volver, pedro almodovar, 4 stars[/tags]
