Rocco and his Brothers (1960) – Visconti’s
epically sad tale of the city’s toll, forcing a painful reckoning of familial
gains and losses
Detachment (2011) – a diverting mix: two
parts the fiery, committed, resourceful "Lake of Fire" Tony Kaye, to
one part the notorious nutball
Ginger and Fred (1986) – a resigned,
unforced evocation of Fellini’s circus of life; the transience of it all is a
large part of the point
And Everything is Going Fine (2010) –
Soderbergh’s perfectly judged commemoration of Spalding Gray, entirely in
Gray's own recorded words
Carry
on Camping (1969) – has the core cast at their most comfortable and emblematic;
flies by as rapidly and classily as a propelled bikini
Bob le Flambeur (1957) – less stylized than
most of Melville’s later films, but entirely as magnificently calibrated, both
mythic and humane
Carnage (2011) – highly engrossing for
Polanski’s drolly painstaking control of the elements and of its constantly shifting
equilibrium
The
House of Mirth (2000) – a quietly devastating study in cruelty &
sociological complexity, poignant for Davies’ lost decade in its wake
The
Herd (1979) – a film that feels torn from Turkey’s land and heart, an
increasingly powerful portrait of its fractures and corruptions
The
Baron of Arizona (1950) – a great yarn, although Fuller’s cinematic fist had
yet to fully clench (take the soft ending in particular)
A Complete History of my Sexual Failures
(2008) – fills time well enough, but as filmic essays go, not exactly in Chris
Marker territory
Le
dejeuner sur l’herbe (1959) – Renoir’s fantasia on France’s (and Europe’s) soul
in an age of “progress” – odd, and oddly prophetic
Straw
Dogs (2011) – the original’s mesmerizing strangeness is smoothed down
throughout. leaving just another efficiently repulsive mutt
Lola (1961) – Demy’s beautiful reverie on
love and chance; places one foot in the limitations of reality, the other in
dreams, never tumbles
The Long Day Closes (1992) – superbly
clear-eyed cinematic poetry, true to memory's odd contours without ever seeming
remotely indulgent
Beats Rhymes & Life: The Travels of a
Tribe Called Quest (2011) – peppy, but without much perspective; sticks mostly
inside the beat box
Leaves
from Satan’s Book (1921) – early Dreyer meditation on the complexity of evil,
full of interest, but lacks his later expressive power
The
Sterile Cuckoo (1969) – Minnelli is sometimes touching, but the movie
(unrecognizable as Pakula’s) too often turns away from the dark
Zidane: a 21st Century Portrait (2006) –
intriguingly captures a loneliness within the hubbub, while strenuously aiming
for the gallery wall
Sunrise
(1927) – it’s still miraculous how Murnau intertwines the specific & the
transcendent; at times the film’s capacity feels limitless
Gambit
(1966) – a pleasant, modestly inventive dawdle, but with the rather stodgy
affect typical of secondary star vehicles of the time
Once
Upon a Time in Anatolia (2011) – an increasingly impressive reflection on the
eternal multiplicity of human fictions and fallibilities
I
Shot Jesse James (1948) – terrifically paced, concentrated Fuller version of
the Bob Ford tale, its tone cast in anguish and self-loathing
Death
Line (1973) – not a big deal, but a witty, well-considered injection of
gruesome urban mythology into mundane, unadorned Britishness
The
Red and the White (1967) – Jancso’s starkly beautiful, immense vision of
turmoil, capturing both mankind’s magnificence and its futility
Damsels in Distress (2011) – a quietly
intense project in deconstruction & strangifying; its hermeticism at times
both a strength & weakness
I vinti (1953) – relatively early, episodic
Antonioni, with more of a sense of rolled-up sleeves, but filled with his
intelligent precision
Warrior
(2011) – well, you didn’t come here to find something new; ridiculous in the
usual ways, but well-grounded and moving in others
Carry
on Loving (1970) – funny by its own standards (which rely a lot on repression
& drabness) - thank God if those standards aren’t yours
JCVD (2008) – has its moments, quite deftly
handled, but doesn't amount to much given Van Damme's inherent limitations and
insignificance
Pulp
(1972) – surprisingly pleasurable in its knowing incoherence, radiating
laid-back imagination and delight in invention and storytelling
The
Hawks and the Sparrows (1966) – very peculiar, funny but despairing,
deliberately largely ungraspable in its fable of inherent confusion
The
Deep Blue Sea (2011) – spellbinding for its delicacy and control; in Davies’
hands the smallest of films can feel like the largest
Barcelona
(1994) – very interesting, funny reflection on the necessity and limitations of
sex, family, country, structures, theories, etc.
Story
of a Prostitute (1965) – for all its frequent despairing expressive power, most
of the thematic and emotional space is familiar
Cold
Weather (2010) – a generation where established meaning no longer holds; being
Sherlock Holmes is as plausible as having a real career
Days
of 36 (1972) – seems to me to verge at times on very bleak deadpan comedy, to
reveal the odd kinship between Angelopoulous and Tati
Outrage
(2009) – a bit inconsistent & possibly opportunistic in its thesis, despite
one’s sympathy for the examination of extreme hypocrisy
Le diable par la queue (1969) – seemingly
intended as a madcap send-up of the useless, venal nobility; mostly feels like
watching old drapes
Singles (1992) – pleasantly loose, unforced
and flavorful, although Crowe’s observations are mostly either contrived or
else unremarkable
Jericho (1937) – a crammed portrayal of a
black man’s ascendancy; progressive and compromised in ways that can hardly be
disentangled
Conte
d’automne (1998) – another beautiful precisely calibrated Rohmer examination of
relationships, musing on what’s innate versus imposed
Friends
with Benefits (2011) – cheekily parodies some Hollywood clichés while chewing
lustily on others, but at least everyone looks great
Das Testament des
Dr. Mabuse (1933) – stunning vision of crime and madness; the pessimism easily
outweighs the notional victory of the good
Jesus
Camp (2006) – anthropologically interesting for sure; some of the kids seem
pretty happy, but I came out the same heathen I was before
Diary of a Country Priest (1950) – other
Bresson films speak to me more directly, but this may be his most quietly
complex and deeply felt
Beginners
(2011) – ooh, isn’t life big and tough and scary and yet kind of, uh, sweet,
and look how nicely and quirkily I captured all that
The Coward (1965) – an appealing Satyajit
Ray miniature, illuminating both personal missteps and the stranglehold of
societal expectations
Some
Like it Hot (1959) – a terrifically maintained, if knowingly rather grotesque
comic machine, by no means Wilder’s most resonant work..
Little White Lies (2010) – a French Big
Chill of sorts; for all the glossiness and superficial skill, wearily
over-calculated and artificial
The
Last Hurrah (1958) – mostly warm-hearted dawdling & remembrance - it's a
bit poignant its class-sensitive politics are still so relevant
Carry
on England (1976) – lamentably old, tired and joyless; everyone seems too
disengaged even ever to think of sex, let alone have any
Footnote (2011) – not ultimately such a
major film, but enjoyably different, like taking time off to attend an
enjoyably peppy seminar
The Man who would be King (1975) – perhaps
Huston’s finest film, an adventure story with immense pictorial grandeur and
behavioral relish
From the East (1993) – with great quiet
intelligence, forces us to question our reading of the images & our sense
of the underlying culture
Night
Nurse (1931) – terrifically crisp, sexy, often cold-blooded illustration of the
pre-Code sensibility, and of Stanwyck’s magnificence
Made
in Dagenham (2010) – sacrifices grit and heart for easy formula; the movie
might have trundled off the same assembly line it depicts
Padre Padrone (1977) – an interesting
personal journey to enlightenment, quirkier and more lightly experimental than
one might remember
Exposed (1983) – completely fascinating,
odd and provocative; an artistic stream of consciousness barely possible in
American cinema now
The Umbrellas of Cherbourg (1964) – the
loveliest and most perfect (although not most complex) film by one of the
directors I most cherish
Game
Change (2012) – the movie is largely efficiently glossy, even amiable, assembly
and memory-jogging - you supply your own revulsion
Pleasures of the Flesh (1965) – a lesser
Oshima, ultimately mainly an exercise in bitter irony, but still startlingly
well-articulated
Take Shelter (2011) – a horror movie of the
most productive, resonant kind, calibrating modern American insecurities to the
nearest dollar
Ordet (1955) – beautifully strange
meditation on faith and knowledge, and how our dogma and culture may only
obscure our sense of them
The Last Detail (1973) – grimly suggests
the dehumanizing distortions of military culture; so darkly unadorned it seems
almost radical now
Barbarella (1968) – generates some
nostalgia for a time when a movie could be so confidently shabby and shoddy,
but that’s about it
A
Better Life (2011) – engages more from one’s preexisting sympathy for the
immigrant experience than from any inherent skill or insight
Where is Liberty? (1954) – easy to imagine
this as a standard star-driven comedy, but Rossellini makes it surprisingly
socially resonant
Only Angels Have Wings (1939) – maybe
Hawks’ most perfect self-expression, told with breathtaking behavioral and
existential momentum
Heartbreaker (2010) – prime example of
France beating Hollywood at its own game: utterly weightless, but the
calculations mostly don't grate
Magnum
Force (1973) – easy nostalgic diversion, despite a pervasive lack of subtlety
and style and of any kind of analytical sensibility
The Crucified Lovers (1954) – so
extraordinarily calibrated and well-told, the immense underlying social
complexity might almost evade you
Filming ‘Othello’ (1978) – a wonderful late
expression of Welles’ personality & creative force, if rather poignant for
its modesty of means
The Beekeeper (1986) – much as if
Angelopoulous was aspiring for the prototypical European “art house” picture
(Mastroianni, young nudity..)
Rampart (2011) – hardly entirely
successful, but constantly fascinating, bursting at the seams with
incoherencies, implications and oddities
Sanders of the River (1935) – barely
watchable as drama, but a grimly informative illustration of colonial attitudes
and insecurities
Lacombe Lucien (1974) – extremely
skillfully, sensitively controlled by Malle, but less cinematically exciting
than Black Moon for instance
If a Tree Falls (2011) – a bit short of
broader analysis, but maybe we’re so hopeless at this point that any analysis
could only be a sham
The Nun (1966) – atypical for Rivette, but
evidencing his interest in incoherent earthly structures and their toll, on
women in particular
The Killing of a Chinese Bookie (1976) –
fascinating, though Cassavetes is less focused here on expression than
suppression & displacement
Seraphine (2008) – although interesting
enough on its own terms, dwarfed by Pialat’s Van Gogh as an evocation of time,
place and artistry
Under the Volcano (1984) – rather
heavy-going chronicle, usually interesting for Finney’s showiness, but
ultimately not very meaningful
Ceddo (1977) – gorgeous Senegalese film
about a village jihad, stylistically almost unprecedented, but also still
startlingly relevant
50/50 (2011) – constantly pleasant, but
calibrates the pain and messiness too carefully, becoming meaninglessly arbitrary and forgettable
Sauve qui peut (la vie) (1980) – constantly
satisfying, even weirdly beguiling, as it deconstructs art, commerce...well,
almost everything
Four Lions (2010) – a foul-mouthed suicide
bomber comedy, often funny, quietly scary for its take on the "existential
threat"'s mundanity
The Exile (1947) – nonsensical as history,
and certainly thinner than Ophuls’ greatest works, but still captivatingly
beautiful at times
In Darkness (2011) – largely
undistinguished presentation of important material, obscuring truth and meaning
with constantly lame choices
The Anderson Tapes (1971) – a secondary
Lumet movie, but still with more substance & individuality than most
American films can harness now
Van Gogh (1991) – a fascinating evocation
of the man, but highly attuned to how the man will ultimately be subsumed by
myth and commerce
Island of Lost Souls (1932) – terrifically
grotesque, the early-Hollywood limitations actually weirdly nurturing the
twisted creation theme
Machete Maidens Unleashed! (2010) – quite a
bit less rewarding than its Australian predecessor, but with the same
underlying giddy romance
The Mirror (1975) – a precursor of sorts to
Tree of Life, but even less compromising, envisaging a memory-cinema as
unrestricted as a poem
Passion Play (2010) – not quite as
unwatchable as some claimed, but everything about the movie squeaks heavily of
training wheels (or wings)
Circle of Deceit (1981) – gripping
evocation of Beirut, but increasingly weighed down by writerly notions that
ultimately illuminate little
We Need to Talk about Kevin (2011) –
powerfully visualizes all-consuming trauma and bewilderment, easily
transcending echoes of (say) Orphan
Under Capricorn (1949) – a deliberately
paced but rich study in psychological trauma, drawing on the sense of a land
still in formation
Flowers of
Shanghai (1998) – a rigorously unerotic, mesmerizing film about brothels,
meshing desire, calculation, convention, oppression..
Starting Over (1979) – Pakula tries to do
for romantic comedy what he already did for urban paranoia, with intriguingly
peculiar results
Leon Morin,
pretre (1961) – one of the most galvanizing of films "about"
religion, astoundingly rich in (tightly-controlled) implication
The Whistleblower (2010) – a very
well-maintained expose of institutional evil, somewhat limited by its
conventional narrative strategies
L'amour en
fuite (1979) – pleasantly nostalgic, seemingly reflecting Truffaut’s
contentment with (or resignation to) the state of things
Celebrity (1998) – pretty diverting
overall, not least for Branagh's car wreck performance, but with an unusually
inert center for Allen
A nos
amours (1983) – a vital text on female sexuality and self-definition; few
movies match Pialat’s scintillating emotional contours
Bad Teacher (2011) – if she was bad like
the Keitel bad lieutenant was bad, and with real sick laughs, then it might be
on to something...
Flavor of Green Tea over Rice (1952) –
rarely for Ozu, the conciliatory ending is less persuasive than the earlier
portrayal of fractures
Night Moves (1975) – one of the best 70's
genre films - a detective investigation that illuminates a whole clueless
country and culture
Three
Resurrected Drunkards (1968) – almost bewilderingly loopy at times, but deadly
serious about the grim price of imperialist folly
The
Interrupters (2011) – a vivid, moving documentary, about an America almost
incalculably far removed from the deranged political debate
La vie est
un roman (1983) – a strategically absurd fantasia on the tussle between
imagination and education, our capacities and limitations
Mr. Arkadin (1955) – Welles reconfigures
Citizen Kane’s brilliant investigation (almost as brilliantly) for a time of
paranoia & confusion
Tyrannosaur (2011) – a volatile,
mesmerizingly well-acted (if ultimately a bit thematically limited) treatment
of broadly familiar territory
L’amour braque (1985) – perhaps the film
where diminishing returns seriously start to set in on Zulawski’s stylish
exercises in extremity
City Lights (1931) – a lot of it is
conventional Chaplin, not to say that’s peanuts, but the ending really is
transcendent (I cried again…)
Black Venus (2010) – an unsparing,
chillingly fascinating examination of exploitation, indicting culture &
science (& our viewership) alike
The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp (1943) –
gorgeously articulates the limitations of Englishness, while also embodying its
abiding virtues
Mikey and Nicky (1976) – feels much like a
Cassavetes movie, but somewhat tougher-minded, more preoccupied by an
underlying malignancy
A Separation (2011) – the ambiguity has its
contrived aspects, but still compelling for how it explores the complexities of
Iranian culture
Super (2010) – a home-made superhero yarn
that often plays like an anguished, violent character study; bemusing, but
weirdly good in parts
Orphee (1950) – a wonderful reverie on
poetic inspiration and identity, with an entirely unique blend of fancifulness
and practicality
I Spit on Your Grave (2010) – you hate how
unflinchingly effective this is; feels classier (but perhaps not truer) to view
it as a metaphor
The Moon in the Gutter (1983) – many
glorious moments, especially when pushing to the extreme, but overall an
incompletely realized vision
Fear and Desire (1953) – despite its
poverty of means, has a powerful Kubrickian sense of war as a moral labyrinth
born in human inadequacy
Attack the Block (2011) – a pretty cool
deal - a tight, accomplished monster movie and a credible piece of social
observation, all in one!
Chinese
Roulette (1976) – bourgeois Germany's poisonous loose ends shaken up and
bottled; the kind of film Fassbinder could do in his sleep
A Dangerous Method (2011) – brilliantly
rigorous, seeped in implication, quivering with the sense of modern ideology
painfully taking shape
Le lieu du
crime (1986) – a strong example of Techine’s evasive complexity; easy to
overlook the quiet radicalism of its rejection of norms
Margin Call
(2011) – plays flashily, often grippingly with the cream of a fiendishly
complex situation; leaves what's below mostly untouched
Playtime
(1967) – my favorite Tati, dense with details, patterns, cross-references,
alive to both modernity's possibilities and its lacks
Forever
Mine (1999) – unrecognizable as Schrader’s, except for a wan obsession theme;
lacks the energy to make a virtue of the absurdity
Secret Sunshine (2007) – a film of great
humanity and awareness, subtly but firmly critiquing the easy blather about
closure and coping
Ganja & Hess (1973) – revolutionary,
genre-transcending vampire movie is also a rich meditation on black identity,
provocative at every turn
Pina (2011)
– a near-miracle after two decades of unproductive, grating Wenders gyrations;
made me engage with dance as I never have before
Source Code
(2011) – one of those concept-dense movies that’s glossily clever but not very
intelligent, ending up merely fancifully loopy
Landscape after Battle (1970) – effective
at evoking the depth of trauma and confusion, but the calculated artistry sits
rather heavily now
The Adjustment Bureau (2011) – dubious
theology (oh sure, belief is all about free will), but great star chemistry,
and good use of hats
L’amour a mort (1984) – an elegantly
devastating reflection on the limitations of conventional discourse, and a key
text about suicide
Tinker
Tailor Soldier Spy (2011) – admirably controlled, but this moral labyrinth is
so well-explored already, hardly a new turn remains
The Housemaid (2010) – very interesting, if
a bit limited; the evolution from the 1960 version eloquently indicts the
widening social chasm
Shame (2011) – fascinating but utterly
overwrought, a Spielberg movie for artisans; the hectoring title (why not, uh,
"Glee"?!) says a lot
Roselyne et les lions (1989) – stunning
lion taming sequences: the rest is variable and surprisingly conventional, but
I can’t say I minded!
Bananas (1971) – funny enough of course,
but feels more now like leafing through a formative notebook than like watching
a realized movie
The Lost Son (1999) – doesn’t dishonor its
terrifying subject, but the genre clutter is especially hard to take in the
circumstances
The Artist (2011) – a pristinely engaging,
even endearing oddity, especially when it uses silence as a strategy, not just
a condition
Inferno (1980) – a diverting, tactile
vision of all-consuming malignancy, although Argento’s visions never seem as
potent as, say, Fulci’s
The Muppets (2011) - a happy enough
Christmas compromise, especially if you enjoy old photos of the likes of Rich
Little (and don’t you?)
The Devil (1972) – a scabrous,
politically-charged vision of degradation, where the only hope of avoiding hell
lies in man lacking a soul
Young Adult (2011) – lots of terrific
observation and a striking cruel streak; suggests an even more fascinating,
bleaker road not taken
The Illusionist (2010) – evokes Tati’s
screen persona, but doesn’t otherwise feel like a Tati film, rendering the
point a bit mysterious
Funny Face (1957) – a beautiful and joyous
musical; for me it's perhaps the film best capturing Audrey Hepburn’s
ethereally fragile appeal
L’Amour l’apres-midi (1972) – one of
Rohmer’s most alluring films, a wonderful study in bourgeois diminishment of
the capacity for action
The Ward (2010) – draws solidly and
creepily on a long iconography of women oppressed by medicine, but the ending
is woefully generic
Spies (1928) – Lang creates a sense of
magnificent unreliability, of capitalistic advancement scheming absurdly,
helplessly against itself
Hugo (2011) – Scorsese’s most cherishable
picture in years; a dazzling feast of cinema, in generous commemoration of its
origins
La femme publique (1984) – never achieves
the alchemy of Zulawski’s best, feeling mostly rather sterile and distant, for
all its provocation
Hanna (2011) – a fairy-tale for
dehumanized, violent times; stylish and polished until it gleams, but
essentially utterly silly and useless
I Only Want You to Love Me (1976) – more
grimly resonant than ever in depicting how the math of a working man’s life
just doesn’t add up
The Descendants (2011) – full of intriguing
variations on familial parameters and responsibilities, but limited in its
range and insights
Coup de torchon (1981) – a great little
drama, laconically depicting escalating madness as a mirror for the perversions
of colonialism
Unstoppable (2010) – an impressive exercise
in physicality, raw industrial power, human limits, although with mostly
conventional intentions
Le beau Serge (1958) – fascinating early
Chabrol, with much terrific observation and flavour; less successful in its
climactic spirituality
Family Diary (1962) – unusually somber and
quietly anguished, defined by death and lost possibilities, and so knowingly
embracing monotony
Limitless (2011) – entertaining in riffing
on the material possibilities of enhanced capacity, but the inner life goes
mostly unexamined
Violence at Noon (1966) –as fluidly bleak
as any of Oshima’s movies, daring to posit double suicide as the only viable
reward of love..
Possession (1981) – weirdly compelling
parable of stagnation & renewal (sort of), built around fabulously
outrageous scenes from a marriage
J. Edgar (2011) – an unusually quiet, oddly
moving meditation on history, reflecting on the human frailty that drives the
exercise of power
Sous le soleil de Satan (1987) – the film
tempts us to read it too easily, reflecting our fallible tracing of God’s hand,
and the devil’s..
Beeswax (2009) – engaging and
well-observed, quite distinctive, but still a bit of a flyweight, lacking much
thematic or existential impact
Fear of Fear (1975) – Fassbinder’s eerily
well-controlled study of “mental illness” and its rationality as a coping
strategy for a drab life
Two Weeks in Another Town (1962) – a
piercing Minnelli melodrama of exile and displacement, cunningly straddling the
exotic and the downbeat
L’important c’est d’aimer (1975) – like a
Cassavetes film with bruised lipstick, on the necessity of extremity and pain
in locking down love
Bill Cunningham New York (2010) – a
pleasant chronicle of a decent man, but with no critical edge; about as
important as last year's fashion
Blood Relatives (1978) – Chabrol in
Montreal, seeming too preoccupied by logistics to make this much more than a
perfunctory investigation
Melancholia (2011) – audacious by any
measure, often stunning; I could imagine some restless soul responding to it as
to nothing before
The Blacksmith (1922) – vivacious (if
scattershot and fanciful) Keaton short, with enormous inventiveness and a
terrific sense of pace
Equinox Flower (1958) – Ozu’s beautifully
observed study of the inevitable capitulation of old men to the gentle strength
of young women
Down by Law (1986) – a deadpan parable of
existential repositioning, perfectly attuned to its raw ingredients (maybe
Benigni in particular)
The Pearls of the Crown (1937) – quite the
narrative banquet, full of inventive charm, but its impact is ultimately
somewhat superficial
A Letter to Three Wives (1949) –
irresistibly witty and poised, and sharp-eyed about the compromises entailed by
the plush American Dream
SS Experiment Love Camp (1976) -
bastardizing the moral decay of the Nazis to no good end, much of the time the
film seems barely conscious
Submarine (2010) – a transplanted Annie
Hall of sorts, crammed with minutely observed subtleties, flights of fancy,
unconventional beauty..
The Third Part of the Night (1971) –
strange, dislocating film on the degradation of war, both gruesomely intimate
and wrenchingly visionary
Starting out in the Evening (2007) – very
engrossing, surprisingly thematically and psychologically intricate, with a
radiant Lauren Ambrose
Love Affair…the Missing Switchboard
Operator (1967) – note Makavejev’s considerable sensitivity, often undervalued
relative to his daring
One Night Stand (1997) – Figgis sure knows
how to polish and jazzify conventional material, but falls short of working
miracles with it
Attenberg (2010) – interesting if limited
study of identity & the finding of one’s self, drawing much resonance from
its bleak Greek setting
We Can’t Go Home Again (1976?) – a vital
component of Ray’s overall artistic legend, by design almost impossible to
anchor oneself within
Bitter Rice (1949) – perhaps crude if
compared to Rossellini’s work of the period, but immensely pictorial, powerful,
sexy and evocative
Love and other Drugs (2010) – uses up all
its relative daring on the raunchy stuff, leaving everything else too often
unfocused and bland
The Round Up (1966) – often feels like
Kafka on the plains; masterfully done, although you respond as much to its
theory as its practice
Page Eight (2011) – engrossing for its
laconic articulacy, until its essential narrative thinness and familiar
morality become inescapable
The Hypothesis of the Stolen Painting
(1979) – Ruiz is the most brilliant, if difficult, antidote to an easy,
complacent mainstream cinema
Lost in America (1985) – very nicely and
concisely exploring the compromise and existential sacrifice at the heart of
what we call “success”
Le Havre (2011) – a very pleasant,
elevating tale of community and everyday miracles, emphasizing the weight of
every moment and connection
Bridesmaids (2011) – some nice invention
& observation; certainly capable of being more biting & affecting, but
then doesn't want to be
The Profession of Arms (2001) – a heavy-going
study in the bygone processes and ethics of war; more interesting in theory
than actuality
Night on Earth (1991) – so cool and easy to
take, you could overlook the existential precision, how death increasingly
occupies the fabric..
Barbe Bleu (2009) – gorgeously distinctive
reverie on sexual destiny and ideology;
beautifully intuitive and complex, often surprising
Hot Blood (1956) – overflowing with
hokiness and dubious storytelling, and yet compelling for Ray’s often savagely
dynamic compositions
Everyone Else (2009) – another exquisite
illustration that the shifting mysteries and pained edges of relationships will
never be exhausted
The Electric House (1922) – reconstructed
early Keaton with missing scenes; a bit too breezy and conceptual to deploy his
greatness ideally
The Skin I Live In (2011) – lovingly and
lovably absurd; Almodovar’s sumptuous conviction overrides just about all
potential reservations
Insidious (2010) – impressively handled
throughout, demonstrating the “haunted house” genre’s eternal capacity for
renewal and embellishment
Merry-go-Round (1981) – not Rivette’s
strongest, but still a wonderful, playful reverie on family trauma, narrative,
creation and fantasy
Never Let Me Go (2010) – not a major film,
but achingly sad almost throughout, and delicately seeded with thematic and
ethical implication
Machine Gun McCain (1969) – appealingly
terse, but the real pleasure is in the trace of a phantom Cassavetes/Rowlands
movie buried within
Barney’s Version (2010) – bland, mechanical
concoction is just one thing after another, lacking flavor, intimacy, sense of
time or place...
Japanese Summer: Double Suicide (1967) – a
remarkable distillation of lost, violent times and twisted instincts; never
remotely predictable
The Way Back (2010) – depicting extreme
human endeavor and myth as inseparable, marked by Weir's surprising but unshowy
creative choices
Age of Consent (1969) – appealing for its
wacky primitivism, but very ragged, seldom approaching Powell’s major works
(albeit, what could?)
Alice ou la derniere fugue (1977) -
stylish, under-appreciated Chabrol, a precursor to later meta-movies, with a
diverting feminist slant
Sweetwater (2009) – majestically scenic and
respectful, but also increasingly troubled, generating an unexpectedly complex
after-effect
Man is not a Bird (1965) – maybe not, but
engaging as this is, you feel Makavejev gearing up to fly onto splashier,
wilder canvases
All Good Things (2010) – doesn’t achieve
the complexity and allusiveness it aims for, merely seeming increasingly messy
and mechanical
Taris, roi de l’eau (1931) – a small thing, but its sense of joy
and fascination is delightfully
consistent with Vigo’s more major works
Punishment Park (1971) – still startlingly
provocative & compelling, clearly as relevant as ever post-Guantanamo Bay
(as complacency rises)
Mysteries of Lisbon (2010) – an enthralling
film - it feels capable of extending itself forever without ever sacrificing
your devotion to it
The Cameraman (1928) – very enjoyable, but
creaking from limited resources, seldom exhibiting the gracefulness of Keaton’s
greatest films
Red Psalm (1972) – stunning for Jancso’s
gorgeously fluid staging and filming; at times almost persuades you the
revolution might triumph
George Harrison..Material World (2011) –
mostly effective; best seen as a largely impressionistic seasoning to the
overall Harrison myth
Shakespeare Wallah (1965) – shows how early
on the Merchant Ivory approach was honed; it’s sensitive but strangely bland
and affectless
Alexander Nevsky (1938) – resembles now an
artifact from a worldview of expired grandeur, and strenuous (if still
fascinating) artistry
The Ides of March (2011) – so lazy and
deficient it tends to make you reassess all you supposedly believed about
Clooney’s taste and smarts
Taxi zum klo (1980) – a significant
milestone of gay and human rights cinema; still eye-opening (and informative!)
in numerous ways
Valhalla Rising (2009) – murky and
ponderous mythmaking, only minimally interesting; Refn is much more rewarding
in his splashier Drive mode
Wild Rovers (1971) – a quietly solid yarn,
but the mythic ambitions, and musings on morality and predestination, are never
fully realized
Before the Revolution (1964) – Bertolucci’s
still fascinating amalgam of (perhaps rather strained) societal pessimism and
cinematic optimism
Vanishing on 7th Street (2010) – not for
the first time, Anderson’s proficiency seems largely squandered on thin,
unrewarding material
The Touch (1971) – has an oddly displaced
quality (Elliott Gould?); interesting but thin, adding little to one’s overall
sense of Bergman
Poetry (2010) – one of the most stunning
recent films; a delicately beautiful but unsentimental study of liberation and
transcendence
Tiny Furniture (2010) – well-considered, resourceful
study of a generation pre-wired for status, still floundering on how to make it
happen
Christiane F (1981) – still kinda makes you
want to flirt with degradation, while allowing you to believe YOU wouldn’t be
consumed by it
Network (1976) – as everyone says, still
spookily relevant and prophetic, bracingly mature and literate, full of
indelible actorly moments
Sing a Song of Sex (1967) – dazzlingly
provocative, constantly astounding Oshima reflection on horny Japanese youth in
deranged times
Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps (2010) –
mostly successful as a shrewd cartoon of finance’s lost soul: but the home
stretch is disappointing
Zero de conduite (1933) – among cinema’s
most remarkable 45 minutes, and most cherishable expressions of creative and
institutional freedom
Caligula (1979) – generally enjoyable as a
grand folly, often visually striking, but its relative strengths are lost in a
morass of genitals
Moneyball (2011) – highly enjoyable
throughout, but hardly a significant case study, unless you really strain for
metaphorical applicability
L’enfant sauvage (1970) – fascinatingly
quiet and economical, focusing productively on incremental progress and its
associated morality
The Scarlet Empress (1934) – an astonishing
unified vision, although the play of desire grips slightly less than Morocco or
Shanghai Express
The Keys to the House (2004) – intensely
focused on the joy and pain of the unpractised caregiver; narrow in its aims,
but very successful
Maurice (1987) – succeeds at setting out
the stifling intricacy of class structures, somewhat less at conveying the pain
embedded in them
Smiley Face (2007) – has the inherent
appeal of Araki’s worldview, but could have used more ambition, even if its
heroine doesn’t need any
L’Atalante (1934) – still a unique vision,
with one socially conscious foot firmly in this world, the other consumed by
fevers and dreams
Drive (2011) – the rare mainstream film in
which the use of “style” (and silence) is viscerally jolting and even
intellectually provocative!
Combat d’amour en songe (2000) – a
gorgeously elegant challenge to conventional narrative, at once highly rigorous
and awesomely unbound
The April Fools (1969) – the Deneuve/Lemmon
pairing never really makes emotional sense, especially when dropped into such a
ramshackle movie
Le pont du Nord (1981) – has one of
Rivette’s greatest endings, a mystically grand assertion of intuitive
self-discovery and connection
Machete (2010) – sporadically strikes the
right garish iconic retro pulp mix, but Machete himself is a fatally
underdeveloped focal point
Drole de drama (1937) - strange plotting indeed; always elegant, but
lacking the inspiration to amount to more than the sum of its parts
Contagion (2011) – highly engrossing and
informative; even its omissions speak to the inherently ungraspable nature of
such mass trauma
Revanche (2008) - makes unusually productive use of outrageous
genre contrivance, drawing power from tonal contrasts & social
undercurrents
Wanda (1970) – remarkably free of vanity
and artifice, a quietly militant challenge to conventional portrayals of
“fallen” women
Innocents with Dirty Hands (1975) –
ventilated by Chabrol’s feeling for human perversity, but nevertheless mostly
perfunctory/indifferent
Doubt (2008) – never more than a contrived
theatrical extravaganza; enjoyable actorly tension at times, but
philosophically mostly vacuous
Tulse Luper Suitcases, Pt 3: From Sark to
the Finish (2003) – likely only for Greenaway completists; even for them, a
rather dull work-out
The Defector (1966) – interesting but
under-powered Cold War dynamics, gaining depth from its steely grey images and
Clift’s evident pain
The Company Men (2010) – lots of
interesting details, but hampered throughout by the simplifying, too-tidy
effect of Hollywood conventions
A Time to Live and a Time to Die (1985) –
gorgeously illustrating Hou’s remarkable capacity for capturing the totality of
life experience
Mr. Nice (2010) – works well enough as a
mildly colourful diversion, but doesn’t inhale the material deeply enough to
make a major impact
The Spanish Earth (1937) – valuable as a
bleak historical record, and for Hemingway’s narration, almost anticipating
later neo-realism..
Genova (2008) – perhaps one of
Winterbottom’s most subtly complex and intuitive works, with an often superb
sense of mood and place
Tony Manero (2008) – meticulously
considered, superbly nuanced Chilean study of a vicious criminal obsessed with
Travolta’s iconic character
Jew Suss (1934) – still whips up
appropriate revulsion, but most interesting now as a (rather stodgy) chronicle
of personal redemption
Win Win (2011) – blows a potentially
productive premise through relentless superficiality, shallow characterization
and moral obviousness
Peppermint Frappe (1967) – less scintillating
than the many films it evokes at times (Vertigo, Blow-Up, Bunuel...) , but well
sustained
The Arbor (2010) – a film where even the
possible weaknesses raise stimulating questions about the nature of
representation/interpretation
Symbiopsychotaxiplasm: Take One (1968) – a
movie strenuously in search of itself, ultimately yielding a kind of deadpan
existential comedy
Les egares (2003) – unusually intimate for
Techine, examining how the destruction of war yields some capacity for
liberation and reinvention
The City of Your Final Destination (2010) –
some interesting reflection, but flatly handled; the title is more evocative
than the movie
The Man who Loved Women (1983) – no
"10," but oddly (and often somewhat intriguingly) recessive, as much
a study in bemusement as “love”
Haut bas fragile (1995) – a great,
beautiful Rivette meditation on the attaining of feminine self-determination,
with a complex use of music
Tamara Drew (2010) – Tamara herself gets
increasingly lost among generally odd and/or pointless (if scenic and
easy-to-take) conceits
Deep End (1970) – a fabulous creation; a
perfectly sustained play of repression and desire, brilliantly attentive to
time, place, character
Toy Story 3 (2010) – has enormous panache,
and persuasive moral resonance; sure, it's a calculated commercial machine, but
what packaging...
The Men Who Tread on the Tiger’s Tail
(1945) – intriguing, but the entire film would be a mere strand in Kurosawa's
later, fuller works
Rise of the Planet of the Apes (2011) –
probably just about as sane & smooth an origin story for the Apes mythology
as one could ever devise
La ville des pirates (1983) – stunning
piece of poetic mythology, unbound by normal rules, evoking the dark fluidity
of creation & identity
Munich (2005) – potent in many ways, but
never feels sufficiently complex; a comparison with Assayas’ Carlos underlines
the limitations
Essential Killing (2010) – often intriguing
but somewhat limited in its impact; clinical abstraction isn't Skolimowski’s
best register
Land of the Pharoahs (1955) – great
spectacle; you vaguely detect a Hawksian worldview in the ultimate affinity for
pragmatism over grandeur
The Strange Hostel of Naked Pleasures
(1975) – moody & wacky; almost convinces you at times it has a viable theological
vision & purpose!
Stone (2010) – a surprisingly stimulating,
but strange, incompletely realized attempt at exploring spiritual/moral purpose
and awareness
Folies bourgeoisies (1976) – in many ways a
weird, ill-handled mess, and yet that's appropriate to the film’s theme of
chronic dysfunction
The Next Three Days (2010) – mostly
diverting, with some handy crime hints, but overall impact is much like the
last three Hollywood flicks
The Children are Watching Us (1944) –still
a delicately provocative examination of social structures and desires in
hopeless conflict
Sleeper (1973) – an enduring modest
pleasure; the loosely-knit absurdity seems almost radical now at times,
compared to most of later Allen
Small Town Murder Songs (2010) – demonstrates
Gass-Donnelly’s control and discipline, but just too narrow a canvas to warrant
major praise
Wings of Desire (1987) – often beguiling,
but looks now like the start of Wenders’ decline away from relevance,
frequently into pure drivel
Piranha (2010) – smart exploitation
package, as proficient at tits and ass as at mass trauma; a shame Aja isn’t
feeding in a bigger tank
The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie
(1972) – so alluring you can hardly disentangle the (often staggeringly)
radical from the playful
Madeleine (1950) – inherently interesting
as sexual politics, although Lean's rather passionless craftsmanship doesn't
seem ideally applied
Project Nim (2011) – the story’s still a
useful reference point for considering our hopelessly confused attitudes &
morality toward animals
Goto, Island of Love (1969) – gorgeously
strange, as if from a parallel universe; causing regret for Borowczyk’s later
narrower evolution
A Prairie Home Companion (2006) – one of
the most delightful, magically appropriate (as if prophetic) end-points of any
director’s career
Red Riding…1983 (2009) – even with a
"happy ending" of sorts, horrifyingly extends the endemic corruption
& moral decay of the earlier films
World on a Wire (1973) – a forerunner to
Inception, plopped down in the magnificently grim, tackily existential
laboratory of 70’s Germany
The Tillman Story (2010) - another kick-ass exposure of institutional
lies and evasions, in effect of
America’s fear of its own richness
Red Riding…1980 (2009) – a more claustrophobic,
slightly less artful vision than the first film, but masterfully integrating
real & imagined
Spirit of the Beehive (1973) – comes close
to forging an alternative language of childhood, and the quiet darkness
underlying its innocence
Divorce American Style (1967) –
surprisingly biting, instructive and inventive satire at times, although it
largely goes soft in the end
Red Riding…1974 (2009) – a narratively
powerful 1970’s Yorkshire-set Chinatown of sorts; a grim vision of corruption
and degradation
The Beyond (1981) - Fulci's astonishing vision of breakdown
between worlds, leaving normal horror movie conventions in the bloody beyond
The Tourist (2010) – takes itself too
seriously in some ways, not seriously enough in others; astute direction & acting
take a big vacation
Billy Budd (1962) - gripping, but like
Ustinov himself, the obviousness of the calculations and emotions evokes
respect rather than love
La signora di tutti (1934) – a superb
investigation of a woman, exploring throughout the fragile dance of truth and
illusion, life and death
The Trip (2010) – consistently and
distinctively entertaining; although satisfying more in the way of a great meal
than of a great poem
Casino Jack and the United States of Money
(2010) – another pristine exposure (there’s a lot of ‘em) of the degradation at
America's heart
Alice in the Cities (1974) – in some ways a
familiar and contrived set-up, but increasingly intriguing for its echoes &
lack of affectation
Kaboom (2010) – repositions raw materials of
gay-friendly sex comedy as apocalyptic markers; softer than early Araki, but
still subversive
The Strange World of Coffin Joe (1968) –
strange is the least of it; certainly stamps Marins as an intriguing
go-his-own-twisted-way auteur
Shoot the Moon (1982) – magnificently angry
and agonized at times, but Parker’s heavy approach strangles more often than it
nurtures overall
Cave of Forgotten Dreams (2010) – Herzog
necessarily plays things straighter here than sometimes, but still delivers the
“ecstatic truth”..
Scott Pilgrim vs. the World (2010) – clever
and tonally astute, but you get that after ten minutes; ultimately monotonous
and unrewarding
Vivre sa vie (1962) – for all its
structural brilliance and bleakness, has a delicacy and even a relative optimism
rare in later Godard
Handsome Harry (2010) – a small, maybe
overly restrained, but interesting contribution to the cinema of gay identity
reaching for the light
The Freethinker (1994) – long, deliberately
disorienting but rewarding example of Watkins’ radical approach to historical
investigation
Knight and Day (2010) – most engaging when
it escapes the machine and surrenders to happy abstraction, which isn’t almost
often enough
Les astronautes (1959) – a quirkily sweet
14-minute addition to cinematic dreams of transcendence, gently prophetic in
its fragility
Macao (1952) – full of echoes of
Sternberg’s earlier work, but comparatively mechanical and starved of true
desire; easily watchable though
Police (1985) – a powerful and insinuating
drama; astonishing in the scope of its reflection on the fluidity of morals,
structures, emotions
The Tree of Life (2011) – Malick’s
deployment of cinematic possibility is often stunning, but the film is too
intangible to fully satisfy
Ashes and Diamonds (1958) – most complex of
the trilogy; less rawly powerful than Kanal, but appropriately to its theme of
moral bereftness
Freakonomics (2010) – much like the book,
saturated in misplaced breeziness; even serious implications seem like mere
mental masturbation
Victim (1961) – limited by the necessity of
telling rather than showing, but remains a landmark, and still very moving and
provocative
Lola (1981) – a scathing fever-dream of
post-war Germany, as a new venality and savage self-gratification push
rectitude to the sidelines
Joan Rivers: a Piece of Work (2010) –
surprisingly revealing, informative & serious-minded; feels more important
than it objectively should
Kings of the Road (1976) – a fascinating,
unadorned & unforced amalgam of myth and character study; Wenders’ early
stature was well-deserved
The Pie-Covered Wagon (1932) – emblematic
Western drama enacted in ten minutes by toddlers; every bit as vital to film
history as it sounds!
Divorce Italian Style (1961) – the title
promises a romp, but the undercurrents are rather gloomy; sad characters
grabbing at what they can…
Howl (2010) – an effective memorial,
although I wonder if the animation (however proficient) doesn’t deny the
essential nature of poetry
Kameradschaft (1931) – still imposing for
its grim physicality; the ideology (let’s dissolve European borders!) has a
different flavor now…
Let Me In (2010) – amazingly successful at
evoking the spirit of the original without merely replicating or inadvertently
parodying it
The Green Room (1978) – strange, almost
perversely narrowly-focused film from Truffaut, alluring for its lack of
compromise if nothing else
Too Big to Fail (2011) – interesting and
remarkably efficient, but that’s also a limitation: we need the 6-hour Olivier
Assayas version!
Kanal (1957) – a powerful, unsparing vision of war as the death of all dignity,
light and hope; perhaps Wajda’s most enduring film
Red (2010) – even
with that cast, doesn’t take long until diminishing returns set in; Malkovich
hints at a more rewarding road not taken..
La Bande des
quatre (1989) – one of Rivette’s most vulnerable-seeming works, clinging to art
as protection against the chaos and darkness
Young Mr Lincoln
(1939) – among much else, remarkably contemporary in its focus on Lincoln’s
control of what we’d now call his ‘image’
Le petit theatre de Jean Renoir (1970) – a
beautiful farewell, evoking his classic achievements while still pushing in
quirky new directions
Midnight in Paris (2011) – Allen at his
most easefully assured and pleasantly self-referencing, evoking the comfort
level of his heyday
Miss Oyu (1951) – another fascinating study
in longing suppressed by ideology and culture, twisting lives into perverse,
tragic structures
Scott Walker : 30
Century Man (2006) – near-revelatory documentary on the musical genius (yes!),
superbly explaining his achievement
Le doulos (1962) – grimmer than Melville’s
later films; painstakingly grows into a near-textbook of existential survival
strategies…
Catfish (2010) – hard to react to, beyond asking
which of the participants in this relationship is really ultimately the sadder
case study?
Os Canibais (1988) – a rather neat filmic
joke, with increasingly tedious high art suddenly giving way after an
hour to sheer nonsense
The Southerner (1945) – Renoir's
mesmerizing study of a land still in formation, but already carrying much
embedded ideology and enmity
Le quattro volte (2010) – a sublime viewing
experience, maybe as much cosmic joke as profound meditation (but maybe there’s
no difference..)
Such Good Friends (1971) – very strange,
often remarkably perverse take on the acquiring of consciousness, with Burgess
Meredith’s bare ass!
N.U. (1948) – a reminder, if it were
needed, of the social observation and unforced humanity that nourished the
roots of Antonioni’s work
Quantum of Solace (2008) – squanders almost
every aspect of the Bond formula without injecting anything in return; messy
and humorless
36 Quai des Orfevres (2004) – yet another
movie seemingly inspired by Heat, but more proficient with guns and attitudes
than with souls
Stage Fright (1950) – structural &
tonal oddities & general eccentricities make a pretty interesting
counterpoint to Hitchcock’s major work
The Maid (2009) – an unusual, sometimes
blackly funny, ultimately shrewd and convincing take on a familiar theme of
feminine self-discovery
The Naked Kiss (1964) - carries a
remarkable ideological scope beneath a dazzlingly tight narrative, exposing
weakness and corruption galore
A Generation (1955) – the film’s effectiveness
as character drama and with ‘action’ sequences perhaps limits its resonance as
history now…
Rabbit Hole (2010) – well-crafted of
course, but never much more than a series of devices, lacking any distinct
insight on loss or grief
L’enfance nue (1968) – magnificent,
rigorous, deeply humane examination of an abandoned child, deep in “nature vs.
nurture” implications
The Informer (1935) – despite Oscar-winning
status, a minor Ford work; atmospheric, but forced and overwrought and
insufficiently nuanced
Alamar (2009) – a beautiful film, often
gently but radically apart from almost any other in its storytelling &
relationship with the planet
I Love You Philip Morris (2009) - always energetic and proficient, but never
really meaningful; one scene feels much the same as the next…
Scenes from a Marriage (1973) – a virtuoso, exhausting behavioral dance;
eerily fascinating, even if only intermittently identifiable
Bob & Carol & Ted & Alice
(1969) – easy to forget the seriousness (however genial) of Mazursky's
underlying sociological investigation
Grown Up Movie Star (2009) – ultimately
somewhat limited in its family dynamics, but with lots of real colour and
provocation along the way
The River (1951) – a beautiful, gently
complex meditation on maturity and acceptance, albeit deploying a selective
portrait of India
Giallo (2009) – an oddly flat and mostly
uninvolving Argento creation, with barely a trace of The Mother of Tears’ giddy
flare and "vision"
Not Quite Hollywood (2008) – as happily
galvanizing a documentary as you’ll ever see, breezily making the case for
Australian genre cinema
A Tale of Springtime (1990) – despite the
ultimate optimism, has a pervasive, fascinatingly conveyed sense of lives just
missing the point..
Mother and Child (2009) – impressive,
frequently even thrilling acting and characterization wins out over frequent
over-calculation
Cronaca di un amore (1950) – fascinating
early example of Antonioni’s filmic and emotional architecture, paving the way
for later heights
Meek’s Cutoff (2010) – a remarkably allusive, restrained,
meaningful film; Reichardt is already one of the indispensable American
directors
Trois couleurs: Bleu (1993) – handsome and scintillating on its own terms, but in a
way that’s ultimately unrevealing of real life I think
The Living End (1992) - still gorgeously
vivid and provocative, even visionary, in setting out an unapologetic
alternative ideology of HIV
Il Bidone (1955) – rooted in Fellini’s
early grittiness while dropping hints of the greater sprawl ahead; a bit
contrived, but engrossing
Slap Shot (1977) – hard to begrudge the
film its semi-classic status; has a great feel for hockey lore and culture (the
good, bad and ugly)
Last Train Home (2009) – finds an
intimately gripping narrative within a life built on parameters and sacrifices
one can hardly process
Nowhere Boy (2009) – a bit too polished to
evoke the period, but a terrifically charismatic, legend-friendly portrayal of
the young Lennon
The Case of the Grinning Cat (2004) – a
very witty, graceful, dead serious but clear-sightedly optimistic essay on
contemporary turbulence
Straw Dogs (1971) – still a savagely
brilliant quasi-cartoon, but also an extreme, troubling parable on America’s
directional crisis
Gente del Po (1943) – an 11-minute film
that captures an entire grim, unchanging world; you feel Antonioni’s emerging
mastery in every shot
Salt (2010) – very well-judged and
controlled, with Jolie a perfect focal point; consistently seems much less
absurd than it actually is
Notes toward an African Orestes (1970) -
intriguing text on the relevance of our cultural heritage in diagnosing a
complex, evolving world
The Party (1968) – it’s no Playtime, but
still a fascinating fantasy on (relative) purity grinding down the venal (if
only for one night)
The Adversary (1971) – an eloquent,
troubled study of a transitional generation in India, oddly forgotten relative
to Ray’s other works
Looking for Eric (2009) – much more
fanciful than Loach’s usual work, with a significantly diluted impact; sadly,
almost boring at times
Solutions locales pour un desordre global
(2010) - terrifically provocative and informative, with no time for pointless
gloss and "balance"
The Criminal Code (1931) – a cracking,
expertly-paced crime drama, its moral preoccupations pointing the way to Hawks’
greatest works
W.R. – Mysteries Of the Organism (1971) –
you remember the transgressive highpoints, but may forget the underlying
vulnerability (of a kind)
Best Worst Movie (2009) – a documentary
barely more objectively important than its subject, Troll 2, but no doubt a bit
more warm and human
Paisan (1946) – perhaps the film that,
through its amazing (if bleak) scope & humanity, best embodies the
achievement of Italian neo-realism
This Movie is Broken (2010) – beguiling
love song to Toronto, and to Broken Social Scene as embodying its diverse,
romantic if messy heart
Proces de Jeanne d'Arc (1962) - perhaps a
key counterbalancing statement by Bresson, in holding out the possibility of
true transcendence
Fair Game (2010) - lacks the moral
complexity of the greatest political movies, but still effective in pushing a
lot of important buttons
The Soft Skin (1964) – a forensic,
sociologically astute examination of a love affair; one of Truffaut’s gravest
and most gripping films
The Great Dictator (1940) – a bizarre,
brave amalgam of high and low; maybe its essential incoherence is its most
potent statement on war
A la conquete du pole (1912) – as with much
of Melies, delightful throughout, but also confirms his vision's repetitiveness
and odd limits
Deep Throat (1972) – occasional goofiness
aside, often now feels rather glum and grim, in part no doubt because of
Lovelace's ambivalence
In a Better World (2010) – gripping
throughout and often moving, but its modestly provocative thinking doesn't
ultimately go too deep
One, Two, Three (1961) - a brilliantly
constructed/paced comedic machine; one of Wilder’s most technically
stunning (if maybe not deepest)
When We Leave (2010) – engrossing and often
moving, but too straightforward to evoke anything more complex than
short-lived blood-boiling
Ministry of Fear (1944) – a terrific,
compact thriller; expertly & disorientatingly skeptical about allegiance,
ideology, reality itself
Dr. Jekyll and his Wives (1981) – strangely alluring Borowczyk
vision, driven less by eroticism than a dark sense of escalating desperation
The Last of Sheila (1973) – superbly
conceived & pristinely executed; a nice cruel streak distinguishes it from mere hermetic game-playing
La nostra vita (2010) – rattles glossily
along, using up enough plot for two movies, but almost weirdly unprobing and
unrevealing
Rebel Without a Cause (1955) - seems a bit forced and
over-heated now, less subtle than Ray's greatest work, but Dean remains
mesmerizing
The Seventh Continent (1989) – clinically
eerie examination of a family’s utter breakdown; may leave you fearful for your
own stability
We Live in Public (2009) – perhaps most
interesting in contrast to The Social Network, emphasizing the capriciousness
of success & “vision”
Il Generale Della Rovere (1959) –
relatively conventional by Rossellini’s standards, but an increasingly rich and
surprising moral canvas
Animal Kingdom (2010) – distinctive in
parts, but ultimately another “whatever” addition to one of the most
over-explored subjects in cinema
Last Tango in Paris (1972) - even clearer
now how the sex is a device, deployed in a deconstruction of Brando both
forensic and operatic...
Certified Copy (2010) – a skillful,
alluring enigma, but smart rather than wise; you admire the film's tactics more
than its ultimate vision
The Yes Men Fix the World (2009) –
consistently funny and valuable, but like all that’s progressive in this world,
confined to the margins
Chocolat (1988) – quietly builds to an
astonishingly comprehensive critique of colonialism, ventilated by Denis’
peerless cinematic poetry
Solitary Man (2009) - highly enjoyable for Douglas’ perfect grasp
of the character, but ultimately seems merely to throw in its hand
6ixtynin9 (1999) – well done in a familiar
post-Tarantino vein, but just a doodle next to the director’s luminous Last
Life in the Universe
Saint Joan (1957) – an eccentric addition
to the legendary films about Joan, best regarded maybe as a
discussion-prompting counter-strategy
Tristana (1970) – magnificent study of
power relationships; might ultimately almost stand as the most elegant and
refined of horror films
City Island (2009) – quirky, colorful and
fluid enough to lead you happily along, although ultimately ends up pretty soft
(don’t they all?)
Immoral Tales (1974) – Borowczyk’s
idiosyncrasies and rhythms separate him from a mere pornographer, but maybe not
by as much as you’d like
Nights and Weekends (2008) – an interesting
look at a particular strand of modern relationship, making a general virtue out
of shallowness
Tartuffe (1926) – hardly Murnau’s most
major work, but still very diverting and fluent, although with some definite
structural redundancy
R.P.M. (1970) – a useful reference point at
least in demonstrating why Zabriskie Point is so underrated; inadequate for
most other purposes
Les anges du peche (1943) – much more
conventional in its style and attitudes than later Bresson, but at least
halfway to the master
Taxi Driver (1976) – a brilliantly vivid,
intuitive movie, endlessly fascinating even if you suspect it’s largely an
arbitrary quasi-fantasy
Les amours imaginaires (2010) – has a
feeling of running on the spot (a 60’s Godardian kind of spot, stylistically if
not intellectually)
The Docks of New York (1928) - a more mature and exquisite balance between
social realism and romantic stylization than in Underworld...
Around a Small Mountain (2009) – a
beautiful, consciousness-enhancing Rivette miniature, albeit relatively less
vital than his greatest work
Shock Corridor (1963) – a scaldingly
iconoclastic expression of multi-faceted Cold War American madness (and it even
has “Nymphos!”)
Incendies (2010) – study of war's perverse
legacy might have worked as a theatrical abstraction; dubious in this glossy, literal-minded
form
A Canterbury Tale (1944) – a relatively
gentle, brilliantly integrated and intuitive expression of Powell/Pressburger’s
preoccupations
The American (2010) – very stylish
deployment of very familiar elements; but comparisons to Antonioni, Melville
etc. not remotely deserved
Vampyr (1932) - owing less to vampire
mythology than to Dreyer's vision of a cinema (and even a consciousness) moving
beyond constraints...
Examined Life (2008) - the showcasing of
philosophers is mostly interesting, but you wish the film did more than just
nod and listen...
Midnight Cowboy (1969) - a classic of sorts
I guess, but looks awfully contrived and melodramatic now, a garish would-be
"adult" cartoon
The Life of Oharu (1952) - beautifully
evocative tale of a woman's fraught life, carrying magnificent societal and
psychological complexity
The Countess (2009) - sadly
straightforward, hinting at times at a feminist metaphorical significance which
it falls far short of achieving
Act of God (2009) - meditation on lightning
doesn't deliver much of an intellectual or thematic jolt, mostly passing by in
pretty passivity
Amarcord (1973) - a graceful memoir, full
of striking moments, but hard to say it contributes heavily to Fellini's
preeminent reputation
Green Zone (2010) - deploys one of the
great crimes of our time as a basis for high-velocity myth-making; still, more
cunning than it seems
Le silence de la mer (1949) – Melville’s
exquisite treatment makes an inherently literary concept into a quietly enthralling
moral tale
Broadway Melody of 1936 (1935) - feels
largely assembled from whatever/whomever was sitting in the MGM inventory, but
what an assembly line!
Of Gods and Men (2010) - primarily of men
though; immaculately examines the incremental steps (unknowing and knowing)
toward an extreme fate
Alice in Wonderland (2010) - much like the
Cheshire Cat, this flavorless version largely erases itself from your mind as
you watch it
Le cake-walk infernal (1903) - the Lady
Gaga video of its long-ago day, an inexplicable but exuberant Melies piece of
musical mythology
Cemetery Junction (2010) - very
entertaining, but ultimately feels more like a nostalgic pastiche than a
full-formed story of real people
The Big Red One (1980) - in its expanded
form, brilliantly & turbulently portrays how war rewrites all we know about
the world & ourselves
Queen to Play (2009) - pretty schematic
self-improvement story overall, benefiting from mild class consciousness &
Bonnaire's inherent depth
Borderline (1930) - still interesting for
strenuous experimentalism, despite unsophisticated basic content and clunky
would-be liberalism
I'm Still Here (2010) - fairly diverting
but seldom actually satisfying or instructive; the points it might be making
would be minor at best
Jigoku (1960) – popping with dark and lurid
imagery, and undeniably starkly handsome, but hard to see it as much more than
a potboiler
Lovely, Still (2008) - acceptably sweet
when playing things straight; the climactic "revelation" obscures
more than it illuminates though
The Last Command (1928) - deliriously
fascinated by grandeur and the perversity of fate, strongly anticipates von
Sternberg's greatest works
Biutiful (2010) - dubiously focuses more on
conventional spiritual blather & sentimental invention than on tangible
exploitation & suffering
Hopscotch (1980) - a bit creaky in parts,
but pleasing for how Matthau's unsentimental pragmatism shapes the personal and
political alike
Year of the Carnivore (2010) - sells short
a potentially workable premise through timidity and ill-considered
cuteness...where's the meat?
L'ami de mon amie (1987) - instructively
setting Rohmer's familiar preoccupations in the dehumanizing context of modern
development
Lolita (1962) – maybe it ain't Nabokov, but
seems now like a cunning blueprint for 2001, transcending to Quilty's
mansion/the next dimension
Happy Tears (2009) - underwhelming family
chronicle, consigning intriguing elements and a bright cast to drab,
uninsightful mournfulness
Okaasan (1952) - Naruse's quiet, highly
observant tribute to a mother's fortitude, set against post-war struggle and
familial dislocation
Faces (1968) - a fascinating study in
vulnerability and its covers and deflections; more raw and less stylized than
much of later Cassavetes
The Town (2010) - reminiscent at almost
every turn of Michael Mann's Heat, and not once to this movie's advantage;
blandly efficient at best
Dogtooth (2009) - perfectly (if necessarily
rather coldly) achieved; magnificently ambiguous, but spilling out meaning and
provocation..
Body and Soul (1925) - still a moving
depiction of the rural black community's inner fractures, marked by unusual
emphases and rhythms
Ricky (2009) - nicely-crafted fusion of
gritty and fantastical certainly has theoretical merit, but still seems kinda
like Ozon's lost it...
Underworld (1927) - most alluring for how
von Sternberg is drawn away from genre mechanics toward desire, obsession and
provocation
Target (1985) - Arthur Penn in action
director mode, and very effectively, but surely sublimating his great skills
more than he might have..
Parade (1974) - a deceptively
simple-looking final note for Tati, wondrously binding performers and audience
in a celebration of creativity
Enemies: A Love Story (1989) - humanely comic, often mesmerizingly
understated fable on the Holocaust's incalculable emotional turmoil
La Luna (1979) - stunningly orchestrated
psychological turbulence, classically beautiful and deeply perverse in almost
all respects
Survival of the Dead (2009) - a tight,
pristine, mostly conventional genre piece, with the zombies' allegorical impact
largely eroded by now
Still Walking (2008) - graceful depiction
of family get-together; largely unsurprising, but distinguished by its relative
tough-mindedness
Paul Robeson: Tribute To An Artist (1979) -
limited by brevity, but fully establishes his remarkable artistic capacity and
symbolic power
Daddy Longlegs (2009) - a remarkable
character study, and surely one of the most grievously under-appreciated of
recent American films
Shame (1968) - superbly setting out the
moral mess of war; perhaps the Bergman film that best resists the caveats
sometimes applied to him
Another Year (2010) - gorgeously resonant;
astonishing when it allows you to glimpse the existential hell engulfing some
of the characters
The Living Dead at Manchester Morgue (1974)
- ends up more run-of-the-morgue than the title and initial sequences promise,
but still fun
Citizen Kane (1941) - it's true, one of the
most enthralling achievements in cinema, especially if you're in tune with
Wellesian resonances
Cloud Nine (2008) - way too tough-minded
and rigorous to be dismissed as old person porn, although one's reaction is
inevitably ambiguous..
Missing (1982) - perhaps too schematic for
maximum impact, but Lemmon's crumbling under the cold weight of realpolitik
still hits home
The Disappearance Of Alice Creed (2009) -
nicely ambiguous, well-controlled thriller; maybe it aims relatively low, but
hits all its targets
City of Sadness (1989) - superbly intuitive reflection on loss and
dislocation, meticulously considered and yet almost mystically graceful
Somewhere (2010) - Coppola has a gorgeous
sense of place and texture, although applied to a somewhat narrow
thematic/existential purpose
The Killer Inside Me (2010) - less striking
(or shocking) than the early notoriety suggested, but an interesting tonal
exercise at least
Providence (1977) – engrossing for sure,
but less aesthetically imposing than Marienbad, and less spirited than most of
Resnais’ later work
Leslie, My Name Is Evil (2009) - it's
stylistically interesting, but feels mostly like an artistic hammer applied to
a mere thematic nut
The Law (1959) - sometimes seems
intriguingly wayward and provocative, at other times merely lurid and
shapeless...certainly not dull anyway
Four Friends (1981) - still engrossing for
how the turbulence of America's evolution embeds itself in the film's structure
and texture
Nostalgia for the Light (2010) - a smooth
joining of philosophical and political dots, but doesn't strike me as
profoundly as it does some
The Wolfman (2010) - entertaining and
handsomely executed, but over-calculated and overly controlled, without a hint
of wildness in its DNA
Tragedy of a Ridiculous Man (1981) -
another uniquely textured Bertolucci reverie, richly provocative on capitalism
and its fractures
Shanghai Express (1932) - still a dazzling,
intricate construction of pure cinema; its unity of purpose and vision remains
entirely unfaded
Triage (2009) - fairly gripping when
dramatizing war; less so as it gets bogged down in homefront therapy, even if
sensitively done
Antonio das Mortes (1969) -
near-mesmerizing, poetically intense political mythmaking, feeling as if torn
from a country's bleeding heart
Alex In Wonderland (1970) - some striking
if scattershot imagery, but I'm glad Mazursky stabilized and decided to go the
Blume In Love route
New Gladiators (1984) - shockingly dull,
murky and clumsy, with Fulci seemingly too disengaged even to take care of
exploitation-film basics
Blue Valentine (2010) - a terrific,
immaculately acted illustration of how cinema still illuminates even the most
familiar human mechanisms
Angel (2007) - Ozon is typically effective
at portraying feminine will and desire, although the overall impact is rather
underwhelming here
Chimes At Midnight (1965) - the tone is
regretful, but it's an immensely evocative affirmation & embodiment of
Welles' commitment to renewal
Identification of a Woman (1982) - a
gorgeously orchestrated expression of Antonioni's classic themes; a mere notch
below his greatest work
Victor/Victoria (1982) - although widely
celebrated, seems to me the start of Edwards' decline, neutering most of its
potential provocations
It's Complicated (2009) - but of course it
isn't - on the contrary, it's simple and banal; also glossy, complacent, a
waste of great actors
Trilogy: The Weeping Meadow (2004) - an
eloquently bleak expression of the fragmentation of war, expressed through
staggering imagery
How Do You Know (2010) - a pretty
comprehensive, miscast failure, lacking any kind of pace or style; utterly
irrelevant to all our lives
Native Land (1942) - as sure of itself as
an old-time sermon, and stirring as much anger and shame; still sadly relevant
to these grim times
Film socialisme (2010) - Godard pushes us out to the edge of our
understanding and endurance, in the hope we may crawl back with open eyes
True Grit (2010) – strips away the first
film’s ingratiating layers to reclaim the gorgeous starkness; perhaps the most
rigorous Coen film
True Grit (1969) - even before the Coen
version, this never seemed like more than an easy romp, making lazy use of
Wayne and much else
Genealogies d'un crime (1997) - imposingly
clever and impressive, but perhaps too stately and tonally unvarying to stand
among Ruiz's best
Fedora (1978) - a lost-in-time oddity in
Wilder's filmography, it's insufficiently incisive and often stodgy, but still
patchily intriguing
The King's Speech (2010) - well-told;
intriguing enough about establishment symbolism, the embryonic media etc to
avoid mere curio status
4 aventures de Reinette et Mirabelle (1987)
– perhaps one of the purest, most delicate expressions of Rohmer’s concept of a
“moral” tale
Remember My Name (1978) - intriguing, but
ultimately rather thin if set against later, emotionally lusher Rudolph films
such as Choose Me
Public Speaking (2010) - a smooth if
limited showcase for the iconoclastic if limited Leibowitz; Scorsese's mostly
happy to sit and chuckle
Les plages d’Agnes (2008) - a quirky,
evocative delight, embracing whims and new technology, eloquently shaded by
past loss and tragedy
Days Of Wine And Roses (1962) - atypically
stark Edwards; still scary for depicting love and mutual delight becoming
helplessly destructive
The Fighter (2010) - weirdly over-valued,
adding very little to the Rocky tradition; to me feels caricatured and even
condescending at times
Le royaume des fees (1903) - watching
several Melies films reveals the limitations of his vision, and yet, what a
miracle he existed at all!
The Boys (2009) - an unremarkable but
engaging little documentary, easily opening up our hearts (as a song might put
it) to the Shermans
The Proud Valley (1940) - still fascinating
for its merging of social document, wartime myth and calm cultural fusion
(Robeson in Wales!)
A Brighter Summer Day (1991) - Yang's
meticulous, spellbindingly resonant examination of a country and its youth in
painful formation
Client 9: The Rise and Fall of Eliot
Spitzer (2010) - shrewd, utterly depressing anecdote on America's distorted
values & power structures
In Praise Of Older Women (1978) - bland,
murky and mostly unerotic; a bit like a sleepy man's Unbearable Lightness of
Being
Yi Yi (2000) - Yang's luminous, enveloping,
ultimately optimistic vision of the continuum of life and the enduring
possibility of renewal
The Bitter Tea Of General Yen (1933) - a
simultaneously idealistic and perverse drama; weird and insinuating in a way
you seldom see now
Kick-Ass (2010) - shows the strain of
trying for new routes through well-explored territory; zippy, but no more than
the sum of its parts
A Hen In The Wind (1948) - one of Ozu's
saddest, most pointed films, an immensely humane examination of the bitter
price of just keeping on
Penn And Teller Get Killed (1989) - first a
showcase, then a cosmic extrapolation; more aligned to earlier Arthur Penn
films than it seems
The Emperor Jones (1933) - almost plays now
like a white man's confused, fearful blackness fantasia; fascinating even when
essentially nuts
Numero Deux (1975) - Godard's grim
depiction of decayed relationships in a corrupted age; deliberately offputting,
but ultimately haunting
Brigadoon (1954) - Minnelli's gorgeous
direction makes this (potentially merely silly) conception almost impossibly
lovely and transcendent
Black Swan (2010) - seems to me a pretty
thin aesthetic and psychological creation, surprisingly monotonous to watch and
largely meaningless
Vision (2009) - at heart, another account
of a strong-willed woman challenging the prevailing order, but with some
satisfying ambiguities
O.C. And Stiggs (1985) - another case study
in how Altman's bag of tricks turns unpromising material into something weirdly
alluring
Duelle (1976) - Rivette is one of my
all-time favorites, but this is a second-tier work, adds only incrementally to
his overall achievement
Mark Of The Vampire (1935) - weirdly
disconnected (but entertaining) for most of the way, and then suddenly all
makes sense! (sort of...)
Hearts And Minds (1974) - a milestone of
documentary & morality, exploring the multiple levels of horror &
delusion surrounding Vietnam
Le voyage dans la lune (1902) - still a
gorgeous, resourceful fantasy; a visionary affirmation of cinema's
possibilities, and of mankind's
Edge Of Darkness (2010) - effective but overly
mechanical, under-politicized thriller, with an unusually acute strand of pain
and steeliness
Un chambre en ville (1982) - astonishing,
troubled Demy musical, moving into much darker, provocative territory; should
be much better known
Les Girls (1957) - pleasant enough, but not
hard to list all the ways it should have been better; seems muted and dampened
down overall
The Army Of Crime (2009) - an ambitious
cross-section of occupied France; effective, but conventionally so next to
Guediguian's earlier work
Brewster McCloud (1970) - Altman indulges
himself to the hilt here, but it's surprising how coherent a vision he
ultimately generates
The Father Of My Children (2009) - mostly
familiar virtues but with a lot of extra seasoning for cinema lovers; astutely
engaging throughout
Love & Money (1982) - very strange
early Toback, grandly ambitious & radical at times, knowingly absurd at
others; quite rewarding overall
The Only Son (1936) - more raw, socially
charged and nakedly moving than most of the later Ozu films, but entirely as
enveloping
127 Hours (2010) - adequately fulfills the
challenges it sets for itself, but doesn't really offer much reason why anyone
should care
The Woman On The Beach (1947) - the end is
overly literal, but for the most part it's a quietly strange, rather hauntingly
lovely miniature
Diabolically Yours (1967) - flat,
assembly-line psychological thriller glossiness, although pretty well suited to
Delon's steely remove
The Crazies (2010) - much sleeker than the
ragged original, which of course makes it less interesting, and with minimal
allegorical clout
Metropolis (1927) - amazing how much
tighter it seems in this restored version; the political undercurrents remain
as ambiguous as ever
Pandora And The Flying Dutchman (1951) -
perhaps the best Powell/Pressburger movie made by someone else - intensely
mythic and expressive
Inside Job (2010) - less insightful or
galvanizing than it should be, never getting much of a handle on the
ideological/cultural issues
The Man Who Loved Women (1977) - highly
idealized, but oddly if drably persuasive, reflecting Truffaut's considerable
sensitivity & fluidity
The Ballad Of Cable Hogue (1970) -
Peckinpah beautifully ventilates this cantankerous yarn, almost at the peak of
his confident mythmaking
Ajami (2009) - well-handled,
anthropologically intriguing at times, but pretty conventional compared to,
say, the transcendent Une prophete
Alexander The Last (2009) - interesting,
but rather strenuously experimental and elliptical; the lilting tone is nice
enough anyway
The Girl On A Motorcycle (1968) -
blissfully ridiculous fetish drama; even seen through trash-friendly glasses,
gets monotonous pretty fast
Carlos (2010) - dazzlingly conceived &
executed, though with less room for the artistic daring that makes Assayas'
work so thrilling overall
Trucker (2008) - so predictable and
straightforward it might have been stenciled rather than actually filmed;
doesn't exhibit much courage
The General (1926) - a perpetual delight,
alert both to the grandness of America in formation and to human mysteries
(& oh yeah, it's funny)
L'amour par terre (1984) - without delving
deep into Rivette you'd never realize his almost Ozu-like devotion to certain
themes and motifs…
8 1/2 Women (1999) - a diverting creation
overall, but less stimulating than any random five minutes from Greenaway's
titanic film The Falls
Jennifer's Body (2009) - a pretty complete
missed opportunity, with glossy genre mechanics swamping any allegorical or
satiric intentions
Rikyu (1989) - a rather plodding and
understimulating historical study, especially in comparison to Teshigahara's
earlier achievements
Caught (1949) - in many ways a rather
strange tale of values and morality, made utterly compelling by Ophuls'
fabulously nuanced direction
Hereafter (2010) - as low-key and
matter-of-fact a "supernatural" picture as you'll ever see, which
seems to be the Eastwood way of things
Stalker (1979) - strange, troubling and
increasingly thrilling, suggesting the hopelessness of any intercourse between
faith and rationality
A Letter To Elia (2010) - Scorsese's truly
more galvanizing and moving nowadays when illuminating his heroes than he is in
his own films
Tales Of The Golden Age (2009) - doesn't add much to one's preexisting sense
of the era; entertaining but surprisingly straightforward
Morocco (1930) - a movie where the
perversity of desire is baked into virtually every frame, leading to one of the
all-time great endings
An Autumn Afternoon (1962) - I'd rather
lose myself within Ozu's cinematic universe than almost anyone else's; this is
a gorgeous final note
The Social Network (2010) - yep, just about
as good as they say; a gorgeously stylized & nuanced modern fable, honed
with terrific instincts
The Chess Players (1977) - a deliberately
artificial creation & an old man's film, but it's always historically
interesting, sometimes more
The Hangover (2009) - surprisingly coherent
& consistently handled; way less crass than it might have been (sure,
damning with faint praise)
Death In The Garden (1956) - much more
constrained than Bunuel's greatest works, but he fills the movie with elegant,
biting commentary
The White Stripes Under Great White
Northern Lights (2009) - a solid, visually striking showcase for the band's
amazing musicianship
Une Femme Douce (1969) - Bresson explores
the terrifying allure of suicide as a logical response to a compromised,
suppressing world
The Prowler (1951) - a terrific thriller
and commentary on the limits of the social contract, with a memorably resentful
Heflin performance
Va Savoir (2001) - beautiful late Rivette;
a benevolent expression of the liberating power of creativity and theatricality
The Promise (2010) - solid examination of
Springsteen's methods, but too pristine to be ranked among the great rock
documentaries
The Gold Diggers (1983) - Potter elegantly
taps the pleasures of classical cinema while wittily freeing it from dull
masculine dominance...
The Circus (1928) - one of Chaplin's
loveliest films; there's some egotism at its center, but also a deep sense of
the fragility of glory
Arabian Nights (1974) – probably the least
enveloping of the Pasolini trilogy, but still provocatively evokes an
alternative ideology
Love Streams (1984) - one of my desert
island movies; an audacious and gorgeous quasi-fantasy, superbly extending
Cassavetes' previous work
Pirate Radio (2009) - certainly watchable,
but stuck in the same rompish groove from start to end, with little period
flavor (& few laughs)
The Aviator's Wife (1981) - doesn't have
the revelations of the greatest Rohmer work, but then the weightlessness is
inherent in the theme
You Will Meet A Tall Dark Stranger (2010) -
has some resonance if you've followed Allen since the golden days; maybe not
much otherwise
Death By Hanging (1968) - breathtaking at
times in how the remarkable Oshima keeps shifting the cinematic, thematic and
moral space
The Merry Widow (1934) - completely
charming illustration of Lubitsch's elegance, and very clear-eyed at its center
about human compromises
The Big City (1963) - a terrific,
instructive illustration of Ray's sensitivity, exploring traditional values
under threat in changing times
The Damned United (2009) - brassily &
very entertainingly reminds you how big-time sports used to be rooted in
community & in real passion
Man Hunt (1941) - less sulphuric than
Lang's greatest work, but exciting for the theme of moral flippancy coalescing
into righteous purpose
Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives
(2010) - one of the year's most graceful films; profound about our governing
spiritual malaise
Where The Wild Things Are (2009) - Jonze
makes stunning choices of design and tone throughout; it's surprisingly
affecting and grounded
Miss Mend (1926) - fascinating as cultural
history for its ideologically loaded take on the US, and still pretty effective
as story-telling
Bitter Victory (1957) - a magnificently
stark indictment, drawing on the symbiosis of biting human intimacy and the
desert's bleak symbolism
A Perfect Couple (1979) - one of Altman's
relatively minor, eccentric diversions, but still showcasing his offbeat,
intuitive handling
Dersu Uzala (1975) - highly scenic tribute
to noble primitivism is always engaging, but isn't one of Kurosawa's strongest
in any sense
The Red Shoes (1948) - shimmers with
intense beauty & powerful undertones, although not quite as valuable to me
as Powell's "weirder" works
Passing Strange (2009) - terrific record of
a kick-ass show, transcending post-modern cliches through great energy,
eloquence and musicality
2 ou 3 choses que je sais d’elle (1967) -
can anything be salvaged from the banal, depraved structures in which we've
locked ourselves?
Limelight (1952) - expresses with rigid
poignancy a psyche largely defined by distortions and past glories, with no
redemption but applause
Z Channel: A Magnificent Obsession (2004) -
interesting for evoking, albeit a bit messily, a very specific time and place
in movie culture
Boy Meets Girl (1984) - unfolds like a
troubled, sometimes transcendently sensuous dream, clawed from the darkness;
gorgeously intuitive
A Matter Of Life And Death (1946) -
emblematic Powell - extremely old-world English, but also wildly exotic and
cinematically daring
On Dangerous Ground (1952) - has a great
physicality at times, but overall carries the feeling of a prototype for Ray's
fuller achievement
J’ai tue ma mere (2009) - finely crafted
with a great control of style & tone, but still minor - hard at this stage
to accept the Dolan hype
Bringing up Baby (1938) - almost mystically
funny and profound; still dazzling for how the relationship can be so
irrational and yet so true
Four Nights Of A Dreamer (1971) - as the
title suggests, foregrounds the abstract, quasi-romantic aspects of Bresson's
stunning cinema
If God Is Willing...(2010) - instructive
and provocative in parts, overly familiar and sketchy in others...but easily
worthwhile overall
Dust In The Wind (1986) - less provocative
and instructive than Hou's greatest work, but overflowing with gorgeous imagery
and observation
Advise & Consent (1962) - massively
gripping, exploring the necessity and limitations of structure and ritual with
almost supernatural poise
Day Of Wrath (1943) - compelling expression
of how female desire, in a superstitious world, seems almost indistinguishable
from pure evil
Hachi: A Dog’s Tale (2009) - appealing for
its idealistic sense of community & loyalty, & for making Gere look
like a dog's dream owner!
Daisies (1966) - an giddy, thrilling but
principled vision of liberation, implicitly criticizing all that we squander in
free societies
Crime And Punishment (1935) - a weird,
barely-controlled melting pot, but Lorre's crazed engagement with the world
carries a real charge
Le signe du lion (1959) - early Rohmer
seems as interested in playing God as exploring inner mysteries; an intriguing
launching pad anyway..
My Darling Clementine (1946) - one of
Ford's starkest and greatest works, depicting stability and myth gradually
asserting itself over chaos
The State Of Things (1982) - I hate to go
with the flow on this, but Wenders' key films sure seemed more important then
than they do now
Verboten! (1959) - packs a remarkably
potent survey of attitudes into less than 90 minutes, with incredible
low-budget resourcefulness
Chloe (2009) - massively lamentable effort;
even calls into question Egoyan's basic competence and feeling for how humans
actually function
Lebanon (2009) - functions more as a
blackly clever concept movie than a
progressive commentary on war; always intriguing, but limited
The Shanghai Gesture (1941) - von Sternberg
conveys a total immersion in the crazed artificiality, creating something truly
weird & striking
The Ascent (1977) - one of the most vivid
portrayals of humans being tested and (in part) failing, allowing a spawn of
provocative readings
The Wrong Man (1956) - one of Hitchcock's
most reality-anchored films paradoxically becomes one of his most existential,
even Bressonian
The Key (1983) - functions like a
Bertolucci knock-off without his exquisite sensibility; interesting enough, but
doesn't gel into much
To Have And Have Not (1944) - a film of
mystical unity; how can it be so alluring & stylized while also so gripping
& morally instructive?
La Dolce Vita (1960) - I'm not the greatest
Fellini admirer, but this is undeniably fascinating, phenomenally orchestrated
and calibrated
My Dinner With Andre (1981) - an indulgence
for sure, but the emotional and thematic takeaway is pretty satisfying, almost
despite itself
The Music Room (1958) - stately and quietly
moving, attentive both to the majesty and the hopelessness of its protagonist's
worldview
Women In Trouble (2009) - I guess the big
message here is that the porn life is just a life like any other; sure, I'll
subscribe to that...
Celine et Julie vont en bateau (1974) -
simply one of the most rigorous, sustained, tangible, meaningful fantasies in
all of cinema
Petulia (1968) - less interesting now for
the flash and "kookiness" than for the sure sense of a society losing
touch with its own needs
Last Year At Marienbad (1961) - the
comparisons re Inception aren't entirely misplaced, but they only show up
Nolan's literal-mindedness
Minnie And Moskowitz (1971) - perhaps more
revealing of the coarseness in Cassavetes' sensibility than his more complex
& accomplished works
The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo (2009) -
seeing this unremarkable movie in isolation, it's a mystery why this material
is currently so hot
She Wore A Yellow Ribbon (1949) -
beautifully explores the rituals and myths of the West, their glory and
fragility and inadequacies
Europa 51 (1952) - a thrilling expression
of faith taking root among the post-war ruins, and the governing ideology's
rejection of it
Everybody's Fine (2009) - largely like a
glossy, maudlin, schematic variation on Tokyo Story; still, De Niro is quietly
affecting at times
The Mother And The Whore (1973) - one of
the greatest films on sexual politics - despairingly chronicles the limits of
the human project
2001: A Space Odyssey (1968) - always
intriguing how Kubrick seems as fascinated by our banality as our (still
dazzlingly imagined) promise
The Girl On The Train (2009) - another
impeccable, insinuating Techine meditation on human interactions, possibilities
and mysteries
Get Low (2010) - never achieves any great
lift-off, and often fussily handled, but expert old-timer acting keeps it
interesting enough
Psycho (1960) - the formal discipline and
astonishing structure almost distracts you from its magnificent strangeness
& near-abstraction
Malpertuis (1971) - a much more intimate
form of mythmaking than we're likely to see again; remains odd and surprising
even if you know it
Michael Jackson's This Is It (2009) -
commendably disciplined; focuses on process & musicianship, leaving intact
what remains of his mystery
The Devil, Probably (1977) - mesmerizing
and remarkably tough-minded, although ultimately one of Bresson's simpler
works, probably
The Box (2009) - it's no surprise when the
initial intrigue gets crushed by overblown mythology, but it's still
disappointing just how much
Le Samourai (1967) - over time you view it
increasingly as endlessly fascinating performance art, built around private
versus public rituals
The Runaways (2010) - largely successful in
transcending cliches and methodically tapping the (albeit rather confused)
feminine perspective
The Mother Of Tears (2007) - has all of
Argento's weaknesses, but the strengths overcome them this time - repulsive,
but ruthlessly gripping
Woodstock (1970) - the director's cut;
probably evokes the scope & the heart of the overall event as well as any
mere 3 1/2 hours ever could
Helas pour moi (1993) - achingly beautiful;
transmits profound sadness that (to put it very basically) the world can't be
better than it is
Paranormal Activity (2007) - effective
enough, although only by declining most of the possibilities the genre (&
cinema in general) present
Paris Belongs To Us (1961) - Rivette's
fascinating debut; often feels like a cross between the later him and someone a
bit more conventional
Motherhood (2009) - casting Thurman in this
put-upon role is fanciful, but on the other hand she does carry the movie (what
there is of it)
La naissance de l’amour (1993) - very
haunting, sculpted in extreme melancholy & lost possibility; evokes strong
desire to see more Garrel
Prodigal Sons (2008) - interesting
throughout, but never amounts to more than the sum of its parts, despite
somewhat strenuous attempts
The Phantom Of Liberty (1974) - Inception
my foot!...the stuff of dreams is here, but also of profound engagement (and
it's way more fun)
Moon (2009) - not much here to disrupt
one's orbit; could have used the color of Silent Running, or just a sliver of
anything 2001 had
Le Plaisir (1952) - remarkable in every way;
almost seems to distill all human knowledge of desire and fulfillment into just
90 minutes
The Invention Of Lying (2009) - hard to
believe Gervais settled for such a conventional, fuzzy approach to this
concept, but here it is...
L'amour fou (1969) - unusually raw and
gritty for Rivette, and completely fascinating, not least as a
"prologue" of sorts to Out 1
Inception (2010) - seriously overpraised in
some quarters; an impressive piece of structuring, but with little overall
meaning or relevance
Dillinger Is Dead (1969) - ...but hope
survives (barely), in Ferreri's weirdly playful, meticulous, iconoclastic
prescription
Soul Power (2008) - terrific if fragmented
piece of strutting archaeology; falls in the tiny category of movies you wish
had been longer
Lions Love (1969) - Varda takes a ride on a
conceptual bronco and mostly holds on; knowingly messy, but also moving and
piercing at times
Taking Woodstock (2009) - pretty fatal
evidence for those who try to claim Ang Lee as a great director; has no texture
or feel for anything
Out One (1971) - a truly unique viewing
privilege, rich in creativity & mystery while exploring an immense
intellectual disillusionment
Surrogates (2009) - some arresting images
and ideas, but overall very thin; reminds you at every stage of other more
fully-developed movies
The Long Long Trailer (1953) - enjoyable,
eternally resonant missive from a culture defined entirely by commodities and
stereotyped desires
I Am Love (2009) - remarkably sensual and
attentive and pleasurable, although just too narrow I think to be valued at the
highest level
Julia (2008) - a remarkable, daredevil
study in performance, with Swinton just scintillating; I sure wish Zonca worked
more frequently
Lady Oscar (1979) - sadly plain and straightforward
compared to Demy's great work, barely tapping the material's considerable
possibilities
The Joneses (2009) - has some nice
satirical touches here and there, but it's seldom as biting or disquieting as
you'd like it to be
Variety Lights (1950) - largely
sentimental, although with a cold streak; expertly engrossing, but only hints
at Fellini's later ambitions
All Of Me (1984) - still a joyous viewing
experience, galvanized by Martin's amazing performance and a total conviction
in the fairy tale
No Subtitles Necessary: Laszlo & Vilmos
(2008) - a bit unbalanced (what's with all the Frances coverage?) but valuable
and evocative overall
The Human Condition II (1959) - patiently
& eloquently extends the first film's humanist project, reaching a chilling
arrival point
The Kids Are All Right (2010) - a
surprisingly conventional (while well-executed & funny) surface, but with
real underlying conviction
Legal Eagles (1986) -
lumbering and almost entirely toothless, but quasi-interesting for a kind of
courtly quality that's seldom seen now
The Fireman (1916) - moves rapidly from
balletic ass-kicking to a potted arson drama, as if summing up Chaplin's
escalating ambition
Ponyo (2008) - as charming &
iconoclastic as all Miyazaki's work, with an accessible (but hardly simple)
vision of delight & transcendence
Cold Souls (2009) - certainly well handled;
intriguing for how Barthes makes elements of potentially nutty fantasy seem
almost desolate
Abbott And Costello Meet The Mummy (1955) -
a sad sight by any measure, especially for the duo's overwhelming lack of
energy and intuition
El Topo (1970) - amazingly confident,
visually ravishing, structurally startling mythmaking, with more humanity than
the legend may suggest
Downhill Racer (1969) - remarkably desolate
sports movie, with Redford at his coldest, finding little distinction between
triumph & wipe-out
Sherrybaby (2006) - puts most of its chips
on Gyllenhaal, which works out fine, but the "grittiness" remains
within accessible limits
The Unholy Three (1925) - mesmerizing
whenever it hits its gorgeously freakish stride, although it ultimately peters
out a bit
Nobody Waved Good-Bye (1964) - fascinating
study of a glib teenager, born in wrong time and place, basically talking
himself into oblivion
Hello Goodbye (2008) - utterly
underdeveloped; feels like the main motivation was to deploy two stars for some
kind of tax write-off scheme
Going Shopping (2005) - pretty and pleasant
but utterly toothless Jaglom creation doesn't exactly suggest a very expansive
worldview
Night Of The Demon (1957) - increasingly
anguished blend of British drabness & wild mysticism; full of fascinating
linkages & implications
Ossos (1997) - precisely evokes a startling
local reality while experimenting with Bressonian aesthetics...a long way from
later Costa
The Art Star And The Sudanese Twins (2007)
- despite the odd background, a pretty flat reverie on the fine line between
art and exploitation
Middle Of The Night (1959) - despite Mann's
drab direction and a weak ending, fairly moving for the fluid writing and
March's authenticity
The Prisoner or: How I Planned To Kill Tony
Blair (2006) - absurd/horrifying, tightly-focused complement to wider-scale
Iraq condemnations
Blaise Pascal (1972) - not quite as meticulous
as Cartesius in charting the topography of a great mind, but immensely
informative and worthy
Winter's Bone (2010) - provocative and
seemingly informative as a window on a startlingly self-contained community;
very cannily handled..
The Carey Treatment (1972) - always
intriguing for how Edwards' deadpan style so perfectly wraps around Coburn's
near-mystical sense of self
The Private Lives Of Pippa Lee (2009) -
interesting to try building a movie around such a self-effacing character, but
doesn't yield much
Mr. Thank You (1936)
- sets out many of Japan's strains & tensions of the time, but with a
delightful sense of community & possibility
The Honey Pot (1967) - hardly Mankiewicz at
his best, and outright clunky at time, but mostly gets by on classically
elegant performances
New York, I Love You (2009) - feels like
everyone involved had a gun at their heads, forcing them to do the dreamy
wistful thing...
Intentions Of Murder (1964) - extremely
twisted and disconcerting tale of female empowerment in a painfully mixed-up
post-war Japan
Splice (2010) - ideas count for much less
here than the genre's demands for speed & clarity; imagine Michael Mann
addressing such themes...
The Human Factor (1979) - suitable final
note from Preminger dryly captures the Cold War's weird mixing of formality and
derangement
La constellation Jodorowsky (1994) -
doesn't adequately convey his artistic significance, but valuable for various
personal insights
Let There Be Light (1946) - a window on the
dawn of our new ultra-therapized age, simultaneously both humane and somehow
depersonalizing
The Burning Plain (2008) - diverting
enough, but ultimately predictable and unrevealing; the smart-alec structure
counts for very little
The Human Condition I (1959) - powerfully
sets out the meagre possibilities for progressive humanism in a time of fear
and self-interest
A Perfect Getaway (2009) - has the same
surprise ending as every other movie now; genre pieces like this sure used to
have more color
Return Of The Secaucus Seven (1980) - still
engaging but seems very conventional now, and often pretty forced; provides
only modest insight
Intimate Enemies (2007) - soberly gripping;
an effective historical reference point re appropriate terms of engagement with
"terrorists"
The Exiles (1961) - utterly no feeling of
artifice; the sense of existential loss and separation from their original
purpose is overwhelming
Spread (2009) - good evocation of
decadence, but otherwise pretty soft; Kutcher is much better at cool distance
than at loss & devastation
The Grim Reaper
(1962) - parade of deprived souls has early signs of Bertolucci's analytical
prowess & some sad, chilling social observation
Gumshoe (1971) - the dissonant, stylized
Liverpool setting works well at first, but ultimately the impact is
self-defeatingly generic
Brothers (2009) - has some pleasant
naturalistic moments, but overall too sculptured & pretty; way below the
(overrated) Danish original
In Vanda's Room (2000) - fascinating as
anthropology, dissolving any conventional relationship between humanism and
aesthetic calculation
Harry Brown (2009) - relentlessly and
distastefully silly, although Caine's dignity and the over the top
"grittiness" help it roll along
L'histoire d'Adele H (1975) - elegantly
& enigmatically reflects on the historical perception of female empowerment
as a form of madness
Three Lives And Only One Death (1996) -
very elegant metaphor for creativity & engagement, so gracefully handled it
almost seems rational
The Girl In The Park (2007) - certainly
modest, but benefits enormously from Weaver's moving performance and from some
intriguing psychology
The L-Shaped Room (1962) - not too
distinctive, but true to Caron's lovely fragility and to the lousy economics
governing all the lives here
The Yacoubian Building (2006) - epic saga
of changing times in Egypt, sometimes cheesy, but also often bold &
anthropologically interesting
The Two Jakes (1990) - surprising Nicholson
would be such an uninspired director; lousy instincts & pacing kill off the
promise throughout
Oceans (2009) - easily labeled a spectacle
for kids, but forget being a cineaste - just as a human, what could be more
elevating than this?
The Unknown (1927) - the closing stretch is
still as unnerving as anything you'll ever see, with Lon Chaney at his most
mesmerizing...
The Czech Dream (2004) - amusing real-life
anecdote of expert hoax, ultimately crafting some nice parallels with the
pro-Europe movement
Orphan (2009) - throws a silly excess of
ingredients into the pot, and it's hopelessly formulaic, but done with darkly
handsome proficiency
No Regrets For Our Youth (1946) - variable but evocative early
Kurosawa; a stylistic mixed bag, building to a back-to-the-land paean
Choke (2008) - largely rancid viewing experience; feels like
being cornered in a topless bar by a smutty relationship therapist
Surveillance (2008) -
makes most sense if seen as a kind of depraved performance-art tone poem,
otherwise it just seems messy and tone d
O'Horten (2007) - pretty thin, even by the
standards of such throwaway quirkiness; intriguing at times for its sense of a
waking dream
Moby Dick (1956) - inadequately sustained,
but with the right sense of inner coherence, however self-destructive, found
only in obsession
Battle For Haditha (2007) - for me much
more impactful and moving than The Hurt Locker, although some might consider it
unsubtly anti-US
Vertical Features Remake (1978) - a major
step ahead in the fascinating progression of Greenaway's short films, cranking
up the mythology
Voices From Beyond (1994) - Fulci's last
film shows him in sure decline; it's visually undistinguished with little sense
of conviction
Stuck (2007) - a highly gripping little
curio, pumping everything there is to be had from its nutty premise, and then
knowing when to quit
Please Give (2010) - nicely explores issues
of fulfillment & obligation within a very smart structure; intriguing and
engaging throughout
The Falls (1980) - amazing myth making,
even when heavy going; makes you marvel anyone could have so much creative
capacity and discipline
Everlasting Moments (2008) - restrained
memoir, usually choosing not to stare directly into the hurt; the impact is
precise but modest...
The Good Night (2007) - one of those
celebrity-laden exercises where you get the feeling they all forgot halfway
through why they bothered..
The Daytrippers (1996) - perpetually
underrated, nicely balanced between sharp observation and whimsicality (a
pointer who can't point!)
I Married A Monster From Outer Space (1958)
- from the opening stag that feels like a wake, effortlessly resonant about
50's discontent..
Tickets (2005) - Loach's bit is happily
familiar; Olmi's overly sculptured; Kiarostami's surprisingly easygoing;
overall elegant but limited
You Don't Know Jack (2010) - Pacino is
terrific, but a bland-ish movie -mostly limits itself to presenting Jack's side
cleanly and clearly
Walkabout (1971) - gorgeously achieved;
constantly surprising & productively disorienting, although without the layers
of Roeg's later works
Nothing But The Truth (2008) - mostly
workmanlike, with little texture, but easy to watch & an OK primer on some
freedom of the press issues
The Diary Of An Unknown Soldier (1959) -
Watkins' style is already remarkably formed and raw, even if the antiwar
sentiments are familiar
Simon Of The Desert (1965) - how do you
prove your piety without placing yourself as close to Satan as possible (like,
on the dancefloor!)
Lianna (1983) - conveys a real fascination
with the possibilities for female growth & self-expression, although often
succumbs to convention
Golden Boy (1939) - Holden still feels
modern but a lot of the rest is pure shtick; generally compelling though,
sometimes even dazzling
The Secret In Their Eyes (2009) - the best
foreign film Oscar goes once again for easy glitz; this beats Audiard &
Haneke?...gimme a break..
River Queen (2005) -
reminiscent at every turn of better films, and a bit of a slog, but has its
watered-down Malick/Campion-esque moments..
The Loneliness Of The Long-Distance Runner
(1962) - compared to similar films of the time, a bit strenuous in its
structure and symbolism
Save The Green Planet (2003) - potentially
tiring high-octane fantasy (spanning Kubrick to Saw) easily gets by on polished
giddiness
The Gladiators (1969)
- hits plenty of punches, and delightfully strange at times, but more didactic
and narrow than Watkins' best work
The Knockout (1914) - almost embryonic in
its technique, but takes a leap when Chaplin appears, already radiating
screen-friendly agility
Dead Snow (2009) - Nazi zombie gore against
pristine white backgrounds; utterly nutty, but gets the pace and attitude
bloody right
Sitting Ducks (1980)
- as always, Jaglom's heart is in the shambling, sometimes touching sense of
community; but not his most achieved work
And Now For Something Completely Different
(1972) - even some of Python's best bits struggle against the heavy-footed
overall approach
Jules et Jim (1961) - after many viewings,
it seems often forced to me, although with perpetually intriguing technique
& sexual politics
The Wild Angels (1966) - the early sense of
liberation doesn't last for long; turns into a surprisingly rigorous
deconstruction of the myth
There's A Girl In My Soup (1970) - the cardboard-like
Sellers/Hawn relationship never makes an iota of sense; pointlessly watchable
at best
La petite Lili (2003) - evolves rather
unexpectedly into a strange meditation on cinema's healing power; overall
enjoyable, but unsatisfying
The Uneasy Three (1925) - quite elegant Leo
McCarey comedy showing his escalating complexity, riffing nicely on the era's
moral principles
The Blind Side (2009) - sure, might have
deserved the Oscar attention, just like I might be eating the world’s most
nutritious Twinkie bar
Coraline (2009) - very tangibly enchanting,
and watching it shortly after Valerie And Her Week Of Wonders helps jazz up the
subtext
Valerie And Her Week
Of Wonders (1970) - mysteriously fascinating, overflowing reverie on the
potential havoc of unleashed female sexuality
Spring Breakdown
(2009) - shrill, shallow spectacle tries to talk a good game about poor female
empowerment, when not crudely exploiting it
La bete humaine (1938) - still a
disquieting, hugely confident work, most chilling for its grim insinuations on
impact of industrialization
All The President's Men (1976) - as free of
cliche & excess as such a film could possibly be; handsomely resonant about
corruption & power
Mes nuits sont plus belles que vos jours
(1989) - strangely ripe and moving, crafting a zone of expression outside
normal laws & conventions
Heller In Pink Tights (1960) - some heavy
plotting, but enchantingly illustrates how theatrical flourish enchants even
the tough & the jaded
The Immigrant (1917) - Chaplin calibrating
& deepening his comedy here, growing increasingly intricate & subtle as
the backdrops get bigger
Mother (2009) - Bong is a shrewd and subtle
stylist, and it's a gripping narrative, but the movie's after-taste is
ultimately pretty generic
Tracks (1977) - Jaglom's artful swing from
the convivial to the deranged speaks volumes about the impact of Vietnam on the
national psyche
Killing Me Softly (2002) - idea of applying
a (way) outsider's perspective (Chen Kaige!) to familiar titillation material
falls utterly flat
The Young Girls Of
Rochefort (1967) - a sprawling dream of community; takes your breath away how
many things Demy holds in alignment here
Management (2008) - minor and stilted, with
an old-hat turning-round-your-life theme, & two stars who seem to belong on
different planets
Some Came Running (1958) - fascinating
melodrama, with a persistent sense of longing and rootlessness and enormous
depth of expression
Greenberg (2010) - has its moments
throughout (Gerwig brings a lot), but seldom as original or existentially
captivating as Baumbach intends
Empties (2007) - has an amiable glow, but
suggests no reason at all for existing, other than the director finding a lead
role for his dad
The Cheat (1915) - a rich narrative of transgression;
more evidence of how inadequately DeMille's later reputation sums up his full
career
Human Resources (1999) - examines with
great, sympathetic precision the toll of an ideology built on inherently
soul-destroying structures
Transsiberian (2008) - very gripping in a
somewhat old-fashioned, wintery way, and highly atmospheric; Brad Anderson is
quite underrated...
Crisis (1946) - premonitions of later
Bergman, especially in the tortured gigolo character, but for now he lets
small-town values win out
Precious (2009) - less of a
"“sociological horror show” than I'd feared, but minor; often feels like a
weird collage of gimmicky ideas…
Barfly (1987) - diverting enough, but
flatter and less informative than its roots and Schroeder's achievements elsewhere
would suggest
Cartesius (1974) - a transcendent project
in education & illumination, particularly viewed now, with integrity &
reason so widely degraded..
The Passionate Friends (1949) - highly
engrossing as it acts out the ambiguity in the title - a relationship lacking a
natural equilibrium..
Outsourced (2006) - conventional in its
approach to emotions and issues, but makes some good points about the West's
dwindling hegemony
Macbeth (1982) - told in just two takes; conveying the spooky
sense of maybe being Macbeth's posthumous telescoped tortured recollection...
The Godless Girl (1929) - maybe God wins the day this time, but
DeMille doesn't leave much doubt it might ultimately swing the other way
Un prophete (2009) - a punchy narrative for sure, very intuitive
& resonant re implications for Europe's old guard as its power hollows out
Twentynine Palms (2003) - the elemental, searching quality is
intriguing, but hard to shake off the sense of a cruder Zabriskie Point
When Did You Last See
Your Father? (2007) - well, not as recently as I saw a dozen other equally
inconsequentially "sensitive" movies
Battle In Seattle (2007) - effective
overall in navigating the big picture; less so when resorting to conventional
character arcs
Walker (1987) - pretty didactic at times,
but a concentrated fist of a movie, mesmerizing as the deliberate anachronisms
start to invade
Saute ma ville (1968) - as striking as
Jeanne Dielman in a "performance art" kind of way, making domesticity
spooky and imprisoning
A Foreign Affair (1948) - some flimsy
foreground maneuvers, against a devastating Berlin backdrop & satisfying
barbs at the hand that feeds
The Ghost Writer (2010) - a steely take on
power: exhibits all Polanski's skill, but limited by genre-driven
conventionality I think
Temple Grandin (2010) - bathed in an
unimaginatively pristine glow, but generally engaging & informative about
her achievements
Fish Tank (2009) - strong and intriguing
throughout, with memorably abrasive character dynamics; almost unbearable
tension at one point
Can She Bake A Cherry Pie? (1983) - really
just a series of fragments, but striking for the sense of something deeply
personal at its centre
The Holy Mountain (1973) - an astonishing,
uncompromising, rebellious, exacting vision; all modern epics look merely
disposable next to it
Desaccord parfait (2006) - feels like a
tacky relic from the 70's; has possibilities on paper (like, Rampling!),
realizes none of them
The Messenger (2009) - a moving, complex
reverie about crafting meaningful self-identity within the military worldview's distorted contours
The New York Ripper (1982) - benefits from
Fulci's zealous approach to the slasher stuff, & from the backdrop of a
crummy guilt-ridden city
Baghead
(2008) - entertaining so-called mumblecore approach to Blair Witch-type
material, although greater ambition wouldn't have hurt
Un
lever de rideau (2006) - a pleasant & fluent, somewhat Rohmeresque
miniature, but with a sense of strain that confirms Ozon's limitations
On
The Beach (1959) - actually works better if taken as a metaphor for our
slow-motion response to environmental & other pending crises
A
Letter To Uncle Boonmee (2009) - on The Auteurs website; a suitable intro to
Apichatpong's gorgeous (if initially head-scratching) work
Lake
Of Fire (2006) - pristine & scalding; both sides have honesty &
passion, but one side has more crazed (mostly male) self-righteousness
Vers
Mathilde (2005) - a graceful, intuitive and logical documentary counterpoint to
Claire Denis' awesome narrative films of this decade
Shutter
Island (2010) - absorbing and fluent, but comically unworthy of a so-called
greatest living director (low ambition, or insecurity?)
L'intrus
(2004) - truly on the outer edge of what you can expect a (merely human!)
filmmaker to create; just thrilling to contemplate
The
Dragon Painter (1919) - a sweet, graceful, although immensely abbreviated (and,
sure, silly) little fable; Hayakawa is very empathetic
Munchhausen
(1943) - mostly a charming if chilly fantasy, very visually inventive at times,
although has an air of superiority somehow
Anvil!
The Story Of Anvil (2008) - good fun, well-pitched re both the poignancy and
the Spinal Tap echoes, no Some Kind Of Monster though
The
Happy Ending (1969) - quite personal & touching at times; too glossily
calculated at others; hides a hankering to get raunchier I feel
Je,
tu, il, elle (1976) - says much on societal/psychological strictures, while
probing possibilities for productive human collision..
Satantango
(1994) - as per legend, a starkly magnificent, slyly funny, not unduly
punishing (!) 7-hour spiritual/social devastation epic
Ballad
Of A Soldier (1959) - surely unfairly forgotten now; get past the pro-Soviet
paeans and it's well-observed, touching, even surprising
In
Search Of A Midnight Kiss (2007) - even at its best a poor dude's Before
Sunrise, although unusually informative about the LA topography
Last
Life In The Universe (2003) - a wonderful luminous film, with real weight and
poignancy to its genre-grounded magic realism
10
Items Or Less (2006) - a self-regarding, tone-deaf stunt, rendering Morgan
Freeman more annoying than would have seemed possible
Knight
Without Armour (1937) - formed by long-out-the-window aesthetic conventions,
but Feyder finds a tender core within the creakiness
Seance
(2000) - narratively fairly straightforward, but genuinely creepy and
troubling, with elements of strange, plaintive social critique
A
Shot In The Dark (1964) - a very consistent, deadpan take on a brilliantly
ambiguous “idiot” challenging order in a flatly venal world
Crazy
Heart (2009) - the great Bridges could surely have gone further, into more
complex territory, but the film doesn't want to go there...
La
chambre (1972) - almost uncanny how such a simple formal idea seems to
accommodate so much unsettling implication
Irma
La Douce (1963) - 2nd rate Wilder at best: handsome and peppy, but so
ridiculous it almost takes on an air of liberating abstraction
Fury
(1936) - still potent damn-your-land-of-opportunity viewing, although
melodramatic contrivance weighs too heavily in the second half
The
Cure (1917) - important early insight that stuffy institutions are only
validated by being mocked (for which it helps to be blind drunk)
Police,
Adjective (2009) - a shrewd, deadpan expression of a cop's loss of
individuality (which mainly only consisted of tedium anyway)...
Man
Of The West (1958) - a fascinating, brooding genre piece, full of sublimated
pain at old relationships and codes breaking apart
Smoke
(1995) - nicely done and endlessly convivial; but acknowledging its own
weightlessness doesn't ultimately equate to countering it...
The
Phantom Carriage (1921) - grippingly structured and genuinely creepy, eerily
conveying the pain both of this world and the next
Seems
Like Old Times (1980) - was it really only thirty years ago that such amiable
middle-aged plasticity could be a big-screen event?
The
Imaginarium Of Doctor Parnassus (2009) - plot has an utter "whatever"
quality, but it's a good skeleton for Gilliam's inventive clutter
The
Local Stigmatic (1990) - weird and almost entirely viewer-resistant, although
testifies to Pacino's wayward theatrical roots
Grey
Gardens (2009) - finds an honorable and moving approach to the characters, but
still never completely shakes off a sense of redundancy
Gervaise
(1956) – just as handsome as Children Of Paradise, poignantly contrasting her
sweet industriousness and her lovers' venality
Tillie's
Punctured Romance (1914) - cinematically dull, with lots of stilted activity,
but also some elegance in the embryonic slapstick
Up
In The Air (2009) - disappointingly weightless; feels created by people whose
entire sense of the business world comes from other movies
Chinese
Coffee (2000) - standard minor-league theatrics; Pacino and Orbach just have
too much presence to embody these sad, minor lives...
The
Little Fugitive (1953) - a great 50's New York time capsule, showing the
ambiguous freedoms of youth in a less neurotic and cautious age
Tropical
Malady (2004) - amazingly alluring and sensuous; takes a second viewing though
to appreciate it as prose as well as poetry
Kings
And Queen (2004) - often feels like a gorgeous caper, even as it skirts
despair; Desplechin's grasp of human capacity is peerless
Avatar
(2009) - full of pleasing (if confused) political provocation, although
ultimately feels more like experiencing a game than a film
The
Fatal Glass Of Beer (1933) - near brilliant in its beyond-whimsical form and
content; Fields' persona is as stubbornly radical as ever
The
Nutty Professor (1963) - shot through with elements of nastiness and twisted
self-regard, with no interest in real people generally
Le
Rayon Vert (1986) - not sure why this is so often cited as one of Rohmer's
best, not that it isn't utterly engaging of course...
Big
Deal On Madonna Street (1958) - a nice mix of broad and more subtle comedy,
caper mechanics, and sometimes poignant social portraiture
Nine
(2009) - I can’t recall a recent film with so little sense of spontaneity
(especially murderous, obviously, for a musical)
Boomerang
(1947) - fascinatingly ambitious procedural, built on meticulous organization,
laying groundwork for Kazan's richer work to come
Confessions
Of A Window Cleaner (1974) - under the relentless surface, really quite a
melancholy window on a repressed and mediocre society
La
regle du jeu (1939) - one of the truly great films; elegant beyond comparison;
scintillatingly complex; possessing a mysterious harmony
Clean
(2004) - another terrifically quirky examination by Assayas of globalization's
existential toll, full of remarkable observations
Invictus
(2009) - Eastwood's mega-pragmatic but principled form of stylization might by
now be the most reliable tool-kit in the business...
La
Chinoise (1967) - gorgeously vivid and stimulating; triangulates intellect and
playfulness in a way that seems lost to mass culture now
Don
Quijote de Orson Welles (1992) - shockingly slapdash in realizing Welles'
intentions, but still an eye-opener, sometimes even beautiful
Casualties
Of War (1989) - Vietnam as a purely cinematic creation, illustrating its
horrible malleability both as experience and history...
Wristcutters:
A Love Story (2006) - the grungy afterlife for suicides is initially
intriguing, but peters out into meet-cute/new-age stuff
A
Single Man (2009) - so being gay, it seems, mainly means being polite and
pretty and wistful; a beautiful installation, but barely a film
La
Route de Corinthe (1967) - some good moments, but an early sign of Chabrol's
willingness to ease off artistically and enjoy the good life
Force
Of Evil (1948) - compelling and politically charged; Garfield's is one of the
all-time great portrayals of morally-bankrupt go-getting
Through
A Glass Darkly (1961) - is the poor woman swallowed up for the sake of male
unity, or liberated (to join God the spider?), or both?
Pigs
And Battleships (1961) - inspired provocation of a chronically misled post-war
Japan gone all but mad; leaves a corrosive aftertaste
Me
And Orson Welles (2008) - knowingly old-fashioned and affectionate; feels true
and informative as an evocation of Welles’ working methods
The
Balloonatic (1923) - Keaton's customarily elegant staging and the ultimate
escape from earthly ties creates something quite transcendent
The
Valley (Obscured By Clouds) (1972) - a shaggy mysticism time capsule; goes from
stilted to moderately enlightening, but always watchable
Jimmy
Carter Man From Plains (2007) - maybe Carter was just too decent and thoughtful
to be an effective President (Obama parallel ahead?..)
Claire's
Knee (1970) - a kind of abstracted, sun-kissed Dangerous Liaisons; fascinating
and nicely ambiguous, but second-tier Rohmer I think
Collapse
(2009) - at least 90% correct if you ask me, and 100% riveting, even if you
barely react to it with your usual aesthetic criteria..
L'Argent
(1983) - I'm always in awe of Bresson's navigation between often horrifying
specific causality, and inter-connection/predestination
The
Insect Woman (1963) - an amazingly ambitious study of venality, although at
least seems to allow mankind some faint remaining hope...
Knowing
(2009) - if this had been made forty years ago pre-CE3K with a bit more grit,
might have seemed like a true wonder; now, not so much
Ne
touchez pas la hache (2007) - much more radical and adventurous than it first
appears; beautifully strange and quietly savage...
Baby
Face (1933) - concentrated spectacle of magnificent Stanwyck dissecting and
blasting through men; amazing (except for soft ending)
L'aimee
(2007) - Desplechin's quietly brave object lesson in creating resonance and
texture from highly localized material
The
Road (2009) - a bleak film for sure, but to little end; separated from the
zombie apocalypse genre only by its self-righteous austerity
Killshot
(2008) - efficient enough, but nothing about it even vaguely suggests the
possibility of a higher-echelon Elmore Leonard flick...
Koko:
A Talking Gorilla (1978) - through its careful observation of existential
complexity, links compellingly to Schroeder's other work
The
Candidate (1972) - the triumph of image-making over substance... perpetually
resonant no matter how much the hairstyles change...
The
International (2009) - like making a Bernie Madoff movie and, just to jazz
things up, having him be a serial killer too...
The
Headless Woman (2008) - strangely puts me in mind of Lynch's Inland Empire
through its multiplicity of (real or imagined) implications..
The
Ninth Gate (1999) - sad to see Polanski's sly sense of the perverse reduced to
such glossy gobbledygook, no matter how easily watchable
Goya's
Ghosts (2006) - handled fluidly enough, but the heavy use of dramatic
contrivance puts it firmly in the annals of the second-rate...
White
Cannibal Queen (1980) - as lousy a creation as you'll ever see, embodying every
disdainful cliche applied to low-budget genre cinema
The
Big Heat (1953) - Lang goes to the edge of the then-permissible, letting the
stink of layers of corruption seep right to the surface
Fantastic
Mr. Fox (2009) - shimmers with painstaking respect for the integrity of an
ecosystem, however quirkily and dreamily imagined...
Clash
By Night (1952) - with everyone highly expressive of some deep block, feels
much like Lang encroaching (with great precision) on Sirk
I
Am Curious - Yellow (1967) - actually rather touching in portraying Lena's
somewhat reckless curiosity & desire to make a difference..
Ornamental
Hairpin (1941) - no Ozu, but still an engaging, structurally quirky miniature,
full of insight into Japanese social rigidity..
Carnal
Knowledge (1971) - now feels like a narrow performance art piece, if not a
stunt, although Nicholson is eternally mesmerizing
Bad
Lieutenant: Port Of Call New Orleans (2009) - funny how Herzog flourishes again
as the state of our societal misdirection deepens..
House
Of Bamboo (1955) - could be seen now as a beautiful abstract parody of
globalization - men in suits whipping up cross-border mayhem..
Fando
and Lis (1968) - Fellini, Makaveyev, apocalypse, chicks with whips, Garden of
Eden...you gotta problem with that?...didn't think so!
The
Racket (1951) - condensed and sharp, although its approach to visuals and
relationships often feels too much like series TV to come..
The
Railrodder (1965) - rather uneasily grafting an affectionate late Keaton
tribute onto a Canadian travelogue; nice but not much more..
The
Leopard Man (1943) - a remarkably strange, spare and concentrated parable on
responsibility and self-definition in a confused world
Francesco,
giullare di Dio (1950) - a stunning, humane evocation; perhaps Rossellini's
necessary corridor to his great, complex 50's work..
Antichrist
(2009) - suggests a horrific dislocation in our relationship with Gaia and so
with each other...interesting when not too dour..
Putney
Swope (1969) - funny how much resonance/vision some of the dada stuff has - the
grotesque President even looks a bit like Reagan..
Felix
Saves The Day (1922) - an inventive (if primitive) delight, still pleasing in
how it defines and ventilates the physical & comic space
La
boheme (1926) - you certainly understand how Gish evokes such sympathy, but
she's so ethereal, physical desire seems almost grotesque..
A
Clockwork Orange (1971) - I often think I'd be content (safer?) never to see
this terrifying masterpiece again, and then I return to it
Bronson
(2008) - watching this you feel relieved our social structures, lousy as they
are, work as effectively for as many of us as they do
The
Red Desert (1964) - sets out a form of hope and adaptation but at the terrible
cost of alienation from all that's natural...
Blonde
Cobra (1963) - "What went wrong?"...a suitably anguished final note
for a deceptively tough-minded, uncompromising artwork...
Amreeka
(2009) - now there's the immigrant experience - integration means being able to
wear your White Castle uniform in public...
Promise
Her Anything (1965) - almost (but not quite) dislocated and clunky enough to be
intriguing, with Beatty's most ineffective work ever
An
Education (2009) - Mulligan is a mixed blessing: not charismatic enough to be
stunning, not ordinary enough to be convincing...
Fists
In The Pocket (1965) - pivotal movie of modern Italy: moments of bonding and
release intercepting the ongoing momentum toward doom..
35
rhums (2008) - might argue it unrealistically romanticizes normal life's quiet
wonders, but for me Denis is now one of the very best..
Avanti!
(1972) - conveys a moving sense of meditative renewal despite some questionable
mechanics (and Mills really isn't so fat either..)
Capitalism:
A Love Story (2009) - resist the self-serving capitalist machine by not paying
a premium price to watch this second-hand news..
Pickup
On South Street (1953) - still potent, triangulating Fuller's disdain for
Communism with his gritty delight in Widmark's neutrality
The
Men Who Stare At Goats (2009) - missed opportunities throughout - just stare at
this obvious list of structural and thematic weaknesses
7
Women (1966) - Ford's transplanting of Western codes to China is fascinating,
but did his Western heroes ever go through such contortions?
The
September Issue (2009) - Wintour says fashion’s always about looking forward,
not back, but that's the road to disposability, not art
Early
Summer (1951) - one of my favorite Ozus...happiness as a weighing of outcomes,
relative to possibilities seized and lost...
The
Stalking Moon (1968) - a quietly insinuating Western, forged from absences and
distances and wounded beauty
A
Serious Man (2009) - I sometimes think the Coens know the workings of almost
everything, but not the value of it...
Night
Wind (1999) - a world with a limited supply of human viability and too many
walking shells, and they grimly try to make it reconcile
Touki
Bouki (1973) - challengingly structured Senegalese film conveys the country's
parched texture while spinning some aspirational magic..
The
Apartment (1960) -still striking for its cynicism and frequent callousness, but
carries surprisingly little satiric force now
Flight
Of The Red Balloon (2007) - Hou's transcendentally enchanting tribute to the
intertwining of life and art; one of the decade's best
Breathless
(1960) - never loses its sense of the near-miraculous, not least for seeming so
impossibly coherent, and inevitable
In
The Loop (2009) - very vivid about why things just get worse and worse;
deranged performance art having replaced rationality and debate
House
Of Games (1987) - works best the first time of course, but Manet's neurotic
delight in his artifice remains clinically fascinating
Trouble
The Water (2008) - even after Spike Lee's great Katrina work, there's enough
there to disgust and depress you all over again...
Che
(2008) - takes on a sad grandeur in the almost deathwish-tinged second half, as
the limits of the revolutionary project become clear
Bright
Star (2009) - remarkably moving; at its most beautiful when finding physical
expressions for the ethereal web they create together
I
Am Curious - Blue (1968) - every element is dated, from the politics to the
pubic hair, but the earthy delight is still quite endearing..
The
Informant! (2009) - rather under-nourished, unimportant application of
Soderbergh's favorite "limits of control" theme...
North
By Northwest (1959) - one of the most sublimely slippery movies ever made,
supremely serious, and yet not at all...
Visage
(2009) - sometimes quite mesmerizing, but most of the time, visual and thematic
gibberish..Tsai's work is almost a chore to watch now
Inland
Empire (2006) - you miss the easier pleasures of Lynch's earlier works, and yet
at times this film seems to be redefining the world..
Pierrot
le fou (1965) - watching prime Godard remains one of the most exhilarating
journeys in cinema, and with the least amount of coasting
The
White Ribbon (2009) - almost intimidatingly rigorous and subtle, allowing as
many readings and implications as a coldly wrinkled palm
Mon
Oncle (1958) - from the dogs running free, to mankind's declining spontaneity
as it climbs the wage scale, seems richer every time
My
Son, My Son, What Have Ye Done (2009) - it's a sorry state when a Herzog film
is most interesting for speculating what David Lynch put in
Boarding
Gate (2007) - beneath the decadent surface, a vibrant, sensitive chapter in
Assayas' gradual construction of a theory of everything
Life
During Wartime (2009) - "In the end China will take over and none of this
will matter"...Solondz, none of your crap matters now either
Fin
aout, debut septembre (1998) - one of Assayas' very best films; the delicacy of
emotion and complexity of interaction is often thrilling
Honeymoons
(2009) - very accomplished although devastatingly depressing...a whole lot of
hell and just shreds of (probably misguided) hope
Death
At A Funeral (2007) - might have been directed by an extra-terrestrial...just a
few token gross-out laughs escape from the coffin..
Soul
Kitchen (2009) - well, why shouldn't Akin take a break if he wants to...the
Hollywood remake will barely need a rewrite...
Bonnie And Clyde (1967) - I see more now how it's Bonnie who
touchingly embodies the 60's metaphor, traveling from transcendence to oblivion
White
Material (2009) - a shimmering Denis masterpiece, uncannily capturing every
fraught moment, the weight of history, their intertwining
Walk
Don't Run (1966) - drawing relentlessly on conventions that used to work but
now don't..makes sense Cary Grant bowed out after this
Enter
The Void (2009) - easy to disdain, but haunting (at least!) for attempt to
dramatize trauma, to simultaneously regress and transcend..
The
Life Before Her Eyes (2007) - another example of painstaking craft applied to
material that's not worth a damn (in this life anyway)..
Le
refuge (2009) - has the typical Ozon allure and skill with actors, but doesn't
feel very necessary or important; dubious ending too...
Jeanne
Dielman (1975) - the 2001: A Space Odyssey of domesticity, equally as rich in
mystery and strange drama as the programming slips...
Hadewijch
(2009) - still has elements of what alienates people about Dumont, but feels
less like a lecture, more like a genuine search...
Mr
Smith Goes To Washington (1939) - one examines the movie for signs of hope of
turning round our current mess, but we're just too far gone
Vengeance
(2009) - a dour creation, with failed Melville wannabe streak - memorable use
of compacted trash bundles, among other "touches"
Bring
Me The Head Of Alfredo Garcia (1974) - bring me even just 1 or 2 movies a year
with such gritty mythic power (still 2nd level Sam tho)
District
9 (2009) - well, we screw up everything on earth, so why would alien arrivals
fare any better...no CE3K-type wonderment here...
Targets (1968) - drawing an affectionate line under an expired
horror aesthetic; if only Bogdanovich had remained this fresh and adept..
Tetro (2009) - not so thematically interesting except as an echo
of earlier Coppola ground, but has an energetic, shimmering confidence
Eccentricities of a Blonde-haired Girl (2009) - any film with
lines like "Commerce shuns a sentimental accountant" has to be
cherishable!
L'intrus (2004) - utterly life-enhancing; perhaps the greatest
film of the decade, although I might need an eternity to articulate why
Agora (2009) - impersonal and over-digitized, but all the
contemporary resonance you want (Iraq? Putrid political cultures? Got it!)
The Rounders (1914) - very early, booze-sodden Chaplin is a
static trifle, but startling for its full-on venomous portrayal of marriage...
Air Doll (2009) - often striking, but never transcends the
feeling of being a movie you'd only make when you're out of good ideas..
Broken English (2007) - mostly conventional, but Posey nails her
character, the dynamic with Poupaud is intriguing...and there's Paris!
Les herbes folles (2009) - in his late 80's Resnais still
manages to suggest cinematic (and even behavioral) space not yet charted..
Big Eyes (1974) - difficult at this time/space remove to know
how much his closing despair reflects a national existential fatigue or fear..
Swing Time (1936) - doesn't have the Minnelli/Donen-level
moments, but it's astonishingly happy and sustained, and meticulously
integrated
L’enfer d’Henri-Georges Clouzot (2009) - Clouzot's lost film
would likely have been just a dated curio by now, but seen this way, it glows
Husbands (1970) - this biting dance with trauma is what awaits
the Mad Men guys as the social contract fractures and darkens...
Cinema Museum (2008) - the sadness of the online era is we've
lost the physical intricacy and splendor that once attached to film-watching
Backstory (2009) - documentary on rear projection vividly
embodies how cinema not only survives but even thrives on its own
deconstruction
Broken Embraces (2009) - highly entertaining, but Almodovar's
inventiveness comes to feel like he's always turning away from something..
The Taking of Pelham 123 (2009) - take my once-decent concept
and turn it into a romper room for old men, please!
The Last Days Of Disco (1998) - finely calibrated, stylized
vision of disco's happy banality as never-to-be-regained social lubricant
Lorna's Silence (2008) - a more supercharged narrative than
usual for the Dardennes, but bleeds truth about constraints of the new Europe
Jeanne La Pucelle: Les Prisons (1994) - moving second part sets
out her downfall in a cultural/patriarchal context; overall - just brilliant
Jeanne La Pucelle: Les Batailles (1992) - Rivette superbly
explores Joan of Arc as a social phenomenon, and a form of living theater..
Darling (1965) - feels like a hollow attempt to merge Antonioni
(and a bit of Fellini) and the kitchen sink genre; minimal lasting interest
Le Testament D’Orphee (1959) - the closest modern cousins might
be Matthew Barney's films, but they don't have Cocteau's playfulness
Love In The Afternoon (1957) - essentially incoherent but
fascinating mixture of sentimentality and sleaze filtered through 50's codes..
Hannah Takes The Stairs (2007) - for all the naturalistic
trappings, an idealized notion of young, brainy, accessibly pretty interactions
American Swing (2008) - story of New York swingers club is
inherently diverting; not a very distinctive or expansive treatment of it
though
Toronto Stories (2008) - imaginative second segment is easily
the best - otherwise all appetizers, no kick - barely evokes the city I know..
Inglourious Basterds (2009) - Tarantino's gifts are formally
dazzling at times; only immoral to me in the sense of any playing with history
Glengarry Glen Ross (1992) - never loses its rambunctious
pleasure, even if it's a bit like watching a freeze-dried "official"
version...
Thirst (2009) - the vampire genre just keeps on giving; works
both as grim character study and as super-charged creator-destroyer metaphor
Lakeview Terrace (2008) - LaBute's early raw provocation still
vaguely beats on, beneath levels of generic thriller gloss..
Nick and Norah's Infinite Playlist (2008) - if only anything in
this incredibly minor movie was as evocative and expansive as the title...
The Cove (2009) - increasingly, serious documentaries make you
want to kill yourself; the only mildly cheery ones are on crappy marginalia..
F For Fake (1976) - becoming one of my favorite of all films -
incredibly distinctive, provocative and (I increasingly think) self-revealing
It All Starts Today (1999) - good solid piece of muck-raking,
but for posterity's purposes blown away by Cantet's later The Class
Mishima (1985) - Schrader over-thought and over-prettified
himself here; should have channelled some of that delirious Cat People energy
..
Trafic (1972) - cinematically cruder than Tati's greatest work,
although again shows his prescience, and unique approach to the punchline..
The Train (1965) - still exciting for the gritty physicality and
the clever narrative - nowadays would be hyped up every which way...
Cria Cuervos (1976) - beautiful, masterfully constructed
expression of intertwining memory and longing and childhood's complex
perceptions..
In The Electric Mist (2009) - hardly smooth, but ultimately
finds a distinctive way of conveying the pained legacy of the South's past...
Funny People (2009) - a big leap forward; a distant cousin to
Scorsese's King Of Comedy, tho Apatow doesn't yet tap any broader implications
O Lucky Man! (1973) - more proof you never lose in the eyes of
posterity by being imaginatively cynical about institutions and leaders..
Made in U.S.A. (1966) - made as the ratio of play and politics
starts to shift - dazzling, but you miss some of the earlier, easier delight
Pineapple Express (2008) - perhaps the most persuasive claim for
the Apatow factory to date; alchemy of vulnerability and carnage works!
Antonio Gaudi (1984) - you likely couldn't divine the Japanese
perspective if you didn't know, but it makes perfect sense if you do..
What Just Happened (2008) - no doubt has some anthropological
merit, but it's already the planet's most over-satirized milieu, so who cares
Nightwatching (2007) - interesting and accomplished in how form
and content interact, but just doesn't seem too relevant to anything bigger.
Cassandra's Dream (2007) - an attempt to capture what worked
pretty well in Match Point, but just seems marooned and flavourless here..
Silent Running (1972) - visionary in its way of course, although
Dern sets a main tone of cantankerous individualism rather than idealism,,,
2 ou 3 choses que je sais d'elle (1967) - the peak of Godard's
rapturous engagement with complexity, decay and its strange surface beauty..
Wendy and Lucy (2008) - brilliant, tragic, ultra-relevant
depiction of the precariousness of quiet self-sufficiency in an age of
decline..
Good Neighbor Sam (1964) - flabby, un-penetrating but amiable
take on familiar theme of contemporary man stifled by corporatism and suburbia
The Music Lovers (1970) - Russell was always one of the best at
capturing hedonistic bedlam, which almost makes up for everything else..
La sentinelle (1992) - early Desplechin in a quasi-thriller mode
- has some directions he later abandoned, others he pursued and perfected..
La femme infidele (1969) - the barren bourgeoisie life virtually
invites adultery and murder; dated of course, but still pretty potent..
Vendredi soir (2002) - a wonderful evocation of a one night
stand, documentary-like and yet finding new ways to express the magical rush..
Humpday (2009) - excellently captures how articulate, educated
guys can talk themselves into just about anything, and then back out again..
The Pornographers (1966) - full of startling compositions of all
kinds - visual, narrative, psychological - evokes immense (if clinical) awe
Hair (1979) - mostly a forced attempt to find cinema in the
joyously theatrical, although the final sense of loss is quite well realized..
Bruno (2009) - seems to me like a peppy, low-brow performance
art thing, often real funny, but about as significant as a tiara on a poodle..
Bunny Lake Is Missing (1965) - initially has the effective
flowing Preminger-brand ambiguity; but maybe genre mechanics take over too
much..
Out Of The Blue (1980) - goofy but highly productive, fusing an
often delirious foreground and a couldn't-be-flatter Canadian background..
Filth And Wisdom (2008) - well, if you didn't know Madonna made
it, you'd never guess - deserves credit for pace and variety at least..
Johnny Got His Gun (1971) - unusual exercise in subjective
cinema; you feel Trumbo wanting to get wilder, more perverse: wouldn't have
hurt!
Food Inc. (2008) - in a more focused world, this would prompt
real anger and action - in the decrepit one we occupy, likely nothing...
Of Time And The City (2008) - eloquent but rather too jaundiced;
doesn't give any sense of how Liverpool spawned such humour and music..
Ramona (1910) - an entire novel in 20 minutes - cinematic
narrative still working out its most basic moves; fascinating as history
lesson..
Early Spring (1956) - Ozu bleakly examining post-war Japan's
failed promises - a broader and sadder canvas than most of his later works..
New York, New York (1977) - endlessly intriguing, brilliantly
abstracted take on dawn of modern popular/performance culture and its cost...
One-Eyed Jacks (1961) - Brando's really a fluid director - movie
often seems ready to bust through convention more than it ultimately does..
Notebook on Cities and Clothes (1989) - Wenders' modish
pronouncements about this and that just seem arbitrary, essentially meaningless...
Late Spring (1949) - more tragic with every viewing - the sense
of a society demanding constant sacrifice of even modest personal desire..
Lilith (1964) - basic idea of carers being as troubled as the
patients is familiar, but this really feels traumatized to its chilly bones..
Tokyo-Ga (1985) - idea of Ozu tribute is touching, but vague
approach suggests Wenders' appreciation of Ozu is superficial at best...
Late Autumn (1960) - many echoes of previous Ozu of course, but
also some sublime reinvention and surprise, and even successful defiance!
Kwaidan (1964) - maybe an investigation of how the creepy spirit
world is also the best ventilation for a crushingly orderly society..
Une femme mariee (1964) - meticulous dissection of femininity as
consumer culture takes off, swamping historical/psychological readiness...
The Hurt Locker (2008) - as solid as hell, but sure sounds like
a lot of critics were mainly glad it wasn't Transformers 2 all over again..
La vie des morts (1991) - right from the start, Desplechin was
already a master of physical, emotional and existential geography..
I Could Never Be Your Woman (2006) - wants to say something re
distorted self-image of female baby boomers, but has no clear idea what..
The Girlfriend Experience (2009) - in common with his previous
Che, this revolution cannot be maintained - a sadder future surely awaits..
Venus In Furs (1969) - enjoyable campy creation, not
aesthetically that interesting despite the overflow of stylistic and thematic
ideas..
Crazed Fruit (1956) - essentially about post-war Japan losing
its way in the shadow of the West - simplistic but coldly fascinating..
Bienvenue chez les Ch’tis (2008) - biggest French hit of all
time; if we (or even they) knew why, it would help a lot at the G8 summit..
A Married Couple (1969) - almost moving now in showing a certain
kind of masculinity fading into oblivion (for the greater good of course)..
Reprise (2006) - the specifics are less interesting than the
overall design and artifice; you get little real sense of the literary life..
The Class (2008) - fascinating as performance art; provocative
about what makes for meaningful education in a multi-cultural world...
Cruel Story Of Youth (1960) - cruel indeed, suffused with pain,
still a potent metaphor for Japan's underlying stasis and insularity..
There Was A Father (1942) - Ozu's great tragic theme - sense of
duty and propriety limiting even simple happiness (personal and societal)..
The Peach Girl (1931) - still delicately moving for all its
stiff primitivism, but one regrets so little sense of space or the masses..
Don't Touch The White Woman (1974) - unique, splatter-arty way
of evoking a history of self-absorbed, deranged American imperialism..
Piccadilly (1929) - most striking for scintillating Anna May
Wong - good reference point for studying evolving treatment of race and culture
Public Enemies (2009) - actually works as quasi-abstract
meditation on image-making in age of corporatization and depersonalization...
Small Change (1976) - Truffaut's infectious delight in the
variety of childhood experiences, nicely placed here in the surrounding
community
Tokyo Sonata (2008) - excellent, fluid parable of dehumanizing,
weirding effect of modern economy, and urgent need to go back to basics...
Yesterday, Today & Tomorrow (1963) - first sequence is best;
all very easy and fluid with Loren always a dazzler - good 2nd level stuff...
Whatever Works (2009) - title meant to connote openness to
possibilities; movie feels more like a series of random, drunken lurches..
Kill, Baby Kill (1966) - setting and state of mind fuse almost
perfectly – story bleeds out in a collision of encounters and insinuations..
Recount (2008) - entertaining and cleanly (if blandly) told, but
where's the anger - is all of this merely an amiable comedy of errors..?
Blame It On Rio (1984) - astonishing lumbering time capsule, has
its transgressive elements, but general ambiance of a retirement home...
Ma nuit chez Maud (1969) - maybe the best movie argument for an
examined life (or at least for calibrating the degree of unexamination!)..
Esther Kahn (2000) - strange, evasive, fascinating distant
cousin to Cassavetes' Opening Night, about murderous cost of great acting...
Three Days of the Condor (1975) - has the Pollack trick of
feeling meaningfully understated, without putting itself on any kind of line..
Cathy Come Home (1966) - brilliantly shows how quickly upward
mobility turns; still as relevant as hell, since we never learn a damn thing..
Barocco (1976) - Techine later hit on an endlessly renewable
template for easy-to-take complexity - this movie came before that though..
Deconstructing Harry (1997) - must have taken work to be so
rancid and self-loathing, though often feels he edited the thing on imovie..
Boeing Boeing (1965) - the movie's sexism would be
metaphysically challenging if it wasn't so bland and mechanical about
everything..
Revolutionary Road (2008) - do they really carry unfulfilled
potential, or are they the first seduced wave of now-chronic self-inflation?
The Brothers Bloom (2008) - the women bring infectious joy and
style ; the men mostly bring the usual caper movie stuff; call it a draw..
A Midsummer Night's Sex Comedy (1982) - primarily a technical
exercise; never feels Allen has real affinity for the unleashed spirits stuff.
Le ballon rouge (1956) - always strikes me how the adult world
integrates the balloon while the boys, symbol of the future, destroy it...
Edge Of The City (1957) - a second-tier On The Waterfront;
balanced depiction of the black family is still fresh; other elements less so..
Getting Straight (1970) - still a useful time capsule if only
for the Gould character's misogyny, homophobia, insecurity and self-loathing..
When a Woman Ascends The Stairs (1960) - women always bear the
worst of it, although the men with their lies and evasions are barely freer..
Beyond The Rocks (1922) - huge ambition, subtle and nutty at
different times, like early Hollywood ironing out the kinks in the formula...
Nixon (2008) - strange this quirky anecdote got so much
attention - historical/thematic payoff is minimal, though it goes down easy..
A Christmas Story (2008) - Desplechin is a genius - basic form
here is familiar, but complexity of execution is stunning and fearless..
Le Petit Soldat (1961) - ambitious early Godard, pained window
into troubled national soul, but more constricted than great work to come...
L'Appat (1995) - compelling viewing in what's-the-world-coming-to
vein, but you feel Tavernier imitates greatness more than exhibiting it..
Cadillac Records (2008) - you kind of miss the days when a
little friendly corruption might be the price of true social/cultural
progress...
Gomorrah (2008) - great, sociologically persuasive evocation of
a hopeless network...you watch with despair, hoping we avoid the same fate..
Departures (2008) - a weepy dawdle, but the time spent on dead
bodies does kind of get to you, if just through identification mechanics...
Up (2009) - great to watch, but more a technological achievement
than an aesthetic one, or at least blurs the difference, like the iphone...
Les amours d'Astrée et de Céladon (2007) - Rohmer's lifelong
project at its most elemental and sublime, yet still defining new territory..
The Sailor From Gibraltar (1967) - so preoccupied with
"existential" poses and metaphors, it almost completely breaks up and
drifts away..
Duplicity (2009) - sometimes so immaculate it seems to skirt
profundity, although needed to hit the corporate amorality indictment harder...
Nobody's Fool (1994) - contrived take on small-town virtues,
although maybe a partial blueprint for a better-proportioned future, I dunno...
Pontypool (2008) - a witty riff on the cracks in the Canadian
melting pot; maybe it's our failed ideals that spawn the killer plague...
Private Life of Sherlock Holmes (1970) - focusing on failings
and regrets, maybe echoing Wilder’s own ideal artistic climate passing by..
One Week (2008) - well, good to know he doesn't blame his sappy
music-type problems and unfulfilled ambitions on his glorious homeland...
Sin nombre (2009) - very kinetic, but you suspect it reflects an
outsider’s quasi-romantic impositions on a sadder and duller reality...
Hunger (2008) - sometimes recalls one of Kubrick’s filmic
labyrinths, without ever reducing the potency of the central human experience..
The Palm Beach Story (1942) - unimaginable now a movie could be
so deft and funny while also so giddily challenging in its sexual politics..
Bye Bye Monkey (1978) - extremely distinct take on decay - worth
it if just for images of dead King Kong against the twin towers (yep!)...
Away We Go (2009) - basically about life momentum either making
you grotesque or else defined by inner sadness; minor pay-off at best...
Shall We Kiss (2007) - as sterile and intuition-free as this
kind of French relationship stuff ever gets, possibly directed by a computer...
Sugar (2008) - interesting angles on how major-league sports machine
distorts economies and expectations (evokes debates re foreign aid...)
Fingers (1978) - highly subjective, somehow coherent, goofily
satisfying portrait of dysfunction, in a world of confusing signs and traces..
1941 (1979) - Everything gets away from Spielberg here; like
watching a robot deliver one-liners, you get the concepts, but miss the heart..
Sunshine Cleaning (2008) - minor tribute to heartland
entrepreneurism, but with integrity; economic crisis gives it extra
resonance...
PS re The Legend Of Lylah Clare - that's basically meant to be
positive...
The Legend Of Lylah Clare (1968) - a touch of Hitchcock, a bit
of Fellini, a taste of Wilder, and a whole lot of pretentious posturing crap!
Two Lovers (2008) - another example of finding greater
profundity in the small machinations of conventional lives than in saving the
world.
My Sex Life...(1996) - my favourite film of the last 20 years, a
profound, varied, tumbling essay on self-examination and reinvention...
State of Play (2009) - already seemed outdated when it came out;
best contemporary paranoia stuff still belongs to 1970's Alan Pakula...
La passion de Jeanne d'Arc (1928) - stark, stunning choreography
of patriarchal vested interests spooked to the core by female activism...
Goodbye Solo (2008) - unconvincing central premise, but with
rich, complex, moving insights into America's bumpy ongoing diversity ride...
Tokyo! (2008) - Carax's sequence is just loopy, but the other
two nicely capture the city's complex negotiation between dreams and despair..
Tulpan (2008) - it's remote Kazakhstan, but might as well be the
moon - feels anthropologically valuable, even when you suspect manipulation
Tyson (2008) - is he ultimately more than an outlandish
mega-version of the prodigy that naively burns itself out? Damned if I know
Wise Blood (1979) - built from "damn the red states"
building blocks, set on fire and molded into strange, sadistic, scary
eloquence..
The Harder They Come (1972) - hard to separate anthropology from
myth now..still mostly productive viewing, but a Sweetback extra lite...
Star Trek (2009) - finally goes where every bright progressive
idea has eventually gone before - to another airless, graceless
"franchise"..
Adoration (2008) - another treacly Egoyan puzzle movie, pleased
as hell with itself, but wheezing under layers of stale "commentary"
Is Anybody There? (2008)...existential boundary-busting in
Thatcherite Britain, from cradle to grave and beyond; less drab than it looks
Every Little Step (2008)...good fun, reminds you infrastructure
of Broadway theatre often just as heavy and self-deluding as Hollywood..
Babes in Toyland (1934)...figure out how physical/psychological
laws apply in this creepy thing..good future territory for (wooden?) shrinks
The Limits of Control (2009)..all we love and aspire to
(aesthetic appreciation, uncomplicated eroticism) rises against Bush-era
poison..
Zabriskie Point (1970)..now a beautiful tragic map of
dreams/revolutions not seized, in a California not yet become the world's
biggest lie
California Suite (1978)...I almost miss when such prosperous
soft-concept bantering and low-energy plotting was fit for the big screen...
