Return of the RECENT VIEWING

[Mr Maps]

[The Write Profile]

As for me:


Overall, I really liked it. But I had a nagging feeling that it didn't go as far as it could. The central relationship that spurred the decisions of the main character was just a crush with someone half his age. It just rang hollow for me that that is what it took for him to want to change. I found myself wishing that they would have focused more on family and friends instead of some awkward lusty fling. But as it is, it's a character study in the grand tradition of boozy loners wandering the Earth in search of something real. And on that note, it succeeds nicely.

Yeah, the relationship bugged me from another aspect too - the idea that a good looking single mother who is both very protective of her son and is trying to make it as a journalist would get romantically involved with a pretty obscure country singer who is (a) twice her age, (b) a complete alcoholic, (c) in poor health, (d) lives over 1,000 miles away, and (e) is financially struggling, and that (f) she is willing to violate some professional ethics standards (i.e., don't sleep with the subjects of your articles) to do so. I enjoyed the movie for the most part (the character study on the boozy loner, as you put it), but I found myself not buying the relationship angle.

Yeah, I'd agree with both of you here on this one, although I will say that Maggie Gyllenhall did a really good job in a pretty thankless role. I think there were a few scenes in isolation where they did convince, but ultimately, I wondered whether a more interesting film could've been made about how Bridges and Farrel's characters drifted apart, and how Bridges and Robert Duvall's characters first met. Ultimately, the best bits about the film were the concert scenes, the interactions with the audience, the sense of drudgery mixed with brief moments of spontaneity. And I love the fact his first gig is at a bowling alley.

Bridges has to be one of cinema's most natural actors, though, you never see him breaking a sweat or forcing anything, he just is his roles. And as always, it's great to see Robert Duvall- he seems to be one of those actors who really excells in cameos, maybe because he just nails something from the start.

[Snarfyguy]

Luc Besson's The Fifth Element. Superior popcorn fare. Sci-fi adventure comedy rarely appeals to me, but this is the movie that made me re-think my position on Bruce Willis.

Gary Olman's a terrific villain, Chris Tucker is hilarious comic relief, the aliens are scary-looking, the girl is sexy and spunky, the explosions are big and loud and in the end the universe is saved. Oh and JP Gaultier's costume designs, holy cow! What more do you want? Ian Holm? You got it!

[Mr Maps]

[Snarfyguy]

Can't see the pic. Kazan's Baby Doll? Saw it for the first time myself recently. Excellent stuff. Karl Malden is so great.

[The Great DeFector]

Valhalla Rising



Just, just don't.

[the masked man]

Head On

This film, a key work in the 00s revival of German cinema, absolutely knocked me sideways. It's forceful, energetic punk cinema that does nothing to spare the blushes of its audience. A truly audacious work from Fateh Akin, a filmmaker whose insights into the Turkish community of his native Hamburg are rarely pretty.

It starts with a picture postcard image; a group of traditional Turkish musicians playing a sentimental song of the shores of the Bosphorus, with Istanbul as a backdrop. The sense that this is ironic is underlined when we are thrown into a dingy music club in Hamburg, where a Cahit, a nihilistic Turkish immigrant is having an awful night. Later he will attempt suicide by driving his car into a wall to the strains of Depeche Mode's 'I Feel You'. In the clinic where he recovers, Sibel, an apparently suicidal young woman, also with Turkish roots, starts stalking him...

As Cahit and Sibil's relationship develops, Akin's view of their lifestyle (promiscuous sex, lots of drugs, plus rock 'n' roll with a side order of body piercing...) at times runs the risk of looking a little clichéd. Ultimately, he gets away with it with a breathless hand-held camera style and two utterly compelling central performances. Playing Cahit, Birol Ünel is a wild force-of-nature with a piercing, soulful gaze, who was dubbed 'the Turkish Klaus Kinski' by some commentators; the description fits. Furthermore, the female lead, the strikingly pretty Sibel Kekilli matches him with a frighteningly unhinged display. Also, their actual relationship is so strange - a kind of mutual co-dependence that eventually approaches love -that the film's narrative unfolds in unexpected ways.

Halfway through, a single dramatic event changes everything, including the mood of the film. For a while, Akin decamps to Istanbul, where his shooting style becomes more controlled, prefiguring the cleaner visual surfaces of his later continent-hopping film The Edge Of Heaven. Istanbul is initially presented as a gleaming metropolis of the new globalised world, though it's not long before we descend into the darker corners of the city.

Despite being very violent and emotionally tough (all the violence is messy and de-glamorised) the film somehow falls short of despair; in fact, it's at times almost uplifting. Partly this is because the central relationship seems like a genuine portrayal of love. And this often irresponsible tale is topped by a beautifully judged ending that ultimately feels right. Over the closing credits, Akin places a cover of the Talk Talk song, 'Life's What You Make It'; perhaps the film's strength is that Akin sees this song title as being more than a bland platitude.

[It came from japan]

'The Man Who Copied'

This is a sweet film set in Porto Alegre about a shy photocopier operator who's obsessed with a shop girl that lives near him. The guy thinks he needs money to impress her and sets about getting it. It's the best Brazilian film I've seen since City of God, very enjoyable! It's nice to see a Brazilian film that isn't (totally) about crime and people getting shot. I've never actually seen it on shop shelves over here, perhaps because of the lack of gangs/violence etc. It's worth finding.

[Mr Maps]

I don't know who was hotter, Carroll Baker in Baby Doll or Sue Lyon in this.

[Leg of lamb]

Tonight I went to the Brooklyn Academy of Music (which has a big cinema aspect to it) to see the first film of their 'Soccer Fever' season. Not the most inspiring - a film tracking George Best around all 90 minutes of a Man Utd - Coventry game. Yes, like the Zidane one. Didn't know this existed, so it was pretty interesting at first but got boring very fast.

Kinda hypnotic. That's the best I can say.

Link, should anyone care: http://www.bam.org/view.aspx?pid=2290

[The Write Profile]

Luc Besson's The Fifth Element. Superior popcorn fare. Sci-fi adventure comedy rarely appeals to me, but this is the movie that made me re-think my position on Bruce Willis.

Gary Olman's a terrific villain, Chris Tucker is hilarious comic relief, the aliens are scary-looking, the girl is sexy and spunky, the explosions are big and loud and in the end the universe is saved. Oh and JP Gaultier's costume designs, holy cow! What more do you want? Ian Holm? You got it!

God, I remember seeing that when it came out. I think it received a mixed response, critically and commercially, at the time, mainly because it seemed so out of place with the pervailing Blockbuster trends (bear in mind Independence Day had been a massive hit the year before, while Men In Black was just around the corner). Visually, it's utterly gob-smacking, if somewhat incoherent, and while it seemed that Gary Oldman played a camp villain in virtually every Hollywood movie in the mid-90s, this one seems to be one of the few where he's clearly enjoying himself (the other being, coincidentally, Leon, also directed by Luc Bresson).

As for you "rethinking your position on Bruce Willis", I've always thought he has the potential to be an interesting actor when he bothers, for an action hero, he can bring a surprisingly bruised vulnerability to proceedings ( see: Twelve Monkeys, and a few scenes in the original Die Hard when he's not laying waste to multiple Eurotrash baddies), I just think he tends not to pick (or bother to pick) the roles that allow him to do that very often. And of course, Milla Jovovich looks amazing in this, too, then again, she looks amazing in pretty much anything she does, the difference here is that she's genuinely sexy and spunky, as you say. The Fifth Element definitely one of a kind, I don't think all of it works, but god, in the context of when and where it was released, it was a minor bolt from the blue at the time. I like the fact it doesn't shy away from the essential pulpiness of the material.

[BARON CORNY DOG]

Head On

This film, a key work in the 00s revival of German cinema, absolutely knocked me sideways. It's forceful, energetic punk cinema that does nothing to spare the blushes of its audience. A truly audacious work from Fateh Akin, a filmmaker whose insights into the Turkish community of his native Hamburg are rarely pretty.

It starts with a picture postcard image; a group of traditional Turkish musicians playing a sentimental song of the shores of the Bosphorus, with Istanbul as a backdrop. The sense that this is ironic is underlined when we are thrown into a dingy music club in Hamburg, where a Cahit, a nihilistic Turkish immigrant is having an awful night. Later he will attempt suicide by driving his car into a wall to the strains of Depeche Mode's 'I Feel You'. In the clinic where he recovers, Sibel, an apparently suicidal young woman, also with Turkish roots, starts stalking him...

As Cahit and Sibil's relationship develops, Akin's view of their lifestyle (promiscuous sex, lots of drugs, plus rock 'n' roll with a side order of body piercing...) at times runs the risk of looking a little clichéd. Ultimately, he gets away with it with a breathless hand-held camera style and two utterly compelling central performances. Playing Cahit, Birol Ünel is a wild force-of-nature with a piercing, soulful gaze, who was dubbed 'the Turkish Klaus Kinski' by some commentators; the description fits. Furthermore, the female lead, the strikingly pretty Sibel Kekilli matches him with a frighteningly unhinged display. Also, their actual relationship is so strange - a kind of mutual co-dependence that eventually approaches love -that the film's narrative unfolds in unexpected ways.

Halfway through, a single dramatic event changes everything, including the mood of the film. For a while, Akin decamps to Istanbul, where his shooting style becomes more controlled, prefiguring the cleaner visual surfaces of his later continent-hopping film The Edge Of Heaven. Istanbul is initially presented as a gleaming metropolis of the new globalised world, though it's not long before we descend into the darker corners of the city.

Despite being very violent and emotionally tough (all the violence is messy and de-glamorised) the film somehow falls short of despair; in fact, it's at times almost uplifting. Partly this is because the central relationship seems like a genuine portrayal of love. And this often irresponsible tale is topped by a beautifully judged ending that ultimately feels right. Over the closing credits, Akin places a cover of the Talk Talk song, 'Life's What You Make It'; perhaps the film's strength is that Akin sees this song title as being more than a bland platitude.

I saw that a few months ago and it knocked me sideways too! Nice write up, as always, MM.

[The Write Profile]

Head On


Despite being very violent and emotionally tough (all the violence is messy and de-glamorised) the film somehow falls short of despair; in fact, it's at times almost uplifting. Partly this is because the central relationship seems like a genuine portrayal of love. And this often irresponsible tale is topped by a beautifully judged ending that ultimately feels right. Over the closing credits, Akin places a cover of the Talk Talk song, 'Life's What You Make It'; perhaps the film's strength is that Akin sees this song title as being more than a bland platitude.

I saw this at a Film Festival screening two or three years ago and found it a singularly overwhelming experience. I'm not sure whether I totally share your enthusiasm for it- visually and thematically, I found it self-aggrandising and over-cooked- but I can't deny that I felt something. Mainly, I was taken in by Akin (and the cast's) desire to follow wherever it the film was going to the end, it led to some pretty uncomfortable places, as well as some exhilirating ones, but it was never boring, and it did bring home a few truths. It seemed to be a picture that relied on its sheer force of will and momentum.

[Minnie the Minx]

Watched One Flew Over The Cuckoos Nest again whilst on the plane back from SF. An odd decision considering the mood it puts me in, wanting to constantly punch Nurse Ratched and the dreadful, dreadful beauty of the finishing scene. When The Chief takes that run up with the sink - head forward, with the slow music building to a crescendo - it just about kills me.



It never dates, and never fails to cripple me. I blubbed like a baby as the rest of the cabin slept, and a nice lady brought me a cup of tea with two sugars.

[Snarfyguy]

Feeling insufficiently angry or depressed? This should do the trick:



Alex Gibney's Taxi to the Dark Side is an exemplary documentary, even if we pretty much know by now how we arrived at scandals like Abu Ghraib. Gibney takes us step by step from the formulation of legal theories designed to get the Bush Administration off the hook in case it was ever charged with wrongdoing, to the deliberate use of untrained young soldiers as interrogators, to the back-door dissemination of torture policies in direct contravention of Geneva Convention protocols and the U.S. government's own laws, to the uselessness of information derived via torure (information which happened to have been used to justify the invasion of a sovereign nation).

This is a lot to unpack in 100 minutes, but Gibney doesn't rush the procedings. He puts human faces on everything, using his own interviews as well as archival footage to forge a richly detailed narrative.

The facts as they're recited would seem unbelievable if we weren't all too aware that they're all too real.

And whose heads roll for this? Those of the grunts, the lowest level offenders, when it's blindingly clear the messages and instructions came from the very top.

This doc handily tops the great Erroll Morris's treatment of the same material in Standard Operating Procedure. Highly recommended, devastatingly sad.

[Matt Wilson]

I don't know who was hotter, Carroll Baker in Baby Doll or Sue Lyon in this.

I see a theme developing...

[Snarfyguy]

I don't know who was hotter, Carroll Baker in Baby Doll or Sue Lyon in this.

I see a theme developing...

Yeah, does your wife know you're watching these movies, Maps?

[Sneelock]

there are days when I think "night of the iguana" is my favorite Richard Burton movie, my favorite John Huston movie, my favorite Deborah Kerr movie, my favorite Tennesse Williams movie and my favorite "oh god, sue lyons was hot" movie.

[nathan]

there are days when I think "night of the iguana" is my favorite Richard Burton movie, my favorite John Huston movie, my favorite Deborah Kerr movie, my favorite Tennesse Williams movie and my favorite "oh god, sue lyons was hot" movie.

It really is one of those films where you can honestly say that there really isn't anything else like it. A one of a kind.

[Leg of lamb]

Ace. One of my first horror films, though I didn't find it that much of a step up from the freakier end of Hitchcock.

That said, I think I'll watch a comedy now...