Lawrence of Arabia **
David Lean, 1962
UK
@ Cinerama

Claude Rains is the only great performance here, as in Casablanca. I didn't recall Lawrence being so utterly empty, but he seems like a man in search of himself, eventually finding nothing. At the beginning he seems eccentric, then he acquires some bloodlust, and by the end he's confused and ruined.

I thought I remembered liking this more, but I don't know. There's little more boring than a movie about soldiers who are always deadly serious about war and themselves. Of course, most serious types attempt to convince that they've got a sense of humor, but then they've got to remind you that they've just told a joke, because you neither laughed nor realized you were expected to.

The suggestion runs throughout that war, if it could be separated from politics somehow, might be the noblest human pursuit. I think from there you can extrapolate most everything, good and bad, about the film.

See also: IMDb | TCMDb

Paranoid Park ***
Gus Van Sant, 2008
US
@ Neptune

I thought, Yeah, Portland, Elliott Smith, of course. And then I remembered that Gus Van Sant actually propelled Smith into the spotlight by featuring him on Good Will Hunting, which is just so far removed from, say, Mala Noche, Last Days, or this (except that it's the story of one or more troubled young men) that sometimes I forget that it's all Van Sant.

I also just noticed/remembered that Casey Affleck, who I loved last year, is in Gerry, the last of Van Sant's "death" trilogy I haven't seen, so I'm pretty excited about that.

See also: IMDb | Metacritic | J. Hoberman review | Charles Mudede review

Back to the Well: Clerks II *
Joey Figueroa/Zak Knutson, 2006
US
@ home on DVD

The most interesting revelation? That Jeff Anderson claims he would not have watched the original Clerks if he hadn't been in it, although he likes the sequel. Other stuff: Kevin Smith goes to mass with his agnostic producer Scott Mosier once before and after every shoot. Smith has several other moments in his professional career which he considers comparable to the eight-minute standing ovation he received at the Cannes midnight screening of Clerks II. Rosario Dawson took the role primarily so she could witness the donkey show.

See also: IMDb

King Corn *
Aaron Woolf, 2007
US
@ Northwest Film Forum

FYI, when you search for "king corn" at IMDb, the top result is Ron Jeremy. This movie is number two.

Disappointingly, this was the 60-minute version to be shown on Independent Lens next month and not the theatrical cut. I imagine the salient points were still made, and it was still shot largely in rural Iowa. The most interesting scene is when the two young farmers interview Earl Butz, who they claim was responsible, as Secretary of Agriculture in the early 1970's, for subsidizing massive growth in the amount of crops grown, corn included. Butz is in his mid-nineties at the time of the interview.

Also, from Wikipedia: "At the 1974 World Food Conference in Rome, Butz made fun of Pope Paul VI's opposition to "population control" by quipping, in a mock Italian accent: "He no playa the game, he no maka the rules." He kind of had a point.

See also: IMDb | Metacritic | Independent Lens page

Clerks II ***
Kevin Smith, 2006
US
@ home on DVD

Wow, so much goes right here. I was thinking somewhere in the middle that I hope Smith brings some of his anarchical sensibility to Zack and Miri Make a Porno because Seth Rogen would fit into it so well. Trevor Fehrman is awesome as the youngest addition to the group. I think my favorite moment is either when Jay is discovered posing as a nude woman, or the moment when the audience realizes Kinky Kelly's act employs no human other than the bearded, burly guy, but Randal is still obviously in the dark.

See also: IMDb | Metacritic

Dead Man ***
Jim Jarmusch, 1996
US
@ Landmark Metro

I'm not sure if it's that I've already seen it, or that I watched so many westerns in the intervening year-plus, but Dead Man seemed far better this time around. Broken Flowers improved on a second viewing as well, but not this much. I got to thinking about how a sort of slow, blank style allows for a lot of reflection within the running time of the film, perfect for a meditation on violence in the western like this. Johnny Depp's character inhabits a similar role to the viewer; he doesn't witness most of the action, because he's constantly passed out or asleep, and he's forced to make sense of the setting and action at the same time as the audience. He makes a journey both from life to death but also from disengaged to engaged, or rather from disgust to acceptance. He recoils at the long-range buffalo hunting from his traincar, and is obviously ill at ease trudging through the "mud" in his preposterous suit. His wardrobe and outlook on the environs both undergo dramatic changes; he even makes a tobacco purchase near the end, though he spends much of the movie explaining that he doesn't smoke. Crispin Glover's comment about "the waters in your head" and perspective from a boat turn prophetic toward the end of Depp's journey, which seems ultimately predestined, in an almost ridiculous fashion. Not just that he is almost constantly on the move from Lake Erie to his final berth in the sea canoe, but tidbits like Robert Mitchum's weirdly unmotivated yet obvious factory owner suggest that the action has been entirely determined even before Jarmusch wrote the thing. A bit like Pleasantville, actually, where an outsider is introduced into something of a generic story, around whom the traditional elements break down or are shown to be something other than they usually appear to be, ultimately as a deconstruction of the original myth.

See also: IMDb | Jonathan Rosenbaum's review/essay

Idiocracy *
Mike Judge, 2006
US
@ home on DVD

I kept thinking of Southland Tales while watching this, though that movie is on a much grander scale. Why is that a better film? It could be the dark, apocalyptic tone; it could be that the near-future scenario is much less cartoonish, though many of the same types of issues are addressed. Perhaps it's that while it's hard to figure out exactly why Mike Judge's version of humanity is even worth saving, Richard Kelly's characters are both demented and, in some weird way, lovable. Judge's bitterness and condescension vs. Kelly's melancholic sense of humanity lost. Culture wars vs. politics.

See also: IMDb | Metacritic

Be Kind Rewind **
Michel Gondry, 2008
US
@ Pacific Place

As usual, in his ruminative review J. Hoberman nails it: "Such sentimentality might sound egregiously Spielbergistic, but Gondry strikes another chord: This illusion is an illusion."

What's particularly striking about the style of the film, apart from the visual effects, is the lack of focus on the speaking character. I'm not sure if the cutting is any faster or slower than usual, but frequently the actor delivering his lines is facing a corner, or not pictured, or, as during the break-in, in total darkness. This ties in well with Hoberman's point, I think. If we were constantly in close-ups looking for traces of heartbreak in their eyes as Mos Def and Danny Glover lose the video store, this would be a very different movie. As it is, we're quite distanced visually from the characters, and for me the emotional power of the closing scenes comes from the artifice; there's no sense of real possibility, which turns the whole story much darker. A bit like Jim Carrey's fresh start in Eternal Sunshine--while the effect of the indeterminate ending does depend on the viewer's inclinations, it seems very reasonable to assume that he's intentionally headed back toward a breakup as disastrous as the one he's just experienced, but the illusion of hope and a fresh start is all he's got. That is to say: how painful that the illusion of community provided here is so obviously illusory in the face of the interests of capital/private property that such a possibility is already (necessarily?) dead to us.

See also: IMDb | Metacritic | J. Hoberman review

La Chinoise **
Jean-Luc Godard, 1967
France
@ Northwest Film Forum

I felt like I took more pleasure out of this than some other of Godard's stuff. It could be that I simply had lower entertainment expectations of anything post-Weekend, but it could also be that Godard had more comfortably moved beyond the impulse to parody or directly engage with traditional film forms. In my opinion, Weekend is strongest when we're just watching the talking heads, engaged in direct political conversation, and not when the actors are pretend-acting. There's obviously a lot more political rhetoric here, and much of the humor comes through the faux-documentary cracks, between the seemingly serious lines being uttered by the young communists.

See also: IMDb | J. Hoberman review

Pat Garrett & Billy the Kid ***
Sam Peckinpah, 1973
US
@ Landmark Metro

I'm pretty much a sucker for an elegiac western, not to mention one that features a winking, grinning Bob Dylan. Not terribly excited about anything Kris Kristofferson does here, particularly as he's almost twice as old as the character he's playing. James Coburn's a force of nature, though, and Kristofferson is a good model for him to gaze at. Sort of the young buck vs. the embittered careerist conundrum, kind of appropriate for the beginning of the Me Decade. Coburn's pained looks and self-loathing are practically a work of art in and of themselves, deepened by his rough, terse declarations. Tough to believe he's only 45 here.

See also: IMDb

Dance Party, USA **
Aaron Katz, 2006
US
@ home on DVD

A boatload of similarities to Quiet City. Serene shots of the city that break up four or five major conversations between various members of the cast. Similar types of awkwardness on display, although we learn more about Gus here than we do about any of the characters in the later film.

See also: IMDb | Distributor site

Shakespeare in Love *
John Madden, 1998
UK/US
@ home on VHS

There were obviously some talented people working on this film, but it seems a bit hollow at the core. What reason do we have at any point in the film to sympathize and/or root for Shakespeare other than that he is Shakespeare and obviously is not appropriately recognized and commended for his genius? He doesn't really ingratiate himself all that much, and I would argue that there are at least three, maybe four, bigger "stars" on screen, inasmuch as I found my eye drawn to Gwyneth Paltrow, Judi Dench, and Ben Affleck much more than to Joseph Fiennes. (Tom Wilkinson gets the maybe.) I'm not much for the phrase "guilty pleasure," but I think this is pretty close.

See also: IMDb

The Departed **
Martin Scorsese, 2006
US
@ home on DVD

This seemed a bit less outrageous on a second go-round, particularly Jack Nicholson. Maybe because it was on a tiny TV, maybe because there weren't any surprises or letdowns. I'm still baffled as to why Scorsese thought he needed to say something and can't be content to just let this be a fun movie. The sociology seems to me the weakest part all along the way.

See also: IMDb | Metacritic

Robert Altman: A List

A Prairie Home Companion (2006)
The Company (2003)
Gosford Park (2001)
Dr T and the Women (2000)
Cookie's Fortune (1999)
The Gingerbread Man (1998)
Kansas City (1996)
Jazz '34 (1996)
Prêt-à-Porter (1994)
Short Cuts (1993)
The Player (1992)
Vincent & Theo (1990)
Tanner '88 (1988)
Beyond Therapy (1987)
Fool for Love (1985)
O.C. and Stiggs (1985)
Secret Honor (1984)
Streamers (1983)
Come Back to the Five and Dime, Jimmy Dean, Jimmy Dean (1982)
Popeye (1980)
HealtH (1980)
A Perfect Couple (1979)
A Wedding (1978)
Quintet (1977)
3 Women (1977)
Buffalo Bill and the Indians, or Sitting Bull's History Lesson (1976)
Nashville (1975)
California Split (1974)
Thieves Like Us (1974)
The Long Goodbye (1973)
Images (1972)
McCabe & Mrs. Miller (1971)
Brewster McCloud (1970)
MASH (1970)
That Cold Day in the Park (1969)
Countdown (1968)

Popeye *
Robert Altman, 1980
US
@ Northwest Film Forum

This print was in pretty bad shape. Not sure if the audio was bad or if the clarity of the dialogue was simply Altman-esque. Some of the comedy fell flat, but there were certainly a few memorable moments.

See also: IMDb