Zidane *
Douglas Gordon/Philippe Parreno, 2006
France
@ Northwest Film Forum

A different perspective on soccer. Most of the interest lies in the editing, and perhaps the words and halftime. I wasn't as excited as I'd hoped.

See also: IMDb

Marie Antoinette *
Sofia Coppola, 2006
US/France
@ home on DVD

I was surprised a bit by my repulsion toward this film. At no specific point is it aesthetically offensive, or less than charming, but the blinkered view of life at Versailles, and the justification that the film didn't need to encompass anything outside the palace since the subject's life didn't either, seem unwholesome. The only direct critique of her incurious ignorance comes in the form of Steve Coogan, brilliant as usual, her advisor and confidant who makes a futile attempt at keeping her abreast of international affairs.

Sofia Coppola and her supporters certainly have a point about the dearth of female filmmakers and film subjects, but why must she evoke sympathy for such vapid, boring young women? In one of the reviews I read it was suggested that Wes Anderson escapes similar criticism because he's male, and thus his bored and privileged men are not given a second thought, but certainly with The Darjeeling Limited if not prior he's fairly self-critical, assuming he's not totally dissimilar to his characters.

Perhaps it's just that I have a distaste for lavish films about the hassles of aristocracy (see Visconti's The Leopard, for instance), but now (or two years ago) more than ever seems an odd time to attempt to restore the reputation of a cruelly incompetent and neglectful ruler, damning her own country while money is being spent on a war abroad. I mean, isn't the queen pretty much just "clearing brush" at her second home for most of the second half of the movie? I can imagine someone shipping a framed edition of the Rousseau passage she quotes down to Crawford, Texas as a gift to our current out-of-touch leader.

See also: IMDb | Metacritic | Rob Nelson review

Gerry *
Gus Van Sant, 2002
US
@ home on DVD

Really, what can you say about this film? It just kind of is.

See also: IMDb | Metacritic

Amelie *
Jean-Pierre Jeunet, 2001
France
@ Egyptian Theater

Well, at least I don't feel bad for avoiding this movie previously. The smothering sensory overload was fun until it got old, and then it was a long ride to the end.

See also: IMDb

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

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

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

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

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

Worldly Desires ***
Apichatpong Weerasethakul, 2005
Thailand
@ Anthology Film Archives

I saw this along with a few other shorts.

Worldly Desires takes the form of a meta–"making of" documentary for an imaginary film whose premise consists, so far as we are given to see, of little more than a line spoken by one of its actors: "Once upon a time a young couple fled into a jungle." This narrative is full of distress—moonlight scrambles through thick vegetation, anxious quests for a legendary tree—but the story of its making is pure Apichatpongian bliss: a breeze in the canopy, the delicate blip of moths against a fluorescent tube, a crew member relaxing on a stump, the sudden parting of a cloud.

The 40-minute piece opens with the nighttime shooting of a ridiculously infectious pop number, twice reprised before the end, which serves to bridge this jungle goodbye to the parental love song of Syndromes: "Love like my mother and father," the chanteuses sing, "will I be as lucky?" Other scraps of dialogue offer earthy ballast ("I forgot to bring the mosquito repellent"; "I don't like foreigners except for Keanu") or else send it all soaring to the ether ("Is the location very deep?" "As deep as you like" Indeed.).

See also: IMDb | Nathan Lee profile

Tropical Malady ***
Apichatpong Weerasethakul, 2004
Thailand
@ Anthology Film Archives

Mr. Weerasethakul, who lives in Thailand and studied film and painting at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, has an appreciation of the more humorous dislocations of globalization, like an aerobics class in the middle of a dusty town. "Tropical Malady" is filled with such minor disruptions (including a woman who talks about ghosts in one breath and "Who Wants to Be a Millionaire" in the next), but the biggest disruption takes place when the storytelling shifts from realism to allegory. Set in the deepest, darkest heart of the jungle, this part of the film finds Keng tracking a ghostly figure who periodically assumes the shape of a tiger. That the figure should turn out to be the soldier's elusive lover, the object of his desire, should come as no surprise. Frankly, I was more taken aback by the talking baboon.

See also: IMDb | Metacritic | Manohla Dargis review

Inland Empire **
David Lynch, 2006
US
@ home on DVD

The lingering composite image I'm left with is of a slow zoom/track down a dark tunnel-like hallway either toward Laura Dern or from her characters' point-of-view. The soundtrack is low, perhaps nearly imperceptible synth tones.

If Eraserhead is about the repulsive horror of prospective fatherhood, this would seem to be similarly about romantic attachment or the commitment to depiction thereof onscreen, along with a suggestion that maybe there is no difference. The Greek chorus of prostitutes even gets the relatively chaste and socially acceptable Laura Dern to utter, "I'm a whore," as if the very act of joining with someone else is a sordid subjugation of the self.

The characters and story bleed both ways through the screen, though mostly it's the characters and situations from the script invading "real life," suggestive that the project they're working on was a remake never finished. Perhaps the conclusion simply occurred on the other side of a wormhole. But then, couldn't all possible habitable realities be described as such given the constraints of mortality? It's pretty clear from the beginning of the film that time is in flux, or perhaps that multiple strands of time are continually available, and perhaps even the characters are shifting form, not just between person and character, but perhaps between different bodies.

See also: IMDb | Metacritic

The Hire *
Various, 2001-2002
US
@ MoMA

Eight films produced by BMW of North America: Ambush (John Frankenheimer), Chosen (Ang Lee), The Follow (Wong Kar-Wai), Star (Guy Ritchie), and Powder Keg (Alejandro González Iñárritu) (all 2001); and Hostage (John Woo), Ticker (Joe Carnahan), and Beat the Devil (Tony Scott) (all 2002). With Clive Owen as "the driver."

Frankenheimer's is straightforward car chase with just a bit of narrative twist at the end. Lee has more of a twist, and more time outside the car. WKW does exactly his thing, and is the chase even really a chase? Ritchie's stars Madonna as a spoiled diva who gets tossed around in the back seat due to Owen's driving. The last three expand the narrative element some more. I guess you can probably find these all together on BitTorrent or something, but it was nice to see them full-force on a big screen. And MoMA used a Cinemascope-width screen, but the credits scrolled in an Academy frame, so they started on the floor and ended on the ceiling, which was a nice if unintended effect.

See also: IMDb

Quietly on By **
Frank V. Ross, 2005
US
@ IFC Center

Ross directs Anthony Baker in another awesomely physical role. Baker plays Aaron, a twentysomething guy who lives at home, working hard and saving up money until there is a nervous breakdown (the point at which the film begins) and he just starts sitting around the house. Aaron is that guy who you hang out with but nobody really likes. He never has anything else to do, and as such always overstays his welcome, pushing people to the limit, even though he can't always see that's what he's doing. I was squirming in my seat much of the time, as it can be grueling to watch a mostly harmless guy constantly condescended to, and filled with so much self-loathing.

Ross, who's in Joe Swanberg's Young American Bodies, says he'll be starring in his next film, though he didn't reveal any details beyond that.

See also: Website