The Godfather ***
Francis Ford Coppola, 1972
US
@ Cinerama

The pacing and lighting are masterful. An absolute success at what it sets out to do, but just what is that exactly? It seems to me the violence has a fatalistic edge to it, as if there is no other way possible. There are a lot of different ways to portray violence on-screen, and I'm okay with many of them. Pulp Fiction uses it as one of the profound elements of cinematic art. Shotgun Stories suggested that violence was closer, more likely than we might think. A History of Violence suggests that violence lives under the skin, never quite going away no matter how hard we try. Clint Eastwood seems to suggest that violence will bring us down in the end, "live by the sword, die by the sword" kind of thing. No Country for Old Men: violence is performed by the deranged, but it may not in the end be a deranged act. A Thin Red Line takes a calm, dualistic view. The Godfather is sort of like a tragedy, but there are so many things I can't figure out exactly about free will, is this positive/negative/inevitable. It's tough to process because almost no one alien to this world of violence ever appears in the film. It's hard to get enough distance from the characters to discover any perspective in the writing or directing. In that way it's an incredibly dark and kind of dispiriting movie.

See also: IMDb

Pulp Fiction ***
Quentin Tarantinto, 1994
US
@ Egyptian Theater

Thrilling. I never got the physical impact of this movie on video, but it's frequently up there with Kill Bill, something I would not have expected. I also don't believe I've ever started watching it before midnight, of the four(?) times I've seen all or part of it.

See also: IMDb

Vivre Sa Vie ***
Jean-Luc Godard, 1962
France
@ SIFF Cinema

The full-frame clip of The Passion of Jeanne d'Arc has to be one of the longest insertions in cinema. Appropriate given how much time we spend looking at Anna Karina's face. And she gets killed by a bunch of men at the end more or less for trying to make her own way in the world.

See also: IMDb | TCMDb

Being There ***
Hal Ashby, 1979
US
@ Northwest Film Forum

Nice to come back at the end to the only Hal Ashby film I'd seen previously. Certainly the social critique is constant throughout his seventies work, as well as a kind of indirect critique of the rich. Other than The Landlord, he rarely lampoons them directly, but rather suggest subtly ways in which those with money tend either not to deserve or not to understand exactly what their wealth means, most perfectly typified by the scene in Bound for Glory when Woody leaves the rich woman's house after letting her know how he feels about her contribution to society. He also loves an empty-headed protagonist.

From IMDb: "Shirley MacLaine's masturbation scene was shot seventeen times."

The misguided attempt at interpreting the final scene by geeks on the internet (see Wikipedia, for example) reminds me of reactions after watching Mulholland Drive in college. I fail to understand what real reward there is in trying to piece together a puzzling plot that may have had holes at the time of shooting or never even existed in a coherent form, or trying to read further and further into the actions of the characters in order to understand... what exactly? The secret of life is not to be found in such a place, and insisting on closure from a film seems not only unfair, but foolish when there's so much beauty and humor to be appreciated outside of that insane detective work and so little to gain from it.

Note: I later found this quote from Manny Farber in a blog post by Girish.

I don't see how or why anyone should be expected to get the meaning of an event in a movie or a painting. That's a place where criticism goes wrong: it keeps trying for a complete solution. I think the point of criticism is to build up the mystery. And the point is to find movies which have a lot of puzzle in them.

See also: IMDb | Girish's 10 Reasons Why He Likes Manny Farber

Masculine Feminine ***
Jean-Luc Godard, 1966
France
@ SIFF Cinema

I think maybe I just like Shia LaBeouf because perhaps excepting the curly hair he looks so much like Jean-Pierre Leaud, and how nice when I'm watching a slightly dull Hollywood film (or reruns on the Disney channel) to be reminded of Stolen Kisses, Last Tango in Paris, La Chinoise, or this.

Hard to tell at times if the backward sexual politics are satirical or unintentionally funny. Highpoints: the graffiti scenes, Paul's "record," and certainly his race to the projection room to complain about an incorrect aspect ratio at the movie theater.

The more Godard I watch the less confusing any one of the films becomes. Because you can more easily identify the quirks, making connections between films, and his bag of tricks all cohere into something resembling a comprehensible style, engaging rather than imposing or just weird.

See also: IMDb

Pineapple Express ***
David Gordon Green, 2008
US
@ Pacific Place

Fantastic. Basically everything I'd hoped for, and a lot more as well. I think this is kind of how I wanted the violence in Reservoir Dogs to feel, whereas I was just repulsed by the ear mutilation in that movie. I guess this kind of fits with some of the cop bits in Superbad, and the action feels like a natural extension of the cinematic world we're in from the beginning. This also does exactly what I'd hoped Hot Fuzz would do, but that movie was satisfied with being clever rather than terrific. Pretty sure you could lop off the opening segment with absolutely no ill effects.

It seems certain that there are a whole lot more tossed off references to action films and others than IMDb's "Movie Connections" page currently lists, particularly with the Asian gang members near the end.

And there's the romp in the woods, which is notable both for the beautiful location and the goofy counterpoint to all the gunshots, bodyblows, and explosions to come after.

See also: IMDb | Metacritic | Ed Howard review

In Search of a Midnight Kiss ***
Alex Holdridge, 2008
US
Preview @ SIFF Cinema

Thrilling. At times Scoot McNairy reminded me of Jason Lee somewhere between Mallrats and Chasing Amy both in terms of scenario and delivery of weirdly obscene lines at inconvenient times. Worth seeing for so many reasons, not least of which is the recasting of downtown Los Angeles as a picturesque, resolutely urban(e) place. Maybe I haven't seen enough of the right indie romantic comedies, but Sara Simmonds' dominating performance over the first two thirds or so seemed much more like an updated screwball heroine than anything contemporary. Every once in a while an awkward moment showed through in the placement of actors, or line deliveries, but I think that says a lot about Holdridge's ambition, in a good way.

See also: IMDb | Metacritic

Alexandra ***
Alexander Sokurov, 2008
Russia
@ Varsity Theater

Again with the uncomfortably low sound at the Varsity. The voices seemed almost disembodied here, although the low levels of light played a part as well. I found it hard to get into the rhythm of the film at first, but once I did it felt very right. The images are indelible.

See also: IMDb | Metacritic

My Neighbor Totoro ***
Hayao Miyazaki, 1988
Japan
@ Northwest Film Forum

Deeply odd, but in a particularly beautiful way. There is no real conflict here between selfish humanity and benevolent nature, nor any traditional conflict at all. The children get sad, and the king of the forest cheers them up.

One thing that really stuck out to me was the bizarrely long commute the father had sentenced himself to in order to move his family to their country home. I didn't sense much of a critique here, though it might be implied by the hardship on the girls as they wait for hours at the bus stop or try to run off to visit their mother in the hospital.

Rather than just quirky, Miyazaki seems to have a fully formed "other" sensibility that runs according to its own logic. As one who often gets frustrated by what I see as limited flights of fancy, an inability to really get outside traditional Hollywood norms and values, this commitment to working in what appears to be a parallel universe is admirable.

See also: IMDb

The Last Mistress ***
Catherine Breillat, 2008
France
@ Guild 45th Theater

Ms. Breillat’s explorations of desire and pleasure are so far from the antiseptic world of most screen depictions as to seem far out. In truth she’s just fearless, determined to show what others keep hidden — the good, the bad, the tumescent, the fluid — so she can keep puzzling through her ideas. “The Last Mistress” isn’t as graphic as some of her other films, notably “Romance,” which features full-frontal and then some. The sex in this film is far from explicit, though it features geometric formations that may be better suited for Kama Sutra students, or at least the limber. What’s explicit here is ravenous passion and the depiction of desire as a creating, destroying force that invades the very flesh. It’s terribly French.

It’s also gloriously unpredictable, even if the ways in which Ms. Breillat frames and puts together scenes tend to be less than surprising. A stubborn individualist, she is also a generally unremarkable, even on occasion awkward stylist, though one sensitive to color. You gasp at her ideas and words, not her setups and camera moves. Set amid the rarefied realm of the French aristocracy — Louis-Philippe, the last king to rule France, sits on the throne — the film has many of the trappings of a conventional costume drama, from the rustling gowns to the glowing candelabra. Everything from the costumes to the cinematography works to advance the story. Everything, that is, except La Vellini, who, like Goya’s Maja, rocks her world by the public spectacle of her desire.

Like all the unruly women who populate Ms. Breillat’s films, La Vellini rubs hard against the grain. She’s the fly in the ointment, the stick in the eye, and it’s her howls, her spit and her fury that keep everything off kilter, disturbing the peace, its keepers and the narrative flow. Ms. Breillat reserves her most adoring close-ups for Mr. Aattou, a delicate beauty with feminine pillowy lips. (She loves her boys.) But she never denies Ms. Argento, who hurtles into her scenes, at times literally, gobbling up a lot of space. She’s playing a woman whom others deride as a creature — as if she were a beast. In truth, La Vellini is a woman of pleasure, and Ms. Breillat makes certain her cup runneth over, furiously.

See also: IMDb | Metacritic | Manohla Dargis review

The Last Detail ***
Hal Ashby, 1973
US
@ Northwest Film Forum

Jack Nicholson and Randy Quaid make a terrific odd couple. More digging beneath surfaces, this time manlier men than he's shown elsewhere. The humor is a little bit more desperate and raw, and no wealthy people appear.

See also: IMDb

My Man Godfrey ***
Gregory La Cava, 1936
US
@ Seattle Art Museum

Relentlessly funny, sweet but not sentimental. Pretty much a gold standard for unconventional romantic comedy.

See also: IMDb | TCMDb

Le Cercle Rouge ***
Jean-Pierre Melville, 1970
France
@ home on DVD

Excellent in its own right, but I must admit to watching it solely because of Johnnie To's upcoming remake, featuring Orlando Bloom, Liam Neeson, Chow Yun-fat, and Alain Delon, presumably in a different role. It'll be interesting to see how To maintains or changes the relationship dynamics, and whether or not he ramps up the set-pieces, like the escape from the train or the heist near the end.

See also: IMDb | TCMDb

Profit Motive and the Whispering Wind ***
John Gianvito, 2007
US
@ Northwest Film Forum

Inspiring, humorous, educational; revolutionary.

See also: IMDb

The Landlord ***
Hal Ashby, 1970
US
@ Northwest Film Forum

I feel like these days when we bother to broach the subjects of race and class we have very well-defined things we're allowed to say and specific ways in which we say them. You can basically presume what you're going to "learn" from an issue movie before you even see it.

While it's also hilarious, this film feels a bit dangerous by today's standards, mostly in terms of content but also in terms of form at some points, maybe because there hadn't been such a long tradition of "well-made" films dealing the integration, at least in which the writer could use actual terminology and not just beat around the bush whilst assuming the audience would be on the same page.

See also: IMDb | J. Hoberman review

Vertigo ***
Alfred Hitchcock, 1958
US
@ The Grand Illusion

Excellent. These relationships are all so convoluted and inappropriate that anyone involved on any end of them must be guilty of something. This struck me because so many of Hitchcock's films involve a man wrongly accused, but here even though Scottie is exploited, he exploits others just as much.

Almost every location is memorable (at least that's how it seemed to me seeing this again after five years or so) and the filmmaking pretty fluid. I wonder how red Ernie's restaurant actually is where Scottie first lays eyes on Madeleine. There's a fair amount of color manipulation throughout, but general it looks like the full frame has been processed rather than a single element like the walls around the bar.

At least as suspenseful the second time around, and the end is terrifically climactic.

Particularly during the scene where Madeleine wakes up in Scottie's apartment, I noticed how uncannily some of Terry O'Quinn's mannerisms as Locke on Lost match up with many things James Stewart does here.

See also: IMDb | TCMDb

Sunrise ***
F.W. Murnau, 1927
US
@ The Triple Door

Expressive and surprisingly nuanced even though the plot seems to be laid out right from the beginning. Has the feel of myth rather than just melodrama.

See also: IMDb

Pierre Rissient: Man of the Cinema ***
Todd McCarthy, 2008
US/France
@ SIFF Cinema

Fascinating, particularly the early years where Rissient is creating a new career for himself to precisely channel his love of cinema.

See also: IMDb

Momma's Man ***
Azazel Jacobs, 2008
US
@ Uptown Cinema

A slow, intermittently depressing meditation on something like a pre-mid-life crisis. It is essentially cinema of duration, in that most of the payoff, both depressing and redemptive, comes from just sitting with the main character and his parents as he awkwardly finds his own way through whatever emotional problems he's facing. I'm guessing whoever brought a whole crowd of high school kids had some other sort of idea about the film beforehand.

See also: IMDb

Still Orangutans ***
Gustavo Spolidoro, 2008
Brazil
@ Pacific Place

At first disorienting, but the accumulating intensity of the contiguous vignettes builds much like a rapid succession of drinks, eventually unleashing its full effect, here pent up until the last moment. Probably less of a city symphony than a catalogue of the wildness of the human spirit, a lingering sub-humanity referred to in the title. Maybe the best thing I've seen this year.

See also: IMDb