111. Mesrine: Killer Instinct (French)
Leaps through te career of this real kife French ganster at an entertaining clip. Vincent Cassal is great and it is shot with a nice changing color pallet and some really slich camera work. More engaging than Michael Mann’s ‘Public Enemies’ with Johnny Depp about John Dillinger, much as I liked that. And you get a part two. It is a bit brutal at times, but necessary to flesh out the real madness of this otherwise ‘romantic’ figure.
110. The Philosopher Kings
57. Life During Wartime (Todd Solondz)
This ain’t no party, this ain’t no disco
this ain’t no fooling around
No time for dancing, or lovey dovey
I ain’t got time for that now
Life During Wartime – Talking Heads
I saw this back in April at IFFB, but it is worth pushing again. The box office total as of Aug. 15, 2010 is only $180,76. I think Solondz, along with Todd Haynes, are successors to R.W. Fassbinder. Even if that doesn’t mean anything to you, this film really deserves a bigger audience.
If you’ve squirmed through Solondz’ ‘Happiness‘ this is a wonderful variation on that film’s characters, starting with a two shot restaurant scene which transforms the startling Jon Lovitz/Jane Adams breakup scene into something even odder and more resonant. And so goes the rest of the movie. It’s a comedy but not an easy one to laugh at. I smirk at the films audacity more than at jokes. His fine line between comedy and pathos makes it really difficult to judge what the laughter is about. Is it recognition, discomfort, release, or a notification that you “get” the humor? My wife, a psychotherapist, can’t even watch his films, while the woman next to me was chortling through the whole movie. It’s a Rorschach test for the soul.
His casting and writing always generate startling performances. Paul Rubens (not to be confused with Peter Paul Rubens) is cast for his unfortunate and unavoidable moral baggage , and a surprising appearance by Charlotte Rampling – as a callous and wounded middle-aged seductress – evokes, in my mind, her roles from Night Porter to Under the Sand. But it’s the off-kilter new-agey middle age romance between Allison Janney’s Trish and Michael Lerner’s Harvey that really sets your teeth on edge. Dylan Riley Snyder as Trish’ son Timmy may be at the moral center as children often are in Solondz films. As in Iran where children are made central characters in order to get past censors to larger social themes, Solondz is couching difficult ambiguities about human relationships into simple, cockeyed, conversations often bordering on inappropriate. But he’s neither a misanthrope nor a cynic, but shockingly dead on, and the personal is always political. It’s wartime. As the director dryly puts it: “Relationships are complicated” and as Timmy’s perfect last line confides: “I don’t care about freedom and democracy. I just want my father.”
110. The Concert (French and Russian) Radu Mihaileanu
I don’t find many French comedies that funny, and fortunately this is directed by a Romanian who avoids the obscure Franco-jokes and heads straight to Russian, Jewish, and Gypsy stereotypes. The story is unlikely enough to be considered more as a fable than real story. Maybe because I don’t know the actors (except for Mélanie Laurent who is charming and learned the violin) that at least I was not annoyed by its cloying plot. That sounds like faint praise, but the plot is diverting, the antics are amusing, the acting strong, and some great Tchaikovsky to finish. It lies in the same wacky territory as Fatih Akin’s Soul Kitchen, that very good director’s frenzied shot at comedy. So call it a guilty pleasure.

109. Joan Rivers: A Piece of Work
Rivers’s life is told in passing. The beauty of the movie is watching close-up what her life and art in the context of this capricious, over-paid, crazy show business world may be like. It brings her down to our level, given that we, the audience, had the wit, talent, drive, money, ambition, and patience for cosmetic surgery as does Joan Rivers. Very human, very humane, very funny.

108. Great Directors(Angela Ismailos)
It’s too easy to say what’s wrong with this movie, as many critics have, which is unfortunate, because the film is really fun to watch and to listen to. Although too little time is given to John Sayles and Liliana Cavani, her interviews with David Lynch, Catherine Breillat, Bernardo Bertolucci, Agnes Varda, Stephen Frears, Richard Linklater, Ken Loach, and Todd Haynes make up or it. These are wonderful choices. There are many directions a film with this kind of breadth and access might go, but taken as it is, it’s a lot of fun. There are great clips from the directors themselves, but especially from films that represent the directors who influenced this group. This would mak great classroom instruction, and a conversation starter. The influence of Fassbinder and Genet on Todd Haynes, Fellini on Lynch, or of Thatcher’s politics on Loach and Frears, are substantive. Whether or not she cuts away to herself, or gives too much time to this or that, doesn’t diminish the pleasure of seeing an outstanding selection of directors, hearing some essential contemporary film history, and being privy to some very entertaining observations.

107. Dogtooth (Greek)) (Giorgos Lanthimos)
After parking for $16.00 at the overpriced MFA lot in Boston where I saw Dogtooth for $10.00, my teeth were already on edge – including my Dogtooth. Did I get my money’s worth? Let me say this about that. This story of three teenagers cloistered by their wealthy father on his isolated country estate where they’re taught preposterous behavior including erroneous words for things (little yellow flowers are ‘zombies’ and pussy means ‘big light’) is violent, sexual, bloody, and ridiculous. That’s the fun part.

It seems to be tragic, but without a real story and it’s too open-ended to come off as a satire. Is the family of the future (as the director suggests) doomed? Is there a larger political critique? Is the film, as has also been suggested, a critique of Greek society and its acceptance in the European Union, or the corrupting influence of American popular culture.

It’s fair to say that it is all these things if you want it to be. I was desperate to feel that it would open to larger possibilities. But it just veers and crawls from one funny/horrible situation to the next. It is a surrealistic and instinctive film, but without the intricacy and dexterity of David Lynch, the sly lyricism of Bunuel, or the political commitment of a Pasolini film. The film looks beautiful but in the end it doesn’t go anywhere. Film loving audiences may be so hungry for open ended, interesting, provocative films that they are buying into Lanthimos ultimately repetitive and boring attempt at a lyrical nightmare. This is just too empty, too easy, too slow. I hesitate to say that it was all Greek to me, but perhaps that was part of the problem. I nevertheless look forward to his next film.

105. Valhalla Rising (Nicolas Winding Refn)
Like his film Bronson, Valhalla Rising concerns man as the scourge of God, only this time not in the British prison system, but at the most elemental level. That would be Viking times, though it’s not specific.
‘One-Eye’ – so named by his boy sidekick (“you need a name and you’ve only got one-eye”) – is Mads Mikkelsen – a warrior of few words and a scraggly looking eye. Actually that would be a man of no words and a piece of goofy looking nose putty for an ex-eye. As an elemental force of pagan pre-history, there are copious shots of One –Eye gazing into primordial landscapes or flashing to red-tinged memories of his violent past or maybe these are visions of his impending fate. It’s unclear, but he makes Refn ‘s Bronson look civilized. One-Eye can disembowel a man with one hand. As a captured slave he was caged and used for entertaining a group of dirty bearded animal skin wearing primitives as a fighting machine who could kill anyone even when chained by the neck.
As an escaped ex-slave and pre-historical, pagan scourge to a new cluster of deluded Christian Viking-like explorers who are making their way to Jerusalem thorough – where, Scotland? – he is not to be fucked with.
The ominous music, ponderous treks across malefic sweeps of rocky wooded outback, baleful glances, and sudden explosions of primitive violence, unfold at the at the pace of mud drying. These scroungy ancestors weren’t big on ideas or conversation. They stared a lot. After a while I’m not sure I wanted to.

103. The Kids Are All Right (Lisa Cholodenko)
This is treat on every level (except special effects – thank god). A laugh out loud script, great performances, and a clever and useful premise that operates on another level all together. I’ll predict now that Annette Bening will get an Academy Award (for this and Mother and Child). She’s due and she’s great. But equally great is Julianne Moore. Mark Ruffalo is as good as he was when the public was blown away by his heartbreaking performance in You Can Count on Me. That was 10 years ago. He really can convince you with that vulnerable Brando tough sensitive vibe like no one else, when there’s the right script. (the guy in back of me actually actually said; “man, he is so cool”)
The rest of the bunch really feels like a family. The arguments, the love, the difficulties- as Moore says in her beautiful, beautiful stuttering monologue and apology: “Marriage is fucking marathon” as an angry Bening weeps at the confession. It’s a profound moment, so simply done, perfectly performed.
I am waiting for the arguments about the surprisingly unkind ending. Ruffalo’s character was too developed, and his performance too strong to be summarily dismissed. But see it and see what you think. For me, this is one of the best films this year.

102. Inception
The collective gasp at the end of the movie is the sound of an audience easily led into deep, profound, philosophical, or just freakin’ heavy territory. The guy next to me said; “Oh man, I’ll never get over this.” But really, once you have a plot based dream reality you can you do anything. Then bolster it with great effects and CG. Does that make a masterpiece? The Hans Zimmer soundtrack alone tells you this is HEAVY. Is it really? As A.O. Scott observed, can we we sit on it a while before declaring it a masterpiece? A crafty movie and a masterpiece of hype for sure, but am I even allowed to say I was bored and distracted?

91. I Am Love(Italian – Luca Guadagnino)
I guess they DO make ‘em like they used to. Sort of. A wild and beautiful opera of a film with astounding borrowed music from John Adams. Produced and starring the wild and beautiful, brave and and Italian speaking Tilda Swinton, it conjures up those sprawling Italian films from the heyday of Rosselini and Visconti and maybe even Bertolluci. Like the exquisite meals prepared throughout the film, and like the music, the story builds slowly to a furious and passionate conclusion.
It’s a sprawl, or better yet, a balanced stew of family history, Italian history, global politics, local color, sexuality, decor, manners, social class and the natural world – and lots of food. Exquisite dishes are even used as central plot points . All this is unique for a contemporary film. Just like the dishes they prepare the audience gets to savor all kinds of details as they patiently present themselves, trusting that by the end it will reach a fine finish. There’s even a disconcerting visual aperitif just after the first credit which tops it off.

89. The Secret in Their Eyes (El secreto de sus ojos)
A great story and beautifully shot. Look for the one continuous shot that starts over a soccer stadium, cranes down into the crowd to the actors faces, and proceeds into a chase that winds through the halls of the stadium and ends up on the field with a captured villain’s face sideways at the barrel of gun. These new Argentinian movies have a way of being really personal while folding in all kinds of ideas about history and politics. Academy Award winner.

88. Trash Humpers (Harmony Korine)
I thought it was amazing. But when you try to reason why, you start to wonder if you’re bullshitting yourself and the whole thing is a mischievous prank. This nasty little film, that reads like old VHS home movies found in the trash of relatives of the family in Chainsaw Massacre is not John Waters and not Andy Warhol. It’s provoking us to be sure, but raises all kinds of ideas about why we watch, what we watch, and the ubiquity of images in this maxed out visual culture of YouTube and Hostel, an age of real trash and vaudeville.

86. Winter’s Bone
Lean, mean, and kind of grisly. I can’t imagine that Jennifer Lawrence won’t get all kinds of indie nominations for her role as Ree. It reminds me of the hardscrabble Frozen River last year except that it never seems to have a message or to be setting an example about the nobility of any particular people or way of life. Oddly it’s more of a thriller, except that most the violence associated with the girl’s missing father is implied, offscreen, or left to possibility and imagination. What you get is a taught drama built around some unsettling Ozark folk and drug dealing backwoods types. By making the protagonist a young women, the director Debra Granik, really increases the stakes. It’s a unique and gripping film with some frighteningly good performances and some offbeat casting.

85. Get Him To The Greek
At its heart this is another Apatow late coming off age movie. Everyman officially has moved from Tom Hanks to Jonah Hill – I shudder to think what that means. But he’s really good and convincing in the most random and insane situations. Most of those come from Russell Brand’s rock star character Aldous Snow (is that Aldous Huxley meets Aurora Snow?) – part rock savant, part purveyor of petty musical porn. But he is amazing in the role. And Sean Combs is brilliant. He’s so good you realize he can be completely ironic about his own mythology and powerful enough to stick it to the music business. As does the movie. It’s pointed, unlikely, slapstick, disgusting, hilarious and sweet. And you never know where it’s going to head next.A real bonus is the wonderful Elizabeth Moss (sooo good in Mad Men) as the unlikely girlfriend to Hill. The threesome attempted between these three characters in the bedroom says a lot about the clash of decades and generations. Brilliant and unrelenting.

74. The Man Next Door (el hombre de al lado)
Yet another great Argentine film. (The Secret in Their Eyes, The Custodian, Kept and Dreamless are others worth checking out) This strange story is about all kinds of things concerning communication, family, authenticity, seeing and being seen, architecture, and the modern world that has way of distancing us from one another with its obsession with technology. The brilliant opening let’s us know the movies style will border on what reminds me of ‘video art’ in its framing and clever shooting and concepts. It unfolds patiently, isn’t entirely sympathetic to its characters, but I haven’t been able to stop thinking about it. Don’t miss this one.

75. COCO AND IGOR
Gorgeous to look at and infinity better than Coco Before Channel which left you empty. The acting is great, sets, costumes, and cinematography all admirable. The opening scene of The Rite of Spring being performed for the first time in 1913 is worth the whole movie. I like the way Stravinsky’s music embellishes the whole thing, but it does really go anywhere. So you just sit back and try to imagine maybe this all really happened – that Igor had a passionate fling with Coco. I like costume dramas anyway, if a little cold to bio-pics. That they might have had this affair is a cool fact, but not necessarily made more real for me by seeing Igor’s naked heinie in an overhead shot pumping the very splayed thighs of Coco Chanel. Overall the movie it is fun to watch and listen to.

76. GET LOW
Robert Duvall should stop producing movies with scripts that let him play these inarticulate backwoods guys. The problem being that you wind up eventually with a film like this. It had me begging for something to happen followed by being actively pissed at the non-payoff ending. They build up this premise fed by artful flashbacks and then don’t have the good sense to conclude it.

77. TILLMAN STORY, THE
A story that needs to be told, and its told really well considering the limitations the director had with the family. This is one remarkable family seeking justice for their son a remarkable person and a war hero. It’s a shocking story, and I don’t know how much more disillusioned we can be about Bush, Rumsfeld and his arrogant and corrupt cronies. I hope this film gets seen. History will add it all up. At least that scumbag General McChrystal lost his job. See it. Watch the generals lie and deceive before your very eyes. An amazing story. See it. Arrg.

78. HIPSTERS(2008)
If you’re looking for an engaging quirky night of film, check out this bizarre Russian musical. I didn’t even think the colors in this film existed in Russia. I didn’t know the 1950’s existed in Russia but there is a serious and interesting historical component. The Stilyagi (’Hipsters’) were a rebellious youth subculture in Russia from the late 1940s until the early 1960s. They Soviet Union who dressed in modern fashions, and flew in the face of the communist-socialist realities of the time. This is great fodder for a film.The songs are generally very clever neatly worked into the plot. A hallucination of a movie. It’s in the tradition of midnight cult films. A great rental.

79. SOUL KITCHEN(Fatih Akin)
A bit unlikely and silly, but moves fasr. Akin having fun. Not his best. Be sure to see Head On and The Edge of Heaven first.

80. LUCKY
81. DRY LAND, THE
82. KILLED MY MOTHER (J’AI TUÉ MA MERE)
83. LET’S TALK ABOUT SEX
84. KINGS OF PASTRY

69. Daddy Longlegs (Josh and Benny Safdie)
Not the 1955 Fred Astaire movie by a long shot. Done mostly handheld and very New York with Ronald Bronstein as a less than responsible dad who wants to make the two weeks he gets with his two little boys as fun and memorable as possible. But the guy is a mess. I found Bronstein’s own film Frownland, another Brooklyn improv style ‘mumblecorps’ (sort of), enormously unpleasant, but his disarray as an actor and his terrific improv skills work perfectly here.
The film is, as Ray Carney called it, ‘exploratory’. The Safdie brothers are working out issues with their own father on whom this is based. It’s somewhat of a Rorschach test for parenting. Some are really put off by certain behaviors in the dad (myself included) others feel the love this dad has for his boys, and that trumps his irresponsibility. Either way the film sets up a really authentic looking and deeply felt test of audience empathy. It’s a unique, compelling, and accomplished independent film by two very talented brothers.

61. Micmacs (Jean-Pierre Jeunet)
Exhaustively clever, visually wonderful
60. The Killer Inside Me (Winterbottom)
I love Winterbottom and this is a pretty good depiction of the Jim Thompson book which is a nasty piece of work. Didn’t really stay with me, but it keeps you engaged for sure.
59. Looking for Eric (Ken Loach)
Builds up as it goes along to an almost silly climax. I don’t care for sports films or those with imaginary characters as here where Eric Cantona, a great soccer player gives life advice to mailman Eric Bishop. It is Ken Loach. so it feels honest, but a bit silly unless you know the sport, or are British.
58. His & Hers (Ken Wardrop)
Life seen through the faces and voices of women of central Ireland. Full of textures and fabrics and scenery. Girls and women discuss life and love in age squence starting with babies, to little girls, adolescents, young to old women. A wonderful looking and poetic film. Wait for the only man to appear for a few seconds in the last wonderful shot.
57. Life During Wartime (Todd Solondz)
56. Tiny Furniture(Lena Dunham)
Another Brooklyn/Manhattan 20-something film shot is a seeming improv style. But this is one of the best – clever and full of life and truth about the age of uncertainty and early adulthood, and about parents. Great writing and boldly acted by the director Lena Dunham
55. Erasing David
Good gimmick. More fun to think about than to sit through.
54. War Don Don (Rebecca Richman Cohen)
A carefully constructed dialectic by this lawyer/filmmaker on the culpability of power for acts of incomprehensible evil. Great footage and access to the trial of leaders and the devastation caused by the Revolutionary United Front (RUF) of Sierra Leone. She carefully draws you in with expectations of guilt and about evil and moves to a cautiously balanced argument on ultimate responsibility and even the appropriateness of the world tribunal itself.
53. I’m Dangerous with Love (Michel Negroponte)
A remarkable, hallucinatory documentary about ibogaine, a psychedelic alkaloid from the West African iboga plant, and its use in curing addiction. The film’s subject “Dimitri” and ex-addict now charismatic shaman is a quite the subject and the film graphically dives into the power of this drug in healing and as revelation. This is way beyond the 60’s idea of a trip. Through the director’s participation, Lisa Croft’s animations, and Dimitri’s journey and initiation to iboga in Gabon, Africa – the film itself get mighty psychedelic. Brave people, brave film.
52. Bass Ackwards (Linus Phillips)
Simple. Poetic. Beautifully shot on a Red Cam. Some nice performances. It’s got a documentary feel, but it’s narrative.
51. Cyrus(Duplass)
The Duplass Brothers get better and better. This one knocks it out of the park. Funny, complex, superior performances by John C Reilly. Jonah Hill, and a great and subtle Marisa Tomei. It’s a coming-of-age, I guess, but I think everyone is coming of age, not just the fleshy and imposing Jonas Hill as Cyrus.
50. Perrier’s Bounty
British gangster genre with all the classic Brit bad guys, particularly Brendan Gleeson as Perrier, Cillian Murphy as the innocent. Well done if this is your cup o’ tea. It’s not mine. Too glib. Dopey characters.

44. Hungry (Steve McQueen) Like Five Minutes of Heaven the human cost of the Irish conflict
43. Red, White, and Blue
42. Grindhouse
41. Mother (Madeo – Joon-ho Bong)
40. L’Affaire Farewell
39. Greenberg
38. Vincere
37. The Green Zone (Paul Greengrass)
Disguised as a spy-ish thriller, Matt Damon and the director use the chase and suspense elements of their Bourne movies to tell a fictional story that uses very real facts about the scam that was called Shock and Awe. It’s blatant what they’re doing: we get the exciting Greengrass hand held style, and are reminded how we, American public, were duped about WMD’s at the enormous expense to both Iraq and to our own armed forces. It’s sad and inevitable how the lives of small people, not only don’t add up to a hill of beans in this crazy world, but are at the mercy historical forces about which we can do nothing. A sobering reminder of the Bush legacy, and of why Rumsfeld, Cheney, and their ilk can sit back and laugh at the blood on their hands.

34. Crazy Heart
Most admirable as a well developed Indie product. A relaxed and committed performance form Bridges, whose Oscar comes from a lifetime of these parts and for singing good. 30% too much cliche, but every 5 years a good singing actor plays a breaking down musician and it’s always fun. See my review for the faux sequel above.

33. Reykjavik-Rotterdam (Iceland-Óskar Jónasson)
A blend of the ‘one last job’ caper, with neatly placed humor, a snappy pace, lots of double crossing, and a layer of family drama. Baltasar Kormákur has a Colin Farell vibe which ennobles the otherwise hapless Kristófer – an parolee forced by desperate circumstances into once last smuggling job aboard a freighter from – you got it – Reykjavik-Rotterdam and back. Antics and violence ensue, but you don’t have to keep track of the usual ‘caper’ details and it moves at a swift clip between the ship, where Kristófer’s ex-buddies are helping with the task and fighting off the skeptical captain, and the shore, where his wife is being threatened by her dastardly ex-boyfriend. Kormákur could be an international star and is already a successful director in Iceland. He also owns the rights and is in to the sequel already underway featuring Mark Wahlberg. That’s not bad casting for this part, but the screening I saw is obviously to attract interest in the original before it’s packaged up with fancier locations, big stars, and no subtitles. But get this one while you can.

32. A Prophet (French-Jacques Audiard)
This is one tough movie. Tahar Rahim is just amazing as he evolves from a naive prisoner to clever street smart errand boy during his ‘work release’. Complex interplay of gang and Corsicans and Muslim politics that I would need explained, but that doesn’t detract from strong realistic filmmaking. 150 minutes flies by. So different from the director’s film The Venus Beauty Institute and worthy of that Academy nomination.

31. Ghost Writer (Polanski)
The director is in his paranoid thriller mode. It’s set on the Vineyard as duplicated somewhere in Germany, so that’s fun for us Bay Staters. The pivotal suspense scene by GPS is an interesting device and the film is full of odd, quirky, dry moments like that. As for it feeling a little off center – bike rides in the rain, a reappearing Asian deck sweeper, befuddling story details – it’s not so much that plot points are confusing, as they are laid out to be discovered, possibly not even noticed on a first viewing, and are constructed to keep us unsettled. Details may be McGuffins, they maybe significant, they may simply appear sinister. It’s a network of paranoid situations and moments, like The Tenant as a conspiracy drama. Of course, in the movie, as with Polanski’s life, the paranoia is actual and merciless.

30. Memories of Murder (2003 Korean: 살인의 추억)
At the Harvard Film Archives with director Bong Joon-hoat in attendance. To be continued…

29. The Cove
James Bond meets Flipper meets Greenpeace. This is really good, and will probably win the Academy Award. Interesting, disturbing, exciting, really well told, and beautifully shot. The last moments are alarming, literally. I joined their Tweet campaign then and there.

28. Mid-August Dinner (Pranzo di ferragosto)
To help pay some debts, Gianni, an unemployed, single, middle aged man, agrees to look after four very old women for a night. Antics DO NOT ensue, as you might expect, but friendship food, and joy. The director, Gianni Di Gregorio, wrote it, acted in it, used his own apartment, based it on an incident in his own life, and then and cast the women from hundreds of non-professionals. The result is a unique and brilliant short story of a film.
It was pointed out, by Britt Smith, that August 15 is Feast of the Assumption, and that in religious mythology Mary “having completed the course of her earthly life, was assumed body and soul into heavenly glory”. The old women in this movie are also ascending to heaven without death, and the movie glories in the blessings and quirks of old age. If you love your mother, Italy, or Italian movies – see it!

27. A Lake (Philippe Grandrieux)
Even though he claims not to be an experimental filmmaker, Grandrieux creates film where sound and touch are equal to visual sense with alternately shimmering, frightening cinematography and a claustrophobic hand-held camera. He is considered one of the great new French directors from whom there are really interesting films being made (Francois Ozon, Gaspar Noe, Catherine Breillat, Bruno Dumont) so it is worth investigating. Grandrieux is the most challenging for me. He also has influences from Robert Bresson, Fassbinder, Stan Brakhage, and painters as well.
He claims narrative is unimportant. “I understand the wonderful Hollywood movies where you know everything that will happen, so why bother” is his attitude. He is in search of something deeper, more mystical, more physical. It will either fascinate you or give you a headache. There are about 20 lines of dialogue, not including screams and shouts. The story is something about an isolated family in a family living in the frozen Alps, with an epileptic logger brother and his sister who are coming of age in inappropriate ways.

26. Sombre (Philippe Grandrieux) The director’s earlier, more violent and disturbing film. Basically about Jean (Marc Barbé), a man that has many sexual encounters with women, but ends up killing them. Among other things, the film apples the following ideas from Gilles Deleuze. Here’s primer on that (gleaned from Wikipedia and embellished) which, if you see the film, helps to understand what Grandrieux is doing:
Perception-Image
This resembles the point of view shot of film theory, but that shot can sometimes be the point of view of characters, sometime floating free, the anonymous, unidentified viewpoint of the camera. He calls this camera consciousness.
Three different types of perception:
solid perception (normal human perception),
liquid perception (where images flow together) and
gaseous perception (the pure vision of the non-human eye). This is objective vision of the world before man. Dziga Vertov’s images aspire to pure machine vision. Experimental cinema also reaches for this pure perception.
The affection-image
“The affection-image is the close-up, and the close-up is the face…”
Closeup = Face. A face can be a real face or not. All faces are affection-images.
The action-image
Large Form and the Small Form.
Large Form is defined as “there are gaps waiting to be filled (documentary film, Film Noir, the Western,the historical film). Deleuze attributes the large form to Method Acting where the audiences fills in the psychology of the character because that character has been has been embodied by the performer.
Small Form defined “the actions create the situation”.

IN 2000, when I first got a Handspring Visor (rival PDA to the Palm) I started keeping a log of all the films I saw because obviously I do frequent the movie house. With 2010, I took Steve Stone’s advice to say something about each in a few words. (not the Steve Stone who was major league pitcher and the uncredited sports announcer in Ferris Bueller. The other Steve Stone.)
I gave in to netflix this year, but on the one at a time plan. A theater is still much preferred.
Log for 2010
25. Shutter Island
In a word “Portentous”. Let’s break that down to synonyms. Exciting shots; Foreboding events. Alarming plot twists. Apocalyptic acting. Augural forshadowing devices. Doomed characters. Exhilarating Hitchcock moments. Haunting mood. And so forth. But I sometimes wish Scorsese would get back to the grit and spontaneity of his early films. Everything is in place, lots of in & out cameos, Leo getting his snarl on, Ruffalo laying back, a cold creepy doctor played by (who else?) Sir Ben, and (thank goodness) Max von Sydow. But as a horror flick, B-Movie, or Shock Corridor/Snake PIt/Vertigo mash-up, it feels forced. The found music soundtrack is fascinating, but along with all the thunder, the creepy characters, flickering lights, and the lapses in continuity it tips into comically melodramatic. I say all this prostrating myself before the king of modern directors. I sure he MEANT to do all this. And it doesn’t matter anyway what I say, you will see it. And should.
24. The Unknown Woman (Giuseppe Tornatore 2008)
This is a lively rental, the acting is good, the plot engaging. Like his overrated “Cinema Paradiso” (I know, I’m in the minority on that), credibility takes a back seat to cool and sensuous visuals, and overly orchestrated emotion. In the end you can enjoy it, but I just feel a little taken advantage of.
23. Transsiberian (Brad Anderson 2008)
I missed this when it was released, but was really surprised. It uses our paranoia of creepy, cold-hearted, sadistic, amoral, drug dealing, irrational, Eastern European mobster types (Hostel, Eastern Promises, etc.) to put together a rattling paced movie across the trans-siberian railway. Emily Mortimer is a great choice, Ben Kingsley does another variation on his inscrutable and creepy bad guy, and we get the “aw, shucks” Woody Harrelson, not the nuts Woody. The plot just keeps chugging along, churning out suspense. Whatd’ya know? Just Iike a train! Boston’s Brad Anderson continues to satisfy. (rent Next Stop Wonderland!)
22. The Yellow Handkerchief (Udayan Prasad)
A carefully detailed film about forgiveness, atonement, relationships, love, and New Orleans. Kristin Thomas’ youthful skill and energy as an actress bumps up against William Hurts minimalist tendency to stare a lot. But he’s a wonderful physical actor, and she’s enchanting to watch. The conclusion may feel too plotted, but it’s an engaging and honest road movie and coming of age story.
21. Fish Tank
A really unmoored 15 year old girl with a clueless and fed up single mom attempts to come of age in the projects in Essex, UK. It’s amazing that these are first time actors. Starts slow and builds and builds never really letting you off the hook. I found myself surprised the abundant credits, because the film felt so intimate and natural throughout, like one person with a camera. Full of keen details, insinuations of behavior. Unfolds casually, but you gotta watch carefully as the plot patiently accumulates in power and devastation. A real surprise. I thought the ballon at the end was a nice touch (you’ll have to see it)
20. Avatar
I guess it has to be seen. I don’t think 3-D changes the game of movie making, but it’s fun being back in the 50’s. It’s also fun to look at your watch exactly at the half way point where Pocahontas/Dances with Wolves morphs into GI Joe. Like Madonna and Watchman and Good Will Hunting, it’s a pop product you can pick over for significance without too much effort.
19. The White Ribbon –
A great Heneke film, creepy and in ferocious black and white, like Berman’s best. It’s an interesting context with which to implicate the contemporary audience, and look at the roots of fascism through some questionable adult behavior, and in the horrid way children were raised in this vision of pre-industrial rural Germany. This was to be the new Germany? There are crimes, but as usual, the point isn’t whodunit. Discussing the possibilities of guilt and culpability is what makes it intriguing, discussable, and haunting.
18. The Last Station -
Interesting piece of history even if some details had to be fabricated to keep the story inspirational. Christopher Plummer and Helen Mirren are hammy, but appropriately so for the likes of Mr and Mrs Toylstoy, so it makes for good fun, and a good lesson in how to create a spirited but authentic characterization.
17. The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes (1943)
Really corny and unlikely with tons of holes in the plot, but watching Basil Rathbone singing and dancing in disguise in one particular scene, and snapping “Hello?” at each new discovery is worth the 70 minutes.
16. I’m Gonna Explode
Mexican with great great teen actors. Another film (like Fish Tank) where the behavior of the kids is disturbing, but you kind of like them and understand the problem, though here we’re in the upper class, and now that’s the problem. The depiction of these two alienated teens is ambivalent and unsettling. It seems Latin films are beginning to confront their teenagers. It leaves you needing a conversation with somebody. I saw it alone.
15. Julie and Julia
I met Julia Child several times and once outside of a Dunkin Donuts in Cambridge, I commented on her indulging on these chain donuts. “Well, they are rather good aren’t they” she squawked in her best Meryl Streep voice. I liked this movie, but do think Rich Little, David Frye, and even Robert Morse as Capote were good, too. I suppose impersonation is the way to go, and the gimmick of the movie. Stanley Tucci knows how to get out of the way, but it’s Amy Adams who gives it real heart.
14. Halloween (’09 Rob Zombie)
Cheesy psychology and lacking real suspense, but, man, Jason really wackes his victims good, and loudly, and to rock music! I guess somebody has to make movies like this. Boo. (as in scared ya)
13. Northface (German)
I guess people really do get vertigo and have trouble with this film which concerns really extreme repelling and the first attempt to ascend the Eiger north face in 1935. Another cheeseball love story services the audience, but the rest is exciting and convincing filmmaking.
12. Whip it!
I love Drew and her whole history and her crooked smile and sense of fun, but boy does this suck. Ellen Page is miles beyond this good time had by all.
11. The Gleaners and I (Agnes Varda) Pure poetry.
10. Valkyrie (Bryan Singer)
The (your) problem is I LIKE Tom Cruise. My expectations are noncombatant, and I assume he’ll be good, and if his church and he have approved of the project, I may even get a good yarn. That was the case.
9. I Stand Alone (Gasper Noe)
Expect it to be severe and you’ll be fine. Toward the end he has a ten second “countdown” so you can leave the theater if you don’t want to experience what comes next. Clever, but the isolated framing, the disquieting narration of the unemployed butcher at the story’s center, and the puzzling lack of a moral point of view serve to bury you deep into the mind of one very fucked up Frenchmen.
8. Waiting for Hockney Way more interesting and complex than you would imagine. It takes subjects of art, talent, delusion, creativity, gift, ambition, life, family and blends them seamlessly into a story that unfolds naturally with great suspense and a good payoff. You end up liking everybody here, even the unseen and gracious Hockney. For anyone who appreciates the creative process, you will understand the attitudes the film imparts about art.
7. Fantastic Mr FoxNever imagined I like it so much. I finally have found my inner Wes Anderson.
6. La DanseMessier than you’d imagine, but you really live in this world for three hours, as only Frederick Weisman can do it. Patient and compelling.
5. My Son the Fanatic Udayan Prasad)
4. The Beaches of Agnes (Agnes VardaYou start in confusion and finish in tears. She’s amazing, and so is her life, from which Varda creates another poem
3. 5×2 (w/ Valeria Bruni Tedeschi) (dir.by François Ozon -Criminal Lovers (1999),Swimming Pool (2003) Under the Sand (2000)
I loved this. Ozon is always a surprise. He chooses 5 scenes from a marriage and depicts them in reverse order. There is lots of room for viewers to discuss the psychology and behavior of the characters, which is fun. Tedeschi is just fascinating to look at, and a bold actress.
2. The Apartment (1960)
1. Die Die My Darling (Tallulah Bankhead 1965)
Dreadful, but not boring dreadful.

If asked, “Did you like it?” careful how you respond. You could be accused of taking pleasure in watching delicate body parts compromised with household items and garden tools. And maybe you’ve never even seen the Saw or Hostel series. But with chapters labeled Grief, Pain, and Despair whether you “like” the film is relative. Anti Christ is audacious film-making filled with arresting and poetic images and provocative questions about the politics of power and sexuality. It imagines whether grief, pain, and despair are states of mind or whether they exist in nature itself – a question that supports Lars Von Trier’s own peculiar romanticism.

The inciting incident is a beautiful set piece: an artfully photographed and very graphic, black and white, slow motion, lovemaking scene during which the couple’s child escapes from a crib, clears from a table three statuettes – labeled grief, pain, and despair – and climbs up on the table and over to a window. Then, in exquisite slow motion, like an angel ascending to heaven, – the child falls to its death.

“He” (Willem Dafoe) is a psychologist whose dominating and inappropriate counseling of his own wife “she” (Charlotte Gainsbourough) ) Dafoe leads her to the place where she is suppose to confront the thing she fears most – the deep, dark forest. “Nature is the devil’s playground” she says. She ought to know. She’s written a thesis on witchcraft in ancient times with a collection of prints depicting inquisitional torture – mostly of women. She has come to the interesting conclusion that perhaps women actually can be truly evil, that women with their carnal desires and potentially wild natures are inherently dangerous creatures. Thank you Lars Von Trier!

From Breaking the Waves to Dancer in the Dark to Dogville and Mandalay, statements about Von Trier’s own misogyny are old hat. He also doesn’t like America much. It’s not a place that embraces his eccentricity and provocations. America also doesn’t like to be criticized. Is it possible he is actually protesting demeaning and oppressive attitudes toward women, maybe with particular emphasis on American patriarchal values? It’s not Von Trier who abusive, but the social circumstances in which his women find themselves.

At one point early in the film the wife, as if suddenly possessed, no longer fears the woods. She becomes liberated and healed. But “he” and his psychotherapy won’t let her go. His “scientific” approach has to dominate. Big mistake. Horror ensues.

Being America, the story is a lot more reminiscent of Hester Prynne and Pearl than it is simple misogyny. I remember being told in college that when Hawthorne’s wife finished reading A Scarlet Letter she went out and threw up. This liberation, this nature business was all too much! Women’s “nature” begins in Wicken (Hester Prynne), which is defined as evil by society (the Puritans, Inquisitions), and descends into madness and delusion (the suppression of their nature). Von Trier who converted to Catholicism says “Perhaps I only turned Catholic to piss off a few of my countrymen”. But if the Anti Christ does exist then there are horror movie consequences, complete with mortification of the flesh, redemption, souls released from purgatory. Checkout the amazing final unexpected image.

Von Trier has moved from the theatrical sparseness of Dogville and Mandalay to real woods replete with portentous talking animals, hideous nature, hailstones, constellations, heavy fog, and a reappearing fox, deer, and crow that I assume might represent man, woman and death. They echo a statement about children’s stories made earlier in the film. It’s a huge stylistic change and with cinematographer Anthony Dod Mantle (Slumdog Millionaire) they have created some fabulous images. It swings between fairy tale and the fantastic, between Shelley Duvall’s Fairy Tale Theater and Saw.

In a particularly horrific/child-like moment, the ‘fox’ intones:” Chaos Reigns”. Perhaps – but “Anti Christ” churns chaos into poetry.

Occasionally a movie comes along from Hollywood that sweeps you away with the breadth and scope of its sheer awfulness.
True story – a hank of hair at the International Women’s Air and Space Museum in Cleveland thought to be Amelia Earhart’s was recently discovered to be, in fact, just thread. This movie is the cinematic equivalent. This movie, thought to be about Amelia Earhart is, in fact, a threaded bundle of cliches and overwrought soap opera moments. If Hilary Swank gave one more brave toothy grin, I would have gagged on a kernel. But I stuck it out to see which was worse, the unconvincing acting, the poor casting, Richard Gere, the costumey looking costumes, or the dreadful Peter Pan soundtrack. But the winner, I think, is the screenplay, which rattles off one maudlin insight after another alternating with scenes of stunning mediocrity played without conviction or chemistry.
If some of this is based on Earhart’s real words, then maybe she’s just not that interesting a subject for film. My guess is that the forever overly earnest Hillary Swank, as executive producer, buoyed by research and good intentions, convinced Mira Nair that her poetic approach to film-making would be perfect against the pilot’s own words of inspiration. The result is a disaster. When you’re sitting in the theater having shelled out your ten bucks and you can’t wait for Amelia Earhart to die, you know you’ve gone to the wrong movie.

You know Mike Tyson is no saint, so expect a rough ride. There’s no doubt that James Toback has real affinity for Tyson as a subject, given Toback’s similar penchant for doing things his own way and that his recent films have dealt with race and relationships. He even cast Tyson in his 1999 film Black and White. So it seems perfect that he should take on a profile of this multifarious, great fighter.
The film has a lot of split screen and layered images. I expected this would get tedious – that it would be a cheesy way to keep our attention and hide too much reliance on the interview. But that turns out not to be the case at all. His quirky approach becomes like a documentary confession. Obviously Tyson had great trust in the director. There are a lot of hard close-ups on Tyson. Much of it does seem to come from one interview. The effect is that the audience becomes father confessors, or maybe psychologists for Tyson. As such there are bound to be radically different reactions to the boxer as a person, as a subject, as a man, and as an athlete.
What is clear is that he was a mighty, mighty boxer and a very troubled person. Despite his power as a fighter, there is little of the artistry, grace, and intelligence of anyone approaching the stature of Mohammed Ali. For better, and definitely for worse, Tyson is a brutal man in a brutal sport. But Toback in his respect for the man has revealed the poetry beneath the surface. That isn’t to say he lets him off the hook for some really bad behavior, but he doesn’t judge him. Tyson literally speaks for himself. I also don’t think that Toback would want to exploit Tyson who, it seems, has been exploited enough. Tyson’s contradictory, sometimes inarticulate, attempts to come to grips with his past life are filled with a lot of humor, shock, and honesty. He is not an educated man, but he is a blazing example of a superstar as anti-hero.
All the emotional confusion and ambivalence that are part of his colorful life are well served by Tobacks’s audacious style. There’s a lot of laughter at the sheer daring of Tyson’s claims, but also revelation at the emotion he has telling about his own life, his mistakes, his losses. So many questions, even at a psychological level are not commented on and are speculated on only in passing.
There are plenty of pre-conceptions about Mike Tyson, or maybe about boxing, in general. But the great archival footage makes the rise and fall of this chubby, short Brooklyn kid, afraid of getting picked on, and with little family to fall back on, to the “most feared man on the planet” worth millions and millions is clearly a compelling and very American story. Ultimately the brilliance of the film is that Toback commits his vision to the street poetry of Tyson’s own soul.