Movie Diary 6/30/2009

Captain Abu Raed (Amin Matalqa, 2007). Accessible arthouse number with a mainstream soul, agreeably assembled by Jordanian-American Matalqa. Main character is an airport janitor, mistaken by children for a much-adventured airline pilot; he’s pulled into a protective situation, Slingblade-style. (full review 7/3)
Moon (Duncan Jones, 2009). Sam Rockwell tour-de-forces his way through this slight but sturdy variation [...]

Movie Diary 6/29/2009

Underworld (Josef von Sternberg, 1927). Known for its influence on later gangster pictures, this film is alive in many different ways. The production design carries the Sternberg stamp, but so does the precise sense of gesture and facial expression, especially in Clive Brook’s performance. This screening at Port Townsend’s Rose Theatre featured live-music accompaniment by the [...]

1961 Ten Best Movies

The granddaddy of modern-day puzzle films, an influence on Kubrick, Greenaway, and Roger Corman, and famous cause celebre in its time: Last Year at Marienbad has gotten around. And while the movie was once a great conversation piece, and at some point began looking dated, it has now slipped into a realm of timelessness. At [...]

Transformers Adoration (Weekly Links)

Movies I reviewed for the Herald this week.
Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen. “From one stupefying situation to the next.”
Cheri. “A lurking empathy for their foolishness.”
Adoration. “Somewhat airless spaces.”
Tulpan. “A wry, funny intelligence guiding us.”
Treeless Mountain. “The emotional effect is sneaky. But strong.”
Plus a Rotten link: Mark Rahner and I interviewed by KPTK’s Jacques Pugh about [...]

Movie Diary 6/25/2009

Public Enemies (Michael Mann, 2009). A true Dantean circle of hell — not the movie, the preview screening. Dear god in heaven, there must be a different way to distribute movie passes. (At the very least, instead of giving away free T-shirts at these things, they might supply some bath soap.) The movie? That Michael Mann sure [...]

Movie Diary 6/24/2009

It Might Get Loud (Davis Guggenheim, 2009). Interesting idea – put three generations of rock guitarists in a room for a summit meeting – although we spend less time in the room than we do tracking some conventional how-they-got-here background material. The three are Jimmy Page, The Edge, and Jack White; the most human of [...]

Movie Diary 6/22/2009

Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen (Michael Bay, 2009). Giant robots, living on Earth, unable to arrange themselves in a visually coherent series of cuts. This movie has possibly the worst reaction-shot one-liners since the Roger Moore era of James Bond. (full review 6/24)
The Three Musketeers and The Four Musketeers (Richard Lester, 1973/74). After not seeing [...]

1982 Ten Best Movies

If I hadn’t seen the full 312-minute version of Fanny and Alexander, my #1 and #2 for 1982 might have been flipped, but the Criterion DVD set was the convincer here. Bergman’s epic memory-film is amazing for its blend of exactly-remembered realistic detail and its slightly fantastical sense of fairy tale come to life. The [...]

Culture Notes: Underworld, Cable Nausea

The Rose Theatre in Port Townsend, Washington, is one of the pleasantest, coziest places to see a movie, period. On June 28 the Rose hosts the much-huzzahed Alloy Orchestra for two live performances of their original score for Josef von Sternberg’s 1927 classic Underworld, which despite being a classic is all too rarely screened. More [...]

Every Little Merry Proposal (Weekly Links)

Reviews I did for the Herald this week.
The Proposal. “An eagle carrying off a small dog.”
Year One. “Can a visit to Sodom be far behind?”
Tetro. “Begins to jump its tracks about halfway through.”
The Merry Gentleman. “Calm, stately, and alive to changing weather and mood.”
Food, Inc. “The news ain’t pretty.”
Every Little Step. “Every callback is another lease [...]