Movie Diary 6/1/2009

O’Horten (Bent Hamer, 2007). My favorite title of the year, clearly. (full review 6/19)

My Life in Ruins (Daniel Petrie, 2009). Nia Vardalos, actually in Greece this time, and like My Big Fat Greek Wedding, a movie your mother will enjoy. (full review 6/5)

The Hangover (Todd Philllips, 2009). In the hierarchy of the subgenre, funnier than Bachelor Party or Very Bad Things, and much grosser. (full review 6/5)

Poppy Shakespeare (Benjamin Ross, 2008). Ross hasn’t been heard from much since The Young Poisoner’s Handbook, but that was the kind of original, scathing movie that would make me sign up for whatever the guy was working on. This oddball item is modest (and could use subtitles),  but it works. (Screens at SIFF 6/9 and 6/14)

M. Butterfly (David Cronenberg, 1993). The DVD release gave me a reason to see a movie I missed the first time around; it’s not at all the disaster it sounded like. But an odd, admittedly reserved film.

So Long at the Fair (Terence Fisher, Antony Darnborough, 1950). As suspected: great set-up, enjoyable roll-out, inevitably flattening effect when the explanation comes (“But then why didn’t they just….”). Fun, though.