soon to be... Master List (films I've seen since I've started this site, with original [mostly] outdated comments intact) currently [missing Dec. '04, Jan '05, Feb. 05, May '05, Aug 05]
Now adding by filmmakers... Masterpiece, Excellent, a must see, worth seeing, has redeeming facet, worthless [shamlessly curbed from D'Angelo/Sallitt formats]

Andrew Adamson (4)
The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe (2005) [seen: 12/05]
The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian (2008) [seen: 12/08] Adamson is not a bad filmmaker, but this movie needs to get over itself and stop trying to be the next Lord of the Rings. Incredibly overlong and lacking many of the qualities of a great epic, this plays out like a 2 1/2 hour US Marines commercial. Oh, and as for the Italian invaders? All I can say is, “I told ya so…"
Shrek (2001)
Shrek 2 (2004) Kelly Asbury, Conrad Vernon co-directors [seen: 05/04]
Chantal Akerman
The Captive (2000) [seen: 02/04]
Jeanne Dielman, 23 Quai du Commerce, 1080 Bruxelles (1975) [seen: 08/07] One of those pure masterpieces that you feel like you’ve seen a dozen times before even your first viewing is complete as one discovers the origin of the the numerous films that echo this cinematic watershed. The CineArt DVD (with Enlgish subs) does this beautiful work justice, but really, this is as much a film to be explored in the mind as it is on the screen.
Toute une nuit (1982) [seen: 06/05]
Fatih Akin (2)
The Edge of Heaven (2007) [seen: 06/08]
Head-On (2004) [seen: 06/05]
Robert Aldrich (8)
Apache (1954) [seen: 12/06]
The Dirty Dozen (1967) [seen: 03/05]
Emperor of the North (1973) [seen: 06/06]
Hustle (1975)
Kiss Me Deadly (1955)
Vera Cruz (1954) [seen: 06/07]
What Ever Happened to Baby Jane? (1962) [seen: 02/06]
World for Ransom (1954) [seen: 11/05]
Woody Allen (17)
Annie Hall (1977)
Cassandra's Dream (2007) [seen: 06/08]
Celebrity (1998)
Crimes and Misdemeanors (1989)
The Curse of the Jade Scorpion (2001) [seen: 08/06]
Hannah and Her Sisters (1986) [seen: 02/09]
Manhattan (1979)
Manhattan Murder Mystery (1993) [seen: 04/05]
Match Point (2005) [seen: 01/06] A change of pace from Woody Allen, who has been on the receiving end of a vehement critical backlash these last few years. Most of the praise critics have been lavishing on this film feels like they are merely excited about the fact that they responded to ‘a Woody Allen’ movie – something they forget they were actually capable of doing– and as a film, this is probably no better or worse than any of his recent efforts. Some phenomenal medium shots make this one of Allen’s most appealing works visually, but it doesn’t always work as his actors often appear to have been cast for their good looks and not for their acting chops. The cynical ending, which has led to many a Crime and Punishment comparison, is certainly earned and had me grinning with admiration of Allen’s wit, which of course has never left.
Melinda and Melinda (2004) [seen: 04/05]
Radio Days (1987) [seen: 09/08]
Scoop (2006) [last seen: 07/06]
Sleeper (1973)
Small Time Crooks (2000) [seen: 09/07]
Vicky Cristina Barcelona (2008) [seen: 09/08] It seems like minor Woody Allen now, but that’s not to say that this little sex comedy -- Allen’s most “French” film to date* -- is not going to age well. It’s an expertly composed work, the only thing that seems to take away from it is the carefree nonchalance of the filmmaker himself, but perhaps that is the point anyway? *I know the film is set in Spain, but anyone who compares this to Almodóvar just doesn’t know melodrama, this film is bohemian to the core.
What's Up, Tiger Lily? (1966)
Whatever Works (2009) [seen: 11/09]
Zelig (1983) [seen: 10/03]
Michael Almereyda (2)
Nadja (1994)
Twister (1989) [seen: 04/05] Not to be confused with the Helen Hunt film of the same name, this eccentric and little seen comedy had me laughing my ass off from beginning to end. The story deals with a bizarre family, headed by father/playboy Harry Dean Stanton, who made millions in the Mini-golf and Soda Pop industry. His children all have problems – Suzy Amis plays Maureen, the alcoholic daughter who is sheltering her child and the always incredible Crispin Glover turns in perhaps his most bizarre performances as her wannabe musician brother. Worlds collide when Chris (Dylan McDermott) comes into town, carrying a twister on his heels, and a plan to rescue his daughter from the troubled family by winning back the heart of her mother Maureen. The humor is a strange mix of David Lynch, Hal Hartley, and the Coen brothers. How director Almeryda got everyone in sync with such a comedic recipe is beyond me, but the film is all the better because of it. A lightweight gem of a movie that deserves its own minor cult following. Don’t miss the terrific cameo by writer William S. Burroughs firing .45’s in a barn.
Pedro Almodóvar (13)
All About My Mother (1999)
Bad Education (2004) [seen: TIFF 04]
Dark Habits (1983) [seen: 04/04]
The Flower of My Secret (1995) [seen:04/05]
High Heels (1991) [seen: 12/03]
Kika (1993)
Live Flesh (1997)
Matador (1986)
Talk to Her (2002)
Tie Me Up! Tie Me Down! (1990)
Volver (2006)  [seen: TIFF 2006]
What Have I Done to Deserve This? (1984)
Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown (1988)
Robert Altman (15)
3 Women (1977) [seen: 06/06]
California Split (1974) [01/06]
The Company (2003) [seen: 05/04]
Cookie's Fortune (1999)
Gosford Park (2001)
Images (1972) [05/06]
The Long Goodbye (1973) [seen: 01/06]
M*A*S*H (1970)
McCabe & Mrs. Miller (1971) [seen: 03/06]
Nashville (1975)
A Perfect Couple (1979) [seen: 05/06]
The Player (1992)
A Prairie Home Companion (2006)[seen: 06/06]
Short Cuts (1993) [seen: 07/06]
A Wedding (1978) [seen: 07/06]
Alejandro Amenábar (2)
The Others (2001) [seen: 10/07]
Tesis (1996) [seen: 04/05]
Paul W.S. Anderson (4)
 AVP: Alien vs. Predator (2004) [seen: 08/2004]
Event Horizon (1997)
Mortal Kombat (1995)
Resident Evil (2002) [seen: 09/2004]
Wes Anderson (6)
Bottle Rocket (1996)
The Darjeeling Limited (2007) [seen: 10/07]
Fantastic Mr. Fox (2009) [seen: 12/09]
Hotel Chevalier (2007) [short] [3rd viewing seen: 10/07]
The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou (2004)
The Royal Tenenbaums (2001)
Rushmore (1998)
Kenneth Anger (8)
Eaux d'artifice (1953) [8th viewing: 02/07]
Fireworks (1947) [4th viewing: 02/04, 5th viewing 02/07]
Inauguration of the Pleasure Dome (1954) [seen: 02/07]
Kustom Kar Kommandos (1965)
Puce Moment (1949) [10th viewing: 02/07]
Rabbit's Moon (1950) [short cut]
Rabbit's Moon (1950) [long cut] [seen: 02/07]
Scorpio Rising (1964)
Nimród Antal (3)
Armored (2009) [seen: 04/10]
Kontroll (2003) [seen: 10/05] Set entirely in the underground transit system of Budapest, this slick thriller follows the alternately comical and horrific exploits of a group of ticket inspectors who struggle to maintain “control” over the various commuters. A model for ultra-low budget filmmaking, film students could benefit greatly to look at the ways in which Antal overcomes his budget limitations by allowing his pre-existing settings to figure heavily into the narrative, relying on their deeper metaphorical implications to give his story substance. It’s a technique that works, but the film is so bent on being a success, that it fails to live up to the "art film" status it strives to attain. To ensure that nobody goes home unhappy, there is a touching romance thrown into the mix and a murder mystery to boot, meaning if you aren’t entertained in some form by this, then you probably should stick to watching television.
Vacancy (2007) [seen: 04/07]
Judd Apatow (3)
The 40 Year Old Virgin (2005)
Funny People (2009) [seen: 08/09, 06/10] Really doesn’t have much to say as a serious film, but this is very successful as a comedy. Trimmed down to 90 minutes, this could have been remarkable.
Knocked Up (2007) [seen: 06/07] Apatow is trying to make a film with substance, but like his main character he seems doomed to immaturity. His young couple provides the drama, the foul-mouthed buffoons they hangout with the comic relief, the only part that really thrives is the tumultuous marriage of Paul Rudd and Leslie Mann who play the “mature” other couple. Considering that the laughs come when the movie focuses on the antics of the secondary cast, this comedy could have been about anything, and it really should have been as there is about as much here to chew on about parenthood as there was in a film like Look Who’s Talking. And to further my rant-- It is quite funny how both Eli Roth and Judd Apatow chose to include a climatic shot in their films involving prosthetic genitalia, yet Roth is the one taking all the heat even though both shots are almost identical in the roles they play in trying to get a reaction out of the audience. Looked at side by side it’s easy to see which shot is there to serve a purpose and which is there to indulge the whims a juvenile filmmaker.
Gregg Araki (6)
The Doom Generation (1995)
Mysterious Skin (2004) [seen: 06/05]
Nowhere (1997) [seen: 06/05]
Smiley Face (2007) [seen: TIFF '07]
Splendor (1999) [seen: 06/05]
Totally Fucked Up (1993) [seen: 06/05]
Asia Argento (2)
The Heart Is Deceitful Above All Things (2004) [seen: 01/06]
Scarlet Diva (2000) [seen: 11/03] Asia Argento, daughter of Italian Horror maestro Dario Argento, wrote, directed, and stars in this deeply personal albeit highly uneven work. Like Fellini's 8 1/2, Argento unpacks her celebrity persona, often blurring the lines between fact and fiction. The rather loose narrative is shot on DV and has Argento playing a young actress stuck in the dark side of the film industry where sex and drugs rein supreme. There are a lot of abrupt tonal shifts into random fucking and attempted rapes that I found tedious, but the lighting and use of sound in the dream sequences share a sharp affinity with her talented father. At the beginning of the film there is a clip where Asia states, that after viewing this film "you may understand me better… but then again you may understand me less." I'll have to agree that in the end I was at a loss to explain what Argento was getting at. One scene however, of Asia examining her body in the mirror, applying make-up and eventually breaking down into tears, perfectly manifests the difference between the celebrity persona vs. the way she sees herself, suggesting evidence of a considerable talent.
Dario Argento (15)
The Bird with the Crystal Plumage (1970)
The Card Player (2004)
The Cat o' Nine Tails (1971)
Deep Red (1975) [seen: 02/04]
Do You Like Hitchcock? (2005) [seen: 08/06]
Four Flies on Grey Velvet (1971) [seen: 01/08]
Inferno (1980) [seen: 07/04]
Jenifer (2005) [seen: 11/05, 08/06]
Mother of Tears (2007) [seen: 05/08] Seriously folks, this one is bad, and this is a “bad” from someone who didn’t mind The Card Player…
Opera (1987) [seen: 02/04] I first approached Argento by unfairly comparing him to Hitchcock and DePalma. Today, I can confidentlly state that Argento inhabits a cinematic world entirely his own. Everything is done with such excess (from the expressionist lighting to the kick ass rock soundtrack) that it's hard to fully appreciate it all in one viewing. Argento's work is more than just an excercise in style however -- Opera's obsessive use of subjective camera angles combined with a fetish for eyeballs and an array of meticulously choreographed crane shots makes it the most intense meditation on the nature of the ‘gaze’ since Peeping Tom. Don’t let the narrative twists that seem hokey by today’s standards fool you, there is some serious shit being worked out here.
Pelts (2006) [seen: 12/06, 01/08]
Phenomena (1985) [last seen: 04/06] Argento at his most over-the-top, this is a wholly entertaining if rather uneven piece of supernatural horror. The story deals with a young Jennifer Connelly who has the ability to communicate with insects. She is sent to a female boarding school that has fallen prey to a psychopathic killer (a la Suspiria). Donald Pleasence plays the crippled entomologist who lives with the assistance of a trained monkey and resolves to help Connelly find the identity of the killer. It sounds ridiculous I know, but Argento as always directs the proceedings with a poker-faced seriousness, giving everything that otherworldly feel. An over reliance upon special effects distracts from the wild camera work that one usually associates with Argento's work, but the opening sequence alone makes this worth checking out. If you have never seen an Argento film this might not be the place to start, but fans like myself should find plenty to enjoy. The soundtrack features hard rockers “Goblin” amongst others playing in all their 80's glory.
Sleepless (2001) [seen: 04/05]
The Stendhal Syndrome (1996)
Suspiria (1977)
Tenebrae (1982) [3rd viewing: 02/06]
Trauma (1993)
Two Evil Eyes -- segment "The Black Cat" (1990) [seen: 04/04, 02/06]
George Armitage (2)
Grosse Pointe Blank (1997) [seen: 05/10] I think Armitage is sharp, but this is one of those "witty scripts" that I have a hard time stomaching, like a precocious child you just want to smack.
Miami Blues (1990)
Jack Arnold (8)
Creature from the Black Lagoon (1954) [last seen: 04/06]
Games Girls Play (1974)
High School Confidential! (1958)
The Incredible Shrinking Man (1957) [seen: 04/06]
It Came from Outer Space (1953) [seen: 04/04]
Monster on the Campus (1958)
Revenge of the Creature (1955) [seen: 11/07]
Tarantula (1955)
Miguel Arteta (3)
Are You the Favorite Person of Anybody? (2005) [short]
Chuck & Buck (2000)
The Good Girl (2002)
Youth in Revolt (2009) [seen: 06/10]
Hal Ashby (3)
Being There (1979)
Harold and Maude (1971) [seen: 06/05]
The Last Detail (1973) [seen: 11/08] This is so much more than an exercise in machismo, it’s a poignant look at human sympathy for one, and Towne’s masterful script only uses anything macho as a springboard to dive into the political deep end. Nicholson has also probably never been better…
Olivier Assayas (5)
Boarding Gate (2007) [seen: 06/08]
Chacun son cinéma -- segment "Recrudescence" (2007) [seen: 07/07]
Clean (2004) [seen: TIFF '04]
demonlover (2002) [seen: 03/04]
Irma Vep (1996)
Paris, je t'aime -- segment "Quartier des Enfants Rouges" (2006) [seen: 12/07]
Summer Hours (2008) [seen: 05/09]
Ramin Bahrani (2)
Chop Shop (2007) [seen: 04/10]
Man Push Cart (2005) [seen: 01/10]
Roy Ward Baker (8)
And Now the Screaming Starts! (1973) [06/07]
Asylum (1972) [seen: 05/07]
Don't Bother to Knock (1952) [seen: 11/04]
Dr Jekyll & Sister Hyde (1971) [seen: 06/10] Doesn't nearly go far enough exploring the gender/sex/homosexual/transexual/etc possibilities set forth by the script, but Baker's classical approach to material gives it all a very weird Paul Morrissey vibe. Definitely one of the more bizarre offerings from Hammer Studios ...
The Legend of the 7 Golden Vampires (1974)
Quatermass and the Pit (1967) [seen: 11/04]
The Vampire Lovers (1970) [seen: 10/06]
The Vault of Horror (1973) [seen: 09/07]
Jaume Balagueró (5)
Darkness (2002) [seen: 10/08] Cinematography doesn’t make a horror film, even though it can generate some scares…
Films to Keep You Awake -- "To Let" (2006) [seen: 01/08]
Fragile (2005) [seen: 05/10] Balagueró has skills but besides creating a little atmosphere and effectively reproducing the Jap ghost story for a different brand of audience, there is simply nothing to get excited about here.
[.REC] (2007) Paco Plaza co-director [seen: 06/08, 07/08]
[.REC] 2 (2009) Paco Plaza co-director [seen: 05/10] Very strong sequel, picks up where the first left off, but abandons the long-take approach for a more choppy, special effects driven thrill ride. The scripting and pacing are spot-on and the resulting frenetic film is one of incredible control. Great stuff.
Matthew Barney (5)
Cremaster 1 (1996)
Cremaster 2 (1999)
Cremaster 3 (2002) [seen: TIFF 03]
Cremaster 4 (1995) [last seen: 02/04]
Cremaster 5 (1997) [seen: 02/04] The final installment in Matthew Barney’s amazing Cremaster cycle takes the form of a grand aria in the famous Budapest Opera House. Everything moves at a snails pace, but the achingly beautiful imagery makes this one of the most sustained pieces of filmmaking of the series. The climax features Barney in an underground fountain with pigeons harnessed to ribbons affixed to his scrotum– a symbol of the gonads at their most descended state. An underwater finale with balloons and water sprites shows the cycle coming full circle and perhaps even starting over again. Essential viewing.
Destricted -- segment "Hoist"(2006) [short] [seen: 10/06]
Paul Bartel (3)
Death Race 2000 (1975) [seen: 11/03, 07/10] A sport that involves racing cars cross-country and running over pedestrians for points has become the fuel that drives the fascist America of the future. The talented Paul Bartel directed this Roger Corman production with incredible efficiency. Everything is dripping with sleaze and sex to the point that its hard not to be taken by it. A terrific B-Movie script headed by the incomparable David Carradine (Bill from Kill Bill) and a very young Sylvester Stallone rounds out this delicious entertainment.
Eating Raoul (1982) [seen: 04/04]
Private Parts (1972) [seen: 12/05]
Michael J. Bassett (2)
Solomon Kane (2009) [seen: 07/10]
Wilderness (2006) [seen: 03/07]
Noah Baumbach (5)
Greenberg (2010) [seen: 04/10]
Margot at the Wedding (2007) [seen: TIFF 07]
Mr. Jealousy (1997) [seen: 04/10]
The Squid and the Whale (2005) [seen: 12/05]
Kicking and Screaming (1995) [seen: 08/06]
Lamberto Bava (4)
Delirium: Photo of Gioia (1987) [seen: 10/05]
Demons 2 (1986) [seen: 04/05]
Demons (1985) [seen: 07/04, 08/07]
Macabre (1980) [seen: 07/07]
Mario Bava (17)
Baron Blood (1972) [seen: 11/07]
A Bay of Blood (1971) [seen: 11/04]
Black Sabbath (1963) [seen: 11/05]
Black Sunday (1960) [seen: 07/05]
Blood and Black Lace (1964)
Danger: Diabolik! (1968) [seen: 10/05]
Erik the Conqueror (1961) [seen: 02/09]
Five Dolls for an August Moon (1970) [seen: 09/09]
The Girl Who Knew Too Much (1963) [seen: 06/08]
Hatchet for the Honeymoon (1970) [seen: 10/06]
Hercules in the Haunted World (1961) [seen: 10/05]
Kill, Baby... Kill! (1966)
Lisa and the Devil (1974) [seen: 04/06]
Planet of the Vampires (1965) [seen: 10/04]
Rabid Dogs (1974) [seen: 07/07]
Shock (1977) [seen: 03/04]
The Whip and the Body (1963) [seen: 06/04]
Michael Bay (4)
Armageddon (1998)
The Rock (1996)
Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen (2009) [seen:11/2009]
Transformers (2007) [seen: 04/2009] My universal hatred of all things Michael Bay and my general ambivalence for the source material (I was more of a He-Man kid) led me to pass on this one when first released. Two years later… surprise, surprise when I find myself riveted by the damn thing! A popcorn actioner that ranks right up there with Raimi’s Spider-Man, this is a classic sci-fi premise – a couple of youths discover a secret that can alter the course of mankind and the stubborn grown-ups wont listen to them – ratcheted up with house shaking special effects and actions sequences. Sure it has it’s flaws, but it also has a story that is more interesting when it’s not blowing stuff up, and that in itself is the crux of making these kinds of movies work.
Ingmar Bergman (8)
Cries and Whispers (1972)
Fanny and Alexander (1982) [seen: 07/07]
Persona (1966) [seen: 10/03]
The Seventh Seal (1957)
The Silence (1963) [seen: 07/04]
Through a Glass Darkly (1961)
The Virgin Spring (1960)
Wild Strawberries (1957) [seen: 01/04]
Joe Berlinger & Bruce Sinofsky (4)
Brother's Keeper (1992)
Metallica: Some Kind of Monster (2004) [seen: 09/04]
Paradise Lost: The Child Murders at Robin Hood Hills (1996) [seen: 03/05]
Paradise Lost 2: Revelations (2000) [seen: 04/06]
Bernardo Bertolucci (4)
La commare secca (1962) [seen: 06/06]
The Conformist (1970) [seen: 12/06]
The Dreamers (2003) [seen: 02/04]
Last Tango in Paris (1972)
Luc Besson (5)
Angel-A (2005) [seen: 02/07]
Le Dernier Combat (1983) [seen: 02/04]
La Femme Nikita (1990) [seen: 07/06]
The Fifth Element (1997)
Leon: The Professional (1994)
Andrea Bianchi (3)
Burial Ground (1981) or *** camp rating - For its ability to remain entertaining despite being one of the worst films I've ever encountered. The could be the basis for a wonderful drinking game...
Malabimba: The Malicious Whore (1979) [seen: 03/09] A good helping of Euro-Sleaze, like a greasy cheeseburger, just feels right every now and then… In that case Andrea Bianchi is my Dave Thomas.
Strip Nude for Your Killer (1975) [seen: 03/06]
Kathryn Bigelow (4)
The Hurt Locker (2008) [seen: 08/09]
Near Dark (1987)
Point Break (1991) [last seen: 07/10]
Strange Days (1995)
Brad Bird (2)
Family Dog (1987) [short] [seen:06/10] Very entertaining little short, evokes classic Warner's 'toons and Tim Burton's unmistakable visuals give that skewed sense to suburbia that plays nicely off Bird's traditional sense of humor.
The Incredibles (2004) [seen: 11/04]
Ratatouille (2007) [seen: 11/07]
Les Blank (2)
Burden of Dreams (1982)
Werner Herzog Eats His Shoe (1980) [seen: 02/05, 04/05]
Budd Boetticher (6)
Buchanan Rides Alone (1958) [seen: 10/04]
Comanche Station (1960) [seen: 11/04]
Decision at Sundown (1957) [seen: 10/04]
Ride Lonesome (1959) [seen: 12/08] I’ve resisted for years viewing this in a cropped 1.33:1, and thankfully I did. Boetticher’s stark 2.35:1 ratio is essential to the picture. His use of space in the film, mainly negative space, is unrivaled and this Western might be his finest. Simply phenomenal moviemaking.
Seven Men from Now (1956) [seen: 12/05]
The Tall T (1957) [seen: 10/04]
Peter Bogdanovich (3)
The Cat's Meow (2001)
The Last Picture Show (1971)
Targets (1968) [seen: 02/04]
Uwe Boll (2)
House of the Dead (2003) [seen: 10/03]
Postal (2007) [seen: 09/08] The problem here is that the South Park writers are actually intelligent guys with a sharp understanding for the world of mass media, while Uwe Boll is a German who just saw his first South Park episode.
Bong Joon-ho (4)
Barking Dogs Never Bite (2000) [seen: 04/2005]
The Host (2006) off-site review [seen: 01/2007]
Memories of Murder (2003) [seen: TIFF 2003]
Mother (2009) [seen: 11/2009]
Sink & Rise (2004) [short] [seen: 01/2007]
Tokyo! -- segment "Shaking Tokyo" (2008) [seen: 11/2009]
Ole Bornedal (3)
Just Another Love Story (2007) [seen: 01/10]
Nightwatch (1994) [seen: 04/04]
The Substitute (2007) [seen: 01/01]
Frank Borzage (7)
Lazybones (1925) [seen: 03/09] One of the great romantics in the history of cinema, Borzage tells yet another story about the couple that will never be, this time in the form of a lazy country boy who secretly adopts a society gal’s bastard child to save her from family shame. Borzage’s true gift lies in his handling of his actors and the beautiful human tenderness of his characters. He is a craftsman like Murnau, but where Murnau’s tools were his editing and his mise-en-scene, Borzage’s is more corporeal, and his films are all the more special for it.
Man's Castle (1933) [seen: 06/05]
The Mortal Storm (1940) [seen: 06/04]
Nugget Jim's Pardner (1916) [seen: 05/08]
The Pilgrim (1916) [seen: 05/08]
The Pitch o' Chance (1915) [seen: 05/08]
The River (1929) [seen: 05/08]
Danny Boyle (7)
28 Days Later... (2002) [seen: 07/03]
The Beach (2000)
Millions (2004) [seen: TIFF '04]
Shallow Grave (1994)
Slumdog Millionaire (2008) [seen: 01/09] Everything about the game show flashback structure of this is trite to the point that I cringe even thinking about it now and let’s ignore entirely the borderline embarrassing colonialist viewpoint that Boyle and his screenwriters take. To the less jaded viewer (and there are many believe me), those who are better able to ease into this film’s fairytale universe, it appears that once inside, there are some uplifting treasures to behold. Personally, I kept feeling like I was on the outside looking in, but that’s not to say I didn’t like what I saw.
Sunshine (2007) [seen: 07/07]
Trainspotting (1996)
Robert Breer (shorts only)
69 (1968)
Bang! (1986)
Blazes (1961)
Form Phases IV (1954)
Fuji (1974)
Jamestown Baloos (1957)
Lmno (1978)
A Man and His Dog Out for Air (1957) [seen: 04/05]
Recreation (1956)
Swiss Army Knife with Rats and Pigeons (1980)
Time Flies (1997)
Catherine Breillat (9)
36 fillette (1988)
Anatomy of Hell (2004) [seen: TIFF 20004]
Brief Crossing (2001) [seen: 08/2004]
Fat Girl (2001)
The Last Mistress (2007) [seen: TIFF 2007]
Parfait amour! (1996)
A Real Young Girl (1976)
Romance (1999) [3rd viewing last seen: 03/2004]
Sex is Comedy (2002) [seen: 10/2004]
Robert Bresson (10)
L'argent (1983) [seen: 10/03]
Les dames du Bois de Boulogne (1945) [seen: 02/07]
The Devil, Probably (1977) [seen: 04/10]
Diary of a Country Priest (1951) [seen: 07/08] Damn near perfect filmmaking. My problems with this film are entirely founded within the ideologies at work, and Bresson’s mastery of the medium means that you must engage the spiritual journey at hand, lest you not even attempt to view this sucker. This forced moral approach has always made this film somewhat of a long sit for me. I saw it back in college, I’ve since tried watching it a couple of times on DVD only to turn it off (feeling I wasn’t able to give it the attention it deserved). This latest viewing put things a little more into perspective for me. This is every bit as good as Balthazar, Pickpocket, and Mouchette only it is a less forgiving to the viewer. There is no distancing yourself from this one...
Une femme douce (1969) [seen: 04/05]
Au hasard Balthazar (1966) [seen: 02/04] One of the supreme masterpieces of cinema. This is as close to a perfect film as you can come, with images so powerful that I would prefer to keep them in my head than attempt to elaborate. The deceptively simple story of a donkey as he is passed from one owner to the next speaks wonders. As the Chicago Reader points out, Jean-Luc Godard perfectly said,"Everyone who sees this film will be absolutely astonished, because this film is really the world in an hour and a half."
Lancelot du Lac (1974)
A Man Escaped (1956) [seen: 10/03]
Mouchette (1967) [seen:10/03]
Pickpocket (1959) [seen: 10/03]
Albert Brooks (2)
Lost in America (1985)
Real Life (1979) [seen: 04/05]
Mel Brooks (6)
Blazing Saddles (1974)
History of the World: Part I (1981)
The Producers (1968)
Robin Hood: Men in Tights (1993) [seen: 01/10]
Silent Movie (1976) [seen: 12/09]
Spaceballs (1987)
Young Frankenstein (1974)
Tod Browning (5)
By the Sun's Rays (1914) [one-reeler] [seen: 01/07]
The Devil-Doll (1936) [seen: 06/05]
Freaks (1932) [last seen: 10/03, 05/06]
Dracula (1931)
West of Zanzibar (1928)
The Unknown (1927) [seen: 05/04] What can you say about a film where a man poses as an armless knife thrower in a circus, falls in love with a woman who is taken by his apparent handicap, and then cuts off his real arms in order to marry her, which also happens to be one of the most affecting and bizarre silent features I have ever seen? Director Tod Browning’s fascination with the macabre is in full effect and foreshadows his later masterpiece Freaks (1932). The ever enigmatic and equally macabre Lon Chaney stars. Easily one of the best films I've seen in a long time.
Andrew Bujalski (3)
Beeswax (2009) [seen: 04/10]
Funny Ha Ha (2002)
Mutual Appreciation (2005) [seen: 12/05]
Luis Buñuel (23)
L'âge d'or (1930)
Ascent to Heaven (1952) [seen: 05/07]
Belle de jour (1967)
El bruto (1953) [seen: 01/04]
Un chien andalou (1929) [short]
The Criminal Life of Archibaldo de la Cruz (1955)
Death in a Garden (1956) [seen: 02/10]
Diary of a Chambermaid (1964)
The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie (1972)  
El (1953)
The Exterminating Angel (1962)
Gran Casino (1947) [seen: 11/07]
The Great Madcap (1949) [seen: 01/07]
Illusion Travels by Streetcar (1954)
Land Without Bread  (1933)
The Milky Way (1969)
Nazarín (1959) [seen: 11/04]
Los olvidados (1950)
The Phantom of Liberty (1974)
Robinson Crusoe (1954) [seen: 10/04]
Simon of the Desert (1965)
Susana (1951) [seen: 12/08]
That Obscure Object of Desire (1977)  
Tristana (1970)
Viridiana (1961) [seen: 10/03]
The Young One (1960) [seen: 04/05]
Tim Burton (14)
Alice in Wonderland (2010) [seen: 03/10]
Batman (1989)
Batman Returns (1992)
Beetle Juice (1988)
Big Fish (2003) [seen: 01/04]
Charlie and the Chocolate Factory (2005) [seen: 07/05, 12/05 rating lowered from ***]
Corpse Bride (2005) [seen: 02/06]
Ed Wood (1994) [last seen: 02/06]
Edward Scissorhands (1990)
Mars Attacks! (1996)
Pee-wee's Big Adventure (1985)
Planet of the Apes (2001)
Sleepy Hollow (1999)
Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street (2007) [seen: 12/07] "Possibly not since Vincente Minnelli has anyone directed a musical with such absolute mise-en-scéne." - J. Hoberman
Vincent (1982) [short]
James Cameron (8)
The Abyss (1989)
Aliens (1986)
Avatar (2009) [seen: 12/09, 06/10]
T2 3-D: Battle Across Time (1996) [short] [seen: 03/08]
The Terminator (1984)
Terminator 2: Judgment Day (1991)
Titanic (1997)
True Lies (1994)
Piranha Part Two: The Spawning (1981) [seen: 10/09] Pretty lame sequel to Joe Dante’s wonderful original, but in the hands of a young James Cameron, it is never a complete failure. The piranhas are back, and this time they have been genetically engineered to not only breathe on land, but they can also [oh shit moment] FLY! The plot is more or less a Jaws rip-off with a resort area being terrorized and a local sheriff (Lance Henriksen) who knows the truth but can’t talk the big wigs into closing down the beach. Cameron is more interested however in the character of the sheriff’s wife -- a tough, independent woman, who will not be pushed around – a theme that would become the focus of every subsequent film he would make.
Jane Campion (7)
An Angel at My Table (1990)
Bright Star (2009) [seen: 01/09]
Chacun son cinéma -- segment "The Lady Bug" (2007) [seen: 07/07]
Holy Smoke (1999)
In the Cut (2003) [seen: 11/03]
The Piano (1993)
Sweetie (1989)
Two Friends (1986)
Frank Capra (3)
It Happened One Night (1934) [seen: 12/06]
It's a Wonderful Life (1946) [last seen: 12/09]
Mr. Smith Goes to Washington (1939)
Leos Carax (3)
Bad Blood (1986) aka Mauvais sang
Boy Meets Girl (1984)
The Lovers on the Bridge (1991) aka Les Amants du Pont-Neuf [seen: 01/2006]
Tokyo! -- segment "Merde" (2008) [seen: 11/2009]
John Carpenter (18)
Assault on Precinct 13 (1976) [5th viewing: 01/06]
Big Trouble in Little China (1986)
Body Bags -- segments "The Gas Station" and "Hair" (1993) [seen: 02/08]
Christine (1983) [seen: 02/04]
Cigarette Burns (2005) [seen: 12/05, 03/06]
Dark Star (1974) [seen: 04/08]
Escape from L.A. (1996)
Escape from New York (1981) [last seen: 01/06]
The Fog (1980)
Ghosts of Mars (2001) [seen: 08/05]
Halloween (1978)
In the Mouth of Madness (1994)
Prince of Darkness (1987) [seen: 11/03, lowered 01/06]
Pro-Life (2006) [seen: 11/06] Is it just me or are these things starting to show their budget constraints? Also, I think I'm starting to hate these Nicotero effects, they just feel so out of place...
Someone's Watching Me! (1978) [seen: 10/07]
Starman (1984) [last seen: 02/09]
They Live (1988) [seen: 01/04]
The Thing (1982) [4th viewing: 02/06]
Vampire$ (1998)
John Cassavetes (7)
Faces (1968)  
The Killing of a Chinese Bookie (1976)
Love Streams (1984) [seen: 04/05] How do I do justice to this 141-minute masterpiece, by one of the greatest of all filmmakers, in which every single bit of dialogue, every actorly flourish, every nuanced camera movement, seems worthy of extrapolation? John Cassavetes has created an achingly beautiful film, one that made me weep, made me laugh, and made me cringe in its brutal honesty of the human experience—this is one of those great works of art that stirs you to the very core, leaving you with a profound feeling of what it means to be alive. IF you’ve never seen a John Cassavetes film, then you are depriving yourself of one of the cinemas most truly rewarding experiences, and if you have seen his work, then you realize that every word I said can be applied to just about any of his films.
Minnie and Moskowitz (1971)
Opening Night (1977) [seen: 05/07]
Shadows (1959)
A Woman Under the Influence (1974)
William Castle (6)
13 Frightened Girls! (1963) [seen:12/09]
13 Ghosts (1960) [seen: 06/08]
Betrayed (1944) [seen: 06/04]
House on Haunted Hill (1959) [seen: 04/04]
Strait-Jacket (1964) [seen: 08/07]
The Tingler (1959) [seen: 01/09]
Gurinder Chadha (1)
Bend It Like Beckham (2002) [seen: 01/10]
Paris, je t'aime -- segment "Quais de Seine" (2006) [short] [seen: 12/07]
Claude Chabrol (7)
Les bonnes femmes (1960)
Le Boucher (1970) [seen: 11/04]
The Bridesmaid (2004) [seen: 08/07] It’s quite good but it is nothing MAJOR, something that seems applicable to all late-Chabrol films these days…
La Cérémonie (1995) [seen: 07/05]
L'enfer (1994)
La Femme infidèle (1969)
A Girl Cut in Two (2007) [seen: 01/09]
Fruit Chan (2)
Durian Durian (2000)
Three... Extremes -- segment "Dumplings" (2004) [seen: 11/04]
Jay Chandrasekhar (2)
Beerfest (2006) [seen: 05/09]
Club Dread (2004) [seen: 05/04]
Chang Cheh (7)
Boxer from Shantung (1972) [seen: 05/06]
Five Element Ninjas (1982) [seen: 02/08]
Five Venoms (1978) [seen: 10/05]
Golden Swallow (1968) [seen: 11/04]
The Legend of the 7 Golden Vampires (1974) Roy Ward baker co-director
New One-Armed Swordsman (1971)
The One-Armed Swordsman (1967) [seen: 11/04]
Return of the One Armed Swordsman (1969)
Charles Chaplin (10)
The Champion (1916) [short] [seen: 06/06]
The Circus (1928)  [seen: 07/04]
City Lights (1931)
The Gold Rush (1925)
The Great Dictator (1940)
His New Job (1915) [short] [seen: 11/05]
The Immigrant (1917)
The Kid (1921)
A King in New York (1957) [seen: 09/04]
Limelight (1952) [seen: 01/04]
Modern Times (1936)  
Monsieur Verdoux (1947)
The Rink (1916)
Patrice Chéreau (2)
Gabrielle (2005) [seen: TIFF '05] I’ve never been an ardent fan of Chereau’s work, and I also consider Joseph Conrad to be one of THE great writers of all time, so perhaps this is why this trite little film just didn’t work for me. The lead performances reek of theatricality and the stylish cinemascope photography, which bounces between black-and-white to saturated color, offers nothing to chew on. To complicate matters further, Chereau employs the hammy technique of occasionally stripping an actor of their line and presenting it as text on-screen in BIG BOLD LETTERS. I expect some will fall head-over-heels for this at the NYFF, but this is one film that feels trivial amidst a festival of this size and depth.
Intimacy (2001) [seen: 02/04]
Sylvain Chomet (2)
Paris, je t'aime - segment "Tour Eiffel" (2006) [seen: 12/07]
The Triplets of Belleville (2003) [seen: 01/04]
Stephen Chow (5)
CJ7 (2008) [seen: 05/08]
God of Cookery (1996) [seen: 03/05] This is my first encounter with Stephen Chow, distinguished Hong Kong comedian with a decent worldwide following and acclaimed director of the recent films Shaolin Soccer and Kung-Fu Hustle. As an early outing for Chow as director, the direction is a bit creaky at times, perhaps because Chows comedy is far more developed than his skills as a director at this point. The plot follows the downfall of the “God of Cookery”—a powerful and arrogant chef (played by Chow) who is revealed to be a fraud, left in the gutter only to mount a killer comeback after studying martial arts cooking at Shaolin Temple. The jokes range from hilarious to pitiful and by the time the well staged ending rolls around it feels a bit too little and a tad too late. Still, as an entertainment, this film works just fine and I cant say I’m not looking forward to checking out the rest of the Chow oeuvre.
The King of Comedy (1999)
Kung Fu Hustle (2004) [seen: 03/05, 03/05]
Shaolin Soccer (2001) [seen: 03/05, 04/06]
Bob Clark (6)
Black Christmas (1974) [3rd viewing; 12/06]
Children Shouldn't Play with Dead Things (1973) [seen: 01/07]
A Christmas Story (1983) [last seen: 12/08]
Deathdream (1974) [seen: 07/04]
Porky's (1982) [seen: 02/07]
Porky's II: The Next Day (1983) [seen: 02/07] Bob Clark is a filmmaker I have trouble classifying. He has made some brilliant films, but his body of work has to be one of the most uneven out there. This is typical of his misfires -- a rambling hodgepodge of raunchy jokes and nostalgic kitsch pieced together by a half-baked narrative -- one gets the sense that his wallet rather than his heart is the driving force here.
Larry Clark (5)
Bully (2001) [4th viewing: 05/04] I show this film to more and more people and yet it still remains a masterpiece. Clark's camera is ever unflinching and the results are equal parts provocative, pornographic, and beautiful. Now if only his Ken Park could pick up US distibution.
Destricted -- segment "Impaled" (2006) [short] [seen: 10/06, 07/08, 07/10]
Ken Park (2002) [seen: 07/04]
Kids (1995)
Teenage Caveman (2002)
Wassup Rockers (2005) [seen: TIFF 05] I got the sense that much of the audience at my screening was letdown that this was not simply a retread to Clark’s groundbreaking Kids. As it stands, we have a gentle, far more sensitive approach to his verité rendered tale of six immigrant youths (no they are not Mexican), wherein Clark reveals he is not the perv-artisit so many have labeled him. The film starts off with pokerfaced seriousness, the camera lingering in extreme close-up on the subtle details of the actor’s faces (skin blemishes, an out of place hair, an innocent smile), but eventually evolves into something far more playful. Embracing the Punk attitudes of his young protagonists, Clark takes his film into Repo Man territory, turning the film into a full-blown satire (think The Twilight Zone suburban anxiety of John Cheever’s “The Swimmer”). It’s a commendable film, offering a different side of this audacious filmmaker.
Alan Clarke (5)
Elephant (1989) [seen: 09/04]
The Firm (1988) [seen: 10/04]
Made in Britain (1982) [seen: 10/04]
Scum (1979) [seen: 10/04]
Scum (1977) [seen: 10/04]
Jack Clayton (2)
The Innocents (1961) [seen: 06/06]
Something Wicked This Way Comes (1983) [seen: 06/10] In the early 80’s Walt Disney was producing some tremendously interesting, if not wholly successful live-action films aimed at child audiences, but carrying a darker more adult edge. This one is marred by an abundance of poor special effects so you are never really able to get your imagination going, but had you been given the chance, the story about a wicked carnival that overtakes a small town screams potential. Movies like this don’t get made in America anymore, which makes it hard not to appreciate this in some form.
Edward F. Cline (4)
The Bank Dick (1940)
Cops (Buster Keaton co-director
My Little Chickadee (1940, USA) [seen: 11/04]
The Three Ages (1923) Buster Keaton co-director
You Can't Cheat an Honest Man (1939) George Marshall co-director
Robert Clouse (2)
Enter the Dragon (1973)
Game of Death (1978) [seen: 04/04] Considering that Bruce Lee died almost 6 years before this film was released, it’s not quite as awful as you might expect. Director Robert Clouse uses a plot that has Lee faking his own death in order to hide from gangsters who want him dead. This basically requires that his character appear in disguises or big dark sunglasses, hence the Bruce Lee stand-ins aren’t as noticeably apparent. Unfortunately only about 30 minutes of this film is footage of the actual Bruce Lee, most of them appearing during a fight sequence with Kareem Abdul-Jabbar. The kung-fu finale that has Lee battling through five levels of villains, each of whom specialize in a different martial art, is really the only thing that makes this movie worth seeing. The American DVD unfortunately only contains 4 levels of fighting and those are apparently presented out of order (the fifth was edited by censors). Overall, a mildly enjoyable Kung-Fu film, however I have to question the morals of a director who would use footage from Lee’s actual funeral in his movie. Tarantino pays homage to the film’s famous yellow jumpsuit in his Kill Bill vol. 1.
Joel & Ethan Coen (13)
Barton Fink (1991)
The Big Lebowski (1998)
Blood Simple (1984)
Burn After Reading (2008) [seen: 09/2008]
Chacun son cinéma -- segment "World Cinema" (2007) [seen: 07/2007]
Fargo (1996) [last seen: 04/2006]
Intolerable Cruelty (2003) [seen: 10/2003]
The Ladykillers (2004) [seen: 03/2004]
The Man Who Wasn't There (2001)
Miller's Crossing (1990)
No Country for Old Men (2007) [seen: 11/2007]
O Brother, Where Art Thou? (2000)
Paris, je t'aime -- segment "Tuileries" (2006) [seen: 12/2007]
Raising Arizona (1987)
A Serious Man (2009) [seen: 11/2009]
Larry Cohen (10)
Black Caesar (1973)
Bone (1972) [seen: 12/03]
God Told Me To (1976) [seen: 10/03]
It Lives Again (1978)
It's Alive (1974) [seen: 10/04]
It's Alive III: Island of the Alive (1987)
Pick Me Up (2006) [seen: 01/06] Cohen’s strong suit has always been his scripts, so the realization that this episode was penned by David J. Schow is immediately a bit of a letdown. The story about two opposing serial killers – one a truck driver named Wheeler who preys on hitchhikers, the other a hitchhiker named Walker who preys on drivers – has an air of Cohen wit to it, but never manages to congeal into something greater. Longtime Cohen axiom Matthew Moriarty turns in a righteously hilarious performance as the sadistic truck driver, he single-handedly carries the show while his counterpart played by Warren Kole is a one-dimensional bore. Eventually this reveals itself to be an above average Twilight Zone episode, and while that’s nothing to boo-hoo about, I have to call it a wasted opportunity from Cohen, one of this country’s most underused directorial talents.
Q: The Winged Serpent (1982) [last seen: 01/06]
Special Effects (1984) [seen: 02/06]
The Stuff (1985) [last seen: 01/06]
Jaume Collet-Serra (2)
House of Wax (2005) [seen: 05/05]
Orphan (2009) [seen: 12/09]
Chris Columbus (8)
Adventures in Babysitting (1987)
Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone (2001)
Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets (2002)
Home Alone (1990)
Home Alone 2: Lost in New York (1992)
I Love You, Beth Cooper (2009) [seen: 11/2009]
Mrs. Doubtfire (1993)
Rent (2005) [seen:11/2005]
Francis Ford Coppola (5)
Apocalypse Now (1979)
The Conversation (1974)
The Godfather (1972)
The Godfather: Part II (1974)
Tetro (2009) [seen: 05/10] Gorgeous cinematography, but what an awful script. Gallo carries this one on his back.
Sofia Coppola (3)
Marie Antoinette (2006) [seen: 10/06]
Lost in Translation (2003) [seen: 10/03 ***; 04/04 post-hype rating ****]
The Virgin Suicides (1999)
Roger Corman (12)
Battle Beyond the Stars (1980) uncredited [seen: 02/08]
The Beast with a Million Eyes (1955) [seen: 01/08]
Bloody Mama (1970) [seen: 11/07]
A Bucket of Blood (1959) [seen: 03/04]
The Intruder (1962) [seen: 07/08]
The Masque of the Red Death (1964)
Pit and the Pendulum (1961) [seen: 10/08]
Premature Burial (1962) [seen: 05/04]
The Raven (1963) [seen: 12/09]
Tower of London (1962) [seen: 05/08]
The Wild Angels (1966) [seen: 02/08]
X: The Man with the X-Ray Eyes (1963) [seen: 10/07]
Don Coscarelli (6)
The Beastmaster (1982) [seen: 11/2009]
Bubba Ho-tep (2002) [seen: 06/2004]
Incident on and Off a Mountain Road -- "Masters of Horror SSN2" (2005) [seen: 10/2005]
Phantasm (1979) [seen: 01/2004]
Phantasm II (1988) [seen: 10/2005]
Phantasm III: Lord of the Dead (1994) [seen: 11/2005]
Phantasm IV: Oblivion (1998) [seen: 11/2005]
Pedro Costa (2)
Casa de Lava (1994) [seen: 11/06]
Ossos (1997) [seen: 04/10]
Wes Craven (12)
Cursed (2005) [seen: 02/05] Wes Craven has essentially made a children’s film with this modern day PG-13-take on the Universal classic The Wolf Man (or is it Teen Wolf?). Craven’s focus on the familial unit and the lack thereof of parental figures is still present, but the rest of this overblown moneymaking scheme is essentially a trodden pile of shit. The laughs come at the expense of the cast of recognizable pop-icons and their stilted performances, leaving me wishing that at least some of these people would end up getting horribly mauled. Alas, this being “a family film” of sorts, we get no such thing and the only horrific mauling it delivers is to the name of a once great horror film director.
Deadly Friend (1986) [seen: 09/07]
The Hills Have Eyes (1977) [seen: 10/03]
The Last House on the Left (1972)
A Nightmare on Elm Street (1984) [3rd viewing: 5/10]
Paris, je t'aime -- segment "Père-Lachaise" (2006) [seen: 12/07]
Red Eye (2005) [seen: 08/05]
Scream 3 (2000)
Scream 2 (1997)
Scream (1996)
The Serpent and the Rainbow (1988) [seen: 10/07]
Swamp Thing (1982) [seen: 03/06]
Wes Craven's New Nightmare (1994) [seen: 06/04]
David Cronenberg (17)
The Brood (1979) [last seen: 05/07]
Camera (2000) [short] [3rd viewing; 10/05]
Chacun son cinéma -- segment "At the Suicide of the Last Jew in the World in the Last Cinema in the World" (2007) [short] [seen: 07/07]
Crash (1996)
Crimes of the Future (1970) [seen: 09/04]
Dead Ringers (1988)
The Dead Zone (1983)
Eastern Promises (2007) [seen: 09/07]
eXistenZ (1999) [last seen: 11/03]
Fast Company (1979) [seen: 09/04]
The Fly (1986) [3rd viewing: 09/05, 4th: 10/05]
From the Drain (1967) [seen: 08/04] [short, B&W, 14 min.] Described as a surrealist sketch by the filmmaker himself, this early 16mm black and white short by David Cronenberg was made while he was still a student at the University of Toronto. Made on a budget of $500, the film resembles a Samuel Beckett play as two war veterans sit fully clothed in a bathtub and discuss recent changes in plant life. Eventually some kind of vine comes out of the drain and strangles one of the men while the other removes the dead man's shoes. Somewhat of an experimental oddity, this will probably appeal only to diehard Cronenberg fans.
A History of Violence (2005) [seen: TIFF 05] I’m not sure which was more disturbing, the brutally honest indignation of American values that this film depicted, or the oblivious audience I saw it with who missed the point entirely. The fact that this audience felt the need to applaud every time someone was brutally killed on-screen was almost like a twisting of the knife, confirming the wicked truth behind every frame of this masterful film. Cronenberg has for all intents and purposes made a modern day Sirk film where image and subtext are everything (look at that wallpaper!). I look forward to seeing this one again, ideally in a place slightly more detached from that, which is illustrated in the film.
Naked Lunch (1991)
Rabid (1977) [last seen: 03/07]
Scanners (1981)
Shivers (1975)
Spider (2002)
Stereo (1969) [seen: 09/04]
Videodrome (1983) [7th viewing: 11/07]
Alfonso Cuaron (4)
Children of Men (2006) [seen: 01/07]
Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban (2004) [seen: 06/04]
Paris, je t'aime -- segment "Parc Monceau" (2006) [seen: 12/07]
Sólo con tu pareja (1991)
Y tu mamá también (2001)
Michael Cuesta (3)
L.I.E. (2001)
Tell-Tale (2009) [seen: 06/10] The whole "transplanted organ is possessed!" theme is better left in heydays of EC comic horror, but this tale about a vengeful heart, is compulsively watchable. Cuesta seems to be gravitating towards horror these days, and to my surprise, he has a knack for it, his unaired pilot for the zombie-themed Babylon Fields just picked up stock in my book.
Twelve and Holding (2005) [seen: TIFF '05] Like the art house fav from earlier this year Me and You and Everyone We Know, director Michael Cuesta has turned in a remarkable sophomore effort that deals with young children—each of whom are coping with very ‘grown-up’ issues—and the childlike adults that surround them. Cuesta has abandoned the Larry Clark that was channeled in his earlier L.I.E, and replaced it with something a little more wholesome. He films his young actors with a brutal honesty, unafraid if what he is showing might be misinterpreted as misanthropic comedy a la Todd Solondz. It’s shot on DV, but it feels like a larger picture with the serious issues it confronts and the tremendous performances it elicits. Feels like something of a discovery.
George Cukor (5)
Holiday (1938) [seen: 11/05]
My Fair Lady (1964)
Let's Make Love (1960) [seen: 04/05]
The Philadelphia Story (1940) [seen: 08/06]
A Star Is Born (1954) [seen: 11/05]
Michael Curtiz (7)
The Adventures of Robin Hood (1938)
Angels with Dirty Faces (1938) [seen: 04/05]
Captain Blood (1935) [seen: 07/04]
Casablanca (1942)
Doctor X (1932) [seen: 10/06]
Mildred Pierce (1945)
The Sea Wolf (1941) [seen: 08/04]
Joe Dante (13)
The 'burbs (1989) [seen: 02/06]
Explorers (1985) [seen: 05/10] Falters a bit by the end, but not before hammering home a meaty philosophical point, and it's potency like this that makes Dante the true master of the Spielberg/Lucas family film adventure
Gremlins (1984) [last seen: 12/09]
Gremlins 2: The New Batch (1990) [last seen: 02/06]
Homecoming (2005) [seen: 12/05, 07/06]
The Howling (1981) [seen: 07/05]
Innerspace (1987)
Looney Tunes: Back in Action (2003) [seen: 12/05]
Matinee (1993) [seen: 02/06]
Piranha (1978) [seen: 12/05]
Rock 'n' Roll High School (1979) co-director [seen: 04/08]
The Screwfly Solution (2006) [seen: 12/06]
The Second Civil War (1997) [seen: 02/06]
Small Soldiers (1998) [last seen: 06/08]
Splatter (2009, USA) [short, 26 min.] [seen; 05/10] Roger Corman produced short by the great Dante, feels like a Hammer film hammered out on a mediocre budget.
Trapped Ashes -- wrap around segments (2006) [seen: TIFF 06, 08/08]
Twilight Zone: The Movie -- segment " It's a Good Life" (1983) [seen: 10/07]
Jules Dassin (5)
Brute Force (1947) [seen: 06/07]
The Naked City (1948)
Night and the City (1950) [seen: 03/05]
Rififi (1955)
Thieves' Highway (1949)
Terence Davies (2)
Distant Voices, Still Lives (1988) [seen: 09/2007]
The Long Day Closes (1992) [seen: 11/2009]
Rolf de Heer (4)
Alexandra's Project (2003) [seen: 01/06]
Bad Boy Bubby (1993) [seen: 04/05]
The Tracker (2002)
Ten Canoes (2006) [seen: 04/08]
Manoel de Oliveira (2)
Chacun son cinéma -- segment "Sole Meeting" (2007) [short] [seen: 07/07]
I'm Going Home (2001)
A Talking Picture (2003) [seen: 05/10] Dreamlike, philosophical, at times deeply pretentious, this picture snakes it way into a place you'd never expect it to reach and ends on a note so baffling that I had to wonder if I had missed something. It was only later upon reading some comments by Jonathan Rosenbaum that my suspicions were confirmed, this picture Bunuelian to the core.
Amando de Ossorio (6)
The Ghost of Galleon (1974) [seen: 03/06] It's sad that nothing serious is written about de Ossorio's work, the guy had talent.
The Loreley's Grasp (1974) [seen: 02/08]
Night of the Seagulls (1975) [seen: 03/06]
The Night of the Sorcerers (1973) [seen: 10/07]
The Return of the Evil Dead (1973) [seen: 03/06]
Tombs of the Blind Dead (1971) [seen: 10/04]
Brian De Palma (17)
The Black Dahlia (2006) [seen: 09/06]
Blow Out (1981) [seen: 10/03]
Body Double (1984) [seen: 10/03, 08/07] Amongst many it seems open for debate, but for me this will always remain De Palma’s masterpiece.
Carlito's Way (1993) [seen: 04/10]
Carrie (1976)
Dressed to Kill (1980) [last seen: 05/06]
Femme Fatale (2002) [3rd viewing: 04/06]
The Fury (1978) [seen: 08/06]
Greetings (1968) [seen: 07/05]
Mission: Impossible (1996)
Obsession (1976) [seen: 10/03]
Phantom of the Paradise (1974) [seen: 02/10]
Redacted (2007) [seen: TIFF 07]
Scarface (1983) [seen: 11/03]
Sisters (1973) [seen: 03/06]
Snake Eyes (1998) [seen: 04/06]
The Untouchables (1987) [seen: 11/07]
André De Toth (4)
Crime Wave (1954) [seen: 01/08]
Day of the Outlaw (1959) [seen: 11/04]
House of Wax (1953) [seen: 10/05]
Pitfall (1948) [seen: 04/05]
Marina de Van (2)
Don't Look Back (2009) [seen: 07/10]
In My Skin (2002) [seen: 04/04]
Guillermo del Toro (5)
Cronos (1993) [seen: 11/03]
The Devil's Backbone (2001)
Hellboy (2004) [seen: 04/04] There is no denying that Guillermo del Toro certainly has talent. Whether he is making big budget Hollywood action pieces such as Blade II, or grinding out art house horror films in Mexico as in The Devil’s Backbone, he always seems to deliver the goods. I prefer his more personal projects made in Mexico, however I have admit to a fair level of enjoyment from his Hollywood fair. Hellboy is yet another comic book adaptation that is equal parts a thrilling experience and a tedious mess. The fantastic make-up of the title character was like a breath of fresh air compared to the computer-generated shell that was the Hulk. Even as the end of the film approached and the movie narrowly escaped constituting as a Men in Black remake—not to mention I had hardly any idea what was going on—I have to confess to having a good time. Fans of del Toro’s Cronos should find the knife wielding character named Kroenen (phonetic hommage?) a delight. His mechanical body might be the first “del Toroian” image I’ve seen
Hellboy II: The Golden Army (2008) [seen: 11/08]
Pan's Labyrinth (2006) [seen: TIFF '06] One of these days I'll get around to giving this a second look...
Fred Dekker (2)
The Monster Squad (1987) [last seen: 07/07, 09/08]
Night of the Creeps (1986) [seen: 10/04]
Jonathan Demme (5)
Caged Heat (1974) [seen: 07/08]
The Manchurian Candidate (2004) [seen: 08/04]
Rachel Getting Married (2008)  [seen: 11/08]
The Silence of the Lambs (1991)
Stop Making Sense (1984)
Jacques Demy (3)
Lola (1961) [seen: 06/09]
The Umbrellas of Cherbourg (1964)
The Young Girls of Rochefort (1967) [seen: 02/04]
Claire Denis (6)
35 Shots of Rum (2008) [seen: 01/10]
Beau travail (1999)
Friday Night (2002) [last seen: 12/03]
L'intrus (2004) [seen: 09/08]
Nenette and Boni (1996)
Trouble Everyday (2001)
Ruggero Deodato (2)
Cannibal Holocaust (1980) [seen: 02/04]
The House on the Edge of the Park (1980) [seen: 11/08]
Arnaud Desplechin (2)
A Christmas Tale (2008) [seen: 12/09]
Kings and Queen (2004) [seen: 06/05]
Kirby Dick (2)
This Film Is Not Yet Rated (2006) [seen: 06/07] Rosenbaum pretty much nails it and I wonder if Dick really cares about this issue, or is this just a stunt to put his name alongside Michael Moore and that Supersize Me guy in the public eye? The numerous staged scenes with the private investigators peeling rubber or conspicuously peering through binoculars are just plain awful. Let’s confront the real issues at hand and leave the garbage picking to the paparazzi.
Sick: The Life & Death of Bob Flanagan, Supermasochist (1997) [seen: 11/04]
Richard Donner (11)
The Goonies (1985) [last seen: 08/09]
Lethal Weapon (1987)
Lethal Weapon 2 (1989)
Lethal Weapon 3 (1992)
Lethal Weapon 4 (1998)
Maverick (1994)
The Omen (1976) [seen: 06/06]
Radio Flyer (1992)
Superman (1978)
Superman II (1980) (uncredited)
Tales From the Crypt -- episode "Dig That Cat... He's Real Gone" (1989)
The Toy (1982)
Robert Downey Sr. (3)
Greaser's Palace (1972) [seen: 01/04]
Hugo Pool (1997) [seen: 04/04]
Putney Swope (1969) [3rd viewing; 02/04]
Bruno Dumont (5)
Flanders (2006)
Hadewijch (2009) [seen: TIFF '09] A major change of pace from Dumont, abandoning his raw violence for something more spiritual, and which plays out as if Mouchette were the star of Diary of a Country Priest. There is so much being worked out here that I really need a second viewing to fully grasp, but this is weighty material handled by an indelible talent for certain.
L'humanité (1999)
Twentynine Palms (2003) [seen: 06/04, 07/04]
La vie de Jésus (1997) [seen: 03/04]
Fabrice du Walz (2)
Calvaire (2004) [seen: TIFF 04]
Vinyan (2008) [seen: 04/09]
Clint Eastwood (13)
Blood Work (2002) [seen: 04/10]
Changeling (2008) [seen: 11/08]
The Gauntlet (1977) [seen: 03/09]
Gran Torino (2008) [seen: 01/09]
High Plains Drifter (1973) [seen: 05/06]
Invictus (2009) [seen: 07/10]
Million Dollar Baby (2004)
Mystic River (2003) [seen: 10/03]
A Perfect World (1993) [3rd viewing; 12/08]
Play Misty for Me (1971) [seen: 05/06]
Sudden Impact (1983) [seen: 12/08] I’m simply not a fan of Eastwood’s self mocking/deconstruction of the Dirty Harry persona. Some brilliant noir sequences though…
Unforgiven (1992)
White Hunter, Black Heart (1990) [seen: 04/10]
Blake Edwards (5)
"10" (1979) [seen: 11/07]
Breakfast at Tiffany's (1961)
The Party (1968) [seen: 08/06]
The Pink Panther (1963) [seen: 06/05]
A Shot in the Dark (1964) [seen: 10/05]
Colin Eggleston (2)
Fantasm Comes Again (1977) [seen: 11/2009]
Long Weekend (1978) [seen: 08/2009]
Sergei Eisenstein (4)
Battleship Potemkin (1925)
Ivan the Terrible, Part II: The Boyars' Plot (1958) [seen: 06/05]
Ivan the Terrible, Part One (1944) [seen: 06/05]
Strike (1925)
Atom Egoyan (10)
The Adjuster (1991) [seen: 10/05]
Calendar (1993)
Chacun son cinéma -- segment "Artaud Double Bill" (2007) [short] [seen: 07/07]
Chloe (2009) [seen: 07/10]
Exotica (1994)
Family Viewing (1987)
Felicia's Journey (1999)
Next of Kin (1984)
Speaking Parts (1989) [seen: 08/04]
The Sweet Hereafter (1997)
Where the Truth Lies (2005) [seen: TIFF '05] A very uncharacteristic film from Egoyan, which still has me pondering where this fits into the filmmaker’s oeuvre, but stands as a strong enough film in its own right. The allusions to Martin and Lewis tend to complicate many people’s appreciation of this mysterious story about a comic duo coping with a past of drugs, sex, lies, and possibly murder. Where the source novel was an explicit reference to a Martin and Lewis, Egoyan tries his hardest to create something totally new (Kevin Bacon and Colin firth are indeed strange casting choices) and the result is a transfixing throwback to the dreamy aura of classic Hollywood mixed with the hard edged approach to sex that many 70’s neo-noir’s adopted. Egoyan continues to explore his fascination with image and memory – in this case the iage of celebrity – and its role in confirming/contrasting one’s own views of the self. The NC-17 rating given this film by the MPAA is completely undeserved and the fact that it kept someone I know from seeing the film, as the controversy gave her impressions of hard sex a la Breillat, only enrages me further. Egoyan has my respect for releasing the film unrated (even though this means many theater chains won’t touch it now) and the MPAA has my middle finger pointing straight at their prudish, bungling snouts, for once again proving that American cinema loves graphic depictions of murder and but cannot tolerate artistic eroticism.
David R. Ellis (2)
Snakes on a Plane (2006) [seen: 08/06] Obviously it’s crap, proving once again that Americans can be sold ANYTHING (and even swallow it judging from the IMDB rating) given the proper publicity campaign. Thankfully, a meager opening weekend should be enough to keep every studio from jumping on the bandwagon and producing similar over-hyped concept pictures. As it stands, this is a harmless late-night flick, filled with enough over-the-top dialogue, “loud edits,” and glaring continuity errors to keep everyone pleasantly entertained. I was slightly irked by the feeling that producers were trying a bit too hard to achieve the camp factor -- cult status is earned, not created at a board meeting. Still…Snakes on Plane delivers exactly what it promises, and it’s nice to see Hollywood not taking itself so damn serious for a change. See this at the right screen in select cities and you get a double feature that plays simultaneously entitled “Assholes in Theater,” an extra no DVD will provide.
Cellular (2004) [seen: 10/04]
Roland Emmerich (6)
The Day After Tomorrow (2004)
Godzilla (1998)
Independence Day (1996)
The Patriot (2000)
Stargate (1994)
Universal Soldier (1992)
Cy Endfield (3)
Mysterious Island (1961) [seen: 07/03]
Try and Get Me (1950) [seen: 03/05]
Zulu (1964)
Jean Epstein (3)
The Fall of the House of Usher (1928) [seen: 07/04]
La glace à trois faces (1927) [seen: 11/07]
Le tempestaire (1947) [seen: 11/07]
Victor Erice (2)
The Dream of Light (1992) [seen: 05/04]
The Spirit of the Beehive (1973) [seen: 10/03]
Ten Minutes Older: The Trumpet -- segment "Lifeline" (2002) [seen: 11/05, 12/06]
Peter & Bobby Farrelly (5)
Dumb & Dumber (1994)
Kingpin (1996)
Fever Pitch (2005) [seen: 04/05]
Shallow Hal (2001)
There's Something About Mary (1998)
Rainer Werner Fassbinder (16)
Ali: Fear Eats the Soul (1974) [seen: 01/2004]
Berlin Alexanderplatz (1980) [seen: 04/2009]
Beware of a Holy Whore (1970)[seen: 10/2003]
The Bitter Tears of Petra von Kant (1972)
Fox and His Friends (1975)
In a Year of 13 Moons (1978) [seen: 04/2004]
Katzelmacher (1969)
Lola (1981) [02/2004]
Love is Colder than Death (1969) [seen: 06/2008]
The Marriage of Maria Braun (1979) [seen: 01/2004]
Martha (1973) [seen: 04/04]
The Merchant of Four Seasons (1971)
Mother Küsters Goes to Heaven (1975)
Satan's Brew (1976) off-site review [seen: 02/2006]
Veronika Voss (1981) [seen: 01/2004]
Why Does Herr R. Run Amok? (1970) Michael Fengler co-director [seen: 06/2006]
Jon Favreau (3)
Elf (2003) [seen: 11/03] Jon Favreau's half-funny Christmas movie should prove a heartwarming experience for kids of all ages. For me, this played like a 90 minute Saturday Night Live skit -- throw Will Ferrell in an elf costume and have him run around -- laughter will follow. The problem is that this would have worked better as an SNL skit and to make a film out of it, means inserting storyline between the gags and disrupting the flow of the humour. Fans of Ferrell's antics should find this enjoyable, me, I was never more than mildly interested. Zooey Deschanel, who seems to have no idea why she is in this movie co-stars
Iron Man (2008) [seen: 11/08]
Zathura: A Space Adventure (2005) [seen: 110/05] The opening credit sequence is a real knockout. As the camera gracefully explores the inner workings of the Zathura board game--a montage of intricate springs, gears, and 1950’s sci-fi artwork--we find both a touching and inspiring ode to a form of childhood entertainment all but forgotten. The film itself never quite manages to rise up to the level of imagination that the opening inspires, but that inspiration was enough to get me to enjoy every bit of what was to follow. Director Jon Favreau may not be a bona fide filmmaker, but he’s been in the business long enough to understand what works and what doesn’t, and for the most part, this works…
Federico Fellini (7)
8 1/2 (1963)
Amarcord (1973)
La Dolce Vita (1960) [seen: 11/03]
Juliet of the Spirits (1965) [seen: 02/06]
Nights of Cabiria (1957)
Roma (1972) [seen: 11/03] Fellini's poetic reverie to the great city is what many consider to be the height of his anti-narrative film phase. I prefer Amarcord, which he would make two years later, but this film is still pretty damn enchanting. Working equally on the streets of Rome and in the studio, Fellini jumps from one exquisite set piece to the next, often ignoring reality to indulge his own guilty pleasures. Where Buñuel was fascinated with feet, Fellini was a lover of big bottomed, large busted women. As he recounts his experiences in brothels during WWII and a fantastic sequence featuring a dreamlike fashion show, these fetishes (among his many others) become overtly apparent. As always, everything is beautifully photographed as Fellini walks you through a world that is entirely his own.
La Strada (1954) [seen: 11/03]
Abel Ferrara (14)
The Addiction (1995) [seen: 11/2003]
Bad Lieutenant (1992)
The Blackout (1997)
Body Snatchers (1993) [seen: 03/2004]
China Girl (1987) [seen: 03/2005]
Could This Be Love (1973) [short] [seen: 10/2005]
Dangerous Game (1993)
The Driller Killer (1979) [seen: 07/2004]
The Funeral (1996) [seen: 03/2004]
Go Go Tales (2007) [seen: 04/2009]
The Hold Up (1972) [seen: 10/2005]
King of New York (1990) [seen: 06/2005]
Mary (2005) [seen: TIFF 2005] Ferrara is at the top of his game in this, his most compassionate film to date. A deeply powerful look at religion, the soul, and its place in the Hollywood machine, this is the story of a director (Matthew Modine) who makes a Christ film as a means to exploit the religious dollar in American theater goers (Mel Gibson anyone?). Beautifully mixing video and film, and utilizing his typical flair for cityscapes and brutal close-up framing, this represents the apotheosis for years of subtle religious undertones in Ferrara’s work that seems to have boiled over here, and exploded onto the screen in a rage of post-9/11 self-affirmation. Forrest Whitaker turns in the performance of his career.
Ms. 45 (1981)
New Rose Hotel (1998) [seen: 03/2004]
Nicky's Film (1971) [short] [seen: 07/2004]
'R Xmas (2001) [seen: 04/2004] Abel Ferrara’s last film was a masterpiece, but unfortunately hardly anyone saw it. His latest film is close, and like New Rose Hotel it basically was a straight to video release in the States. This is starting to become an uncomfortable trend for some of our country’s most interesting directors. Most recently people like Vincent Gallo, Brian DePalma, David Lynch, and with this picture Abel Ferrara, have turned to French producers and audiences to get their films made. It is even more depressing when you consider that the latest Hollywood vehicle starring The Rock is probably going to gross more this weekend than all of the aforementioned directors previous features combined. This Ferrara work, like Bad Lieutenant before it, functions during a specific time and place in NYC -- this time it is 1993, the final days of Mayor Dinkins administration. The story involves a married couple credited as Husband and Wife, who earn a decent living selling drugs and have a run-in with Ice-T, credited as Kidnapper. Ferrara films with a verité sensibility and punctuates the proceedings with slow dissolves into gliding shots of city skylines. As always, substance is derived from style so the plot is almost incidental. An experience to behold if you are willing to take the time.
David Fincher (7)
Alien 3 (1992)
The Curious Case of Benjamin Button (2008)
Fight Club (1999)
The Game (1997)
Panic Room (2002) [seen: 01/04]
Se7en (1995)
Zodiac (2007) [seen: 07/07]
Terence Fisher (12)
The Brides of Dracula (1960) [seen: 08/07]
The Curse of Frankenstein (1957) [seen: 10/09] I could have sworn that I had seen this Hammer horror classic, however a search through my screening logs produced nil, and even if I had seen it, I confess I remember very little. Terence Fisher takes on the legendary story, actually the James Whale film more than the novel, and comes up with a worthwhile reinvention. Gone is the damaged, poetic soul that is the monster, gone is the fairytale plotline, Fisher is out to produce something far more serious and frightening. The monster is actually seen very little, and the focus is shifted to the great Peter Cushing who portrays the Baron as a maniacal whacko hellbent on playing God. A bold use of color and a buxom Hazel Court keep things interesting to look at.
The Curse of the Werewolf (1961) [seen: 11/08]
The Devil Rides Out (1968) [seen: 03/05]
Frankenstein Created Woman (1967) [seen: 05/09]
Frankenstein Must Be Destroyed (1969) [seen: 11/04]
The Gorgon (1964) [seen: 10/08] A small town in the early 19th century is home to an ancient curse in the form of a snake-headed woman capable of turning people into stone. I think the best Hammer horror films are the ones that play to the older crowd, like in the late Sixties when sex appeal was introduced into the mix, but this family-friendly Saturday matinee entry is also top notch, a first rate blend of costume drama and monster movie kitsch.
Horror of Dracula (1958) [seen: 11/04]
The Hound of the Baskervilles (1959)
Island of Terror (1966) [seen: 04/08] If you dig Fiend Without a Face then this is for you. A very underrated little monster movie... Sillicates!?
The Mummy (1959)
The Revenge of Frankenstein (1958)
Richard Fleischer (6)
20,000 Leagues Under the Sea (1954)
Conan the Destroyer (1984) [seen: 02/10]
Fantastic Voyage (1966) [seen: 04/06]
Mr. Majestyk (1974) [seen: 04/05]
The Narrow Margin (1952) [seen: 10/05]
Soylent Green (1973) [seen: 12/03]
Anne Fontaine (2)
Coco Before Chanel (2009) [seen: 02/10]
Nathalie... (2003) [seen: 06/06]
John Ford (10)
Donovan's Reef (1963) [seen: 12/09]
The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance (1962)
The Quiet Man (1952)
Fort Apache (1948) [seen: 12/07]
My Darling Clementine (1946)
How Green Was My Valley (1941)
The Long Voyage Home (1940) [seen: 01/07]
The Grapes of Wrath (1940)
Young Mr. Lincoln (1939) [seen: 06/08]
Stagecoach (1939)
Freddie Francis (4)
Dr. Terror's House of Horrors (1965) [seen: 11/07]
The Skull (1965)
Tales from the Crypt (1972)
Trog (1970) [seen: 06/04] camp rating
Jess Franco (17)
99 Women (1969) [seen: 04/2005]
The Awful Dr. Orloff (1962) [seen: 08/2007]
Blue Rita (1977) [seen: 06/2005]
The Diabolical Dr. Z (1966) [seen: 03/2008]
Faceless (1988) [seen: 05/2007]
Female Vampire (1973) [seen: 08/2004]
Ilsa-The Wicked Warden (1977) [seen: 04/04]
Kiss Me Monster (1969) [seen: 11/2006]
Mansion of the Living Dead (1985) [seen: 11/2006]
The Sexual Story of O (1984) [seen: 09/2008] A giant yawn of a film that’s punctuated by an experimental ending that is everything that makes Franco an artist worth consideration.
She Killed in Ecstasy (1971) [seen: 04/2006]
Succubus (1969) [seen: 08/2006]
Tender Flesh (1998) [seen: 10/2006]
Two Undercover Angels (1969, Spain) [seen: 08/2006]
Vampyros Lesbos (1971) [seen: 07/2007]
Venus in Furs (1969) [seen: 04/2006]
Women Behind Bars (1975) [seen: 11/2007]
Georges Franju (2)
Eyes Without a Face (1959)
Le Sang des bêtes (1949) [seen: 02/04]
David Frankel (2)
The Devil Wears Prada (2006) [seen: 07/06]
Marley & Me (2008) [seen: 12/09]
John Frankenheimer (4)
Grand Prix (1966) [06/10]
The Manchurian Candidate (1962)
Prophecy (1979) [seen: 09/08]
Seconds (1966) [seen: 11/07]
Richard Franklin (6)
Cloak & Dagger (1984) [last seen: 06/10] A childhood fav, that not only retains all of it's magic, but holds even richer treasures for the more mature viewer apt to pick out all of Franklin's Hitchcock nods as well as the deeper meaning of the film's father/son psychology.
Fantasm (1976) [seen: 11/07]
Link (1986) [02/10]
Patrick (1978) [seen: 10/09] Richard Franklin studied under Hitchcock on the set of Topaz, and this film (he considers it his first) shows the birth of a truly talented protégé. A young man kills his mother and her lover (shades of Psycho), and the shock of the ordeal renders him a comatose vegetable. He is kept in a private institute where a young nurse looks over him, and we begin to learn that Patrick may lost his basic senses, but may have picked up some new telepathic ones. It sounds a bit hokey, but Franklin ratchets up the suspense with some brilliantly storyboarded scenarios, and although Hitchcock never dabbled in the supernatural, one gets a feeling that he wouldn’t have done much better than this.
Psycho II (1983) [seen: 10/09] It took about a decade of adventurous film viewing for me to get around to the work of Richard Franklin, and I hope anyone reading does not make that same mistake. Psycho II is not only above the “not bad for a sequel” cliché, but it’s actually pretty fucking terrific. The ingenious Anthony Perkins is back, as is Vera Miles as Lila Crane. Franklin wields his arsenal of Hitchcock devices with serious confidence, and even toys with several shots and gore effects to surprising effect. In the end though, he is not out to top or even replicate Hitchcock, but to do his story justice, as well as the characters, and both Franklin and Tom Holland’s script pulls this off by resorting to several pulp horror twists straight out of original writer Robert Bloch’s repertoire, Strait-Jacket. Franklin is one of the real filmic discoveries for this viewer in 2009.
Roadgames (1981) [seen: 10/09] A masterful Hitchcock homage about a lone trucker (Stacy Keach ever impressive) who may/or may not be traveling the same route as a serial killer that is offing hitchhikers. Shot in evocative ‘Scope on the highways of the Australian outback, Franklin jacks up the suspense referencing all manner of Hitchcockian themes -- Rear Window, Frenzy, Psycho – and techniques -- 360 degree pan, POV shots, sharing information with the audience before the characters. The script by Everett De Roche (Long Weekend, Razorback – viewing to come) is full of sharp humor and Franklin matches it with visual acuity shot for shot. Australian genre cinema of the late 70’s, and early 80’s was something to behold, and this is one of the highlights.
Stephen Frears (7)
Dirty Pretty Things (2002)
Chéri (2009) [seen:11/2009]
The Grifters (1990)
Hero (1992)
High Fidelity (2000)
The Hit (1984) [seen: 11/2009]
Mrs Henderson Presents (2005) [seen: 02/2006] Stephen Frears’ art house comedy about a shrewd widow (Oscar Nominated Judi Dench) who decides to spice up a war torn London by introducing the city’s first topless revue, is not a great film by any means, but it should be a smash with older audiences. Like ‘The Full Monty’ this is a work that takes a lewd subject and tailors the humor to fit with a more conservative audience. For the most part it works, and the film would stand as both a successful mannerist comedy and a solid backstage musical, but when Frears opts for something deeper by going for an emotional climax and a bigger statement on the war as a whole, you can feel the film sink beneath the weight of it all. Add to this some hokey CGI that tries to recreate a late 30’s London cityscape, but instead diminishes all sense of genuine period that the film had up to that point been so adept at constructing, and you can see my disappointment. There is no denying that this is a pleasant work, just don’t expect to be thinking about it much a month from now.
The Queen (2006) [seen: 05/2007]
Juan Carlos Fresnadill (2)
28 Weeks Later (2007) [seen: 05/07]
Intacto (2001) [seen: 11/03]
William Friedkin (7)
Blue Chips (1994)
Bug (2006) [seen: 05/07]
Cruising (1980) [seen: 01/09]
The Exorcist (1973) [seen: 09/04]
The French Connection (1971) [seen: 05/07]
The Hunted (2003) [seen: 06/06]
To Live and Die in L.A. (1985)
Robert Fuest (2)
The Abominable Dr. Phibes (1971) [seen: 06/2005]
Dr. Phibes Rises Again (1972) [seen: 10/2005]
Lucio Fulci (16)
Ænigma (1987) [seen: 09/08]
The Beyond (1981) [seen: 10/02]
The Black Cat (1981) [seen: 09/07]
A Cat in the Brain (1990) [seen: 10/06]
Conquest (1983) [seen: 08/04]
Don't Torture a Duckling (1972) [seen: 10/04]
The Gates of Hell (1980) [seen: 03/04]
The House by the Cemetery (1981) [seen: 05/04]
Lizard in a Woman's Skin (1971) [seen: 07/07]
Manhattan Baby (1982) [seen: 01/09]
Murder Rock - Dancing Death (1984) [seen: 08/06]
The New York Ripper (1982) [seen: 11/04]
Seven Notes in Black aka The Psychic (1977)
Touch of Death (1988) [seen: 10/06] Master of gore Lucio Fulci’s Lost Highway is a tongue-in-cheek comedy about a man undergoing a psychological breakdown as a result of coping with the fact that he is a sadistic murderer. If you’ve never explored Fulci, this is hardly the place to start, but those who have a firm grasp on the director’s surreal approach to narrative and Grand Guignol artistic set pieces will find this a worthy entry in his wildly uneven body of work.
Zombi 3 (1988) [seen: 10/03]
Zombie (1979) [seen: 04/04]
Samuel Fuller (16)
The Baron of Arizona (1950) [seen: 01/08]
The Big Red One (1980)
Forty Guns (1957)
House of Bamboo (1955) [seen: 12/05]
I Shot Jesse James (1949) [seen: 07/05]
The Naked Kiss (1964) [seen: 05/04]
Park Row (1952) [seen: 04/06]
Pickup on South Street (1953) [seen: 02/04]
Run of the Arrow (1957) [seen: 10/04]
Shark! (1969) [seen: 08/04]
Shock Corridor (1963)
The Steel Helmet (1951) [seen: 07/05]
Street of No Return (1989) [seen: 05/04]
Underworld U.S.A. (1961)
Verboten! (1959) [seen: 06/04]
White Dog (1982) [seen: 08/04, 12/08] Pulp philosophy is not for everyone, but done right it can be incredibly potent stuff. McKee/Diesen’s contemporary film Red is a relative to this film, supplanting an animal and man’s relation to it, in order to make a deeper statement about the darker side of the species. Fuller’s picture is obviously superior (perhaps even the highpoint of 80’s cinema), but for everyone taking in his masterpiece this Holiday season, I recommend giving Red a spin…
Ricky Gervais
"Extras" (13 episodes, 2005-2007) [seen: 04/09]
The Invention of Lying (2009) [seen: 01/10]
"The Office" (14 episodes, 2001-2003) [seen: 03/09]
Mel Gibson (3)
Apocalypto (2006) [seen: 12/06]
Braveheart (1995)
The Passion of the Christ (2004) [seen: 02/04]
Terry Gilliam (10)
The Adventures of Baron Munchausen (1988)
Brazil (1985)
The Brothers Grimm (2005)
Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas (1998)
The Fisher King (1991)
The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus (2009) [seen: 01/10]
Monty Python and the Holy Grail (1975)
Tideland (2005) [seen: TIFF 05, 03/07] This is a much smaller film than Gilliam is accustomed to making, and I think it worked wonders for him. A Canadian production, this twisted little tale tells the heartbreaking story of a young girl (10 yr. old Jodelle Ferland, in brilliant performance) who is forced to take care of her drug addicted parents, even going so far as to help them shoot-up. She escapes this nightmarish home life by retreating into her imagination, and the film becomes a Gilliamesque “Alice in Wonderland” of sorts. Filled with a cast of eccentric characters, and some stunning camerawork, this is a welcome return to the imaginative filmmaking of the Terry Gilliam of old.
Time Bandits (1981)
Twelve Monkeys (1995)
Jonathan Glazer (2)
Birth (2004) [seen: 11/04] The opening shot of ‘Birth’ has the camera tracking behind a jogger as a voice-over of presumably the same man discusses his skepticisms regarding reincarnation. Very shortly, that same jogger will enter a long, dark tunnel where he will drop dead – the shot is both a painful representation of the isolation of death, but can also be read as a beautiful metaphor for the birth process. This scene, like the rest of the film, is a carefully constructed and meticulously thought out piece of filmmaking. Director Jonathan Glazer collaborated with frequent Buñuel scriptwriter Jean-Claude Carrière to create a script that not only questions ideas of the spirit incarnated, more importantly, this is a film that takes a confrontational look at that obscure object which is desire, and its crumbling effect on bourgeois values. By no means is this a perfect film, but I can’t recall a more recent movie that got me thinking this much. The original score by Alexandre Desplat is simply astonishing.
Sexy Beast (2000)
Jean-Luc Godard (21)
2 or 3 Things I Know About Her (1967)
Alphaville (1965)
Band of Outsiders (1964)
Breathless (1960)
The Carabineers (1963)
Une catastrophe (2008) [short, 1min.] [seen: 09/08]
La chinoise (1967) [seen: 06/06]
Contempt (1963)
First Name: Carmen (1983)
Histoire(s) du cinema (1998) [seen: 02/08] Episodes 1 and 2 are close to the finest thing Godard has ever made.
In Praise of Love (2001)
Keep Your Right Up (1987) Off-site review here
Letter to Jane: An Investigation About a Still (1972) Jean-Pierre Gorin co-director [seen: 03/07]
Masculin féminin (1966) [seen: 06/05]
My Life to Live (1962)
Notre musique (2004) [seen: TIFF '04]
Passion (1982) [seen: 11/04]
Le petit soldat (1963)
Pierrot le fou (1965)
Tout va bien (1972) Jean-Pierre Gorin co-director [seen: 03/07]
Weekend (1967) [seen: 10/05]
A Woman Is a Woman (1961)
Bobcat Goldthwait (3)
Shakes the Clown (1991) [seen:02/06]
Sleeping Dogs Lie (2006) [seen: 05/07]
Worlds Greatest Dad (2009) [seen: 12/09]
Michel Gondry (5)
Be Kind Rewind (2008) [seen: 07/2008]
Dave Chappelle's Block Party (2005) [seen: 03/2006] In 2004 comedian Dave Chappelle signed a $50 million dollar contract with Comedy Central. As a celebration (as well as an apology of sorts) for his newfound success, he organized a free rap concert for 5,000 people (mostly strangers) on an undisclosed Brooklyn block, and funded the proceedings entirely out of his own pocket. Director Michel Gondry films the proceedings with a crew of cameramen and the results are nothing less than astonishing. What we come away with is one of the sharpest documents on a community experience ever to be captured on film. Gondry deftly edits between the event and its preparation, so that we are left with not so much of a linear document of the event, but a series of magical moments such as seeing a joke delivered and then cutting to the rehearsal of said joke. It sounds flashy, but believe me it works, and goes a long way towards summarizing Gondry’s approach to cinema, as well as the creative processes of a comedic genius. Chappelle shines as the concert’s emcee, and the film gives you a glimpse of a man terrified of selling out and losing the respect of his audience. The musical performances are equally intoxicating and I’ll wager right now that you won’t find a more enjoyable documentary all year.
Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (2004) [seen: 03/2004]
Human Nature (2001) [seen: 03/2004]
The Science of Sleep (2006) [seen: 02/2007]
Tokyo! -- segment "Interior Design" (2008) [seen: 11/2009]
Seth Gordon (2)
Four Christmases (2008) [seen: 12/09]
The King of Kong (2007) [seen: 01/08]
Stuart Gordon (10)
The Black Cat (2007) [seen: 01/07] Actually, this is more like a three-star work as I think Gordon puts many of the previous episodes to shame here, but if I'm speaking my heart, why do we need yet another filmic version of this predictable story!? The twist ending no longer works the 6th time around and Gordon is better than just someone who needs to piggyback a reliable story while he plays around with lighting, narrative, and atmosphere. Jeffrey Combs rocks by the way.
Castle Freak (1995) [seen: 11/04] Stuart Gordon is an enigma to me. After bursting onto the scene with the brilliant Re-Animator in 1985, he slowly faded back from the limelight in favor of making direct-to-video releases on his own terms. Even after selling his story for “Honey, I Shrunk the Kids” to Disney in 1991, where selling-out was probably a viable option for him, once again he avoided Hollywood and went to Full Moon Pictures where he continues releasing direct-to-video horror features. Unlike Takashi Miike, who is capable of turning out as many as eight low-budget productions in a given year, Gordon’s films come once every three years or so. This gory little film has a family moving into a mysterious castle that they inherited, that unbeknownst to them, is home to a deformed freak who was raised in the castle dungeon. Gordon is a master of stretching the most out of his limited actors and miniscule budget. Sex and gore are used to maximum effect and spread liberally throughout the story, that is your standard for Z-grade Old Dark House narrative. The fact that I was glued to my seat and thoroughly entertained goes to prove the filmmaker that Gordon is. I yearn for the day that he will step up and take on a theatrical production. The guy is an artist even if he doesn’t realize it. addendum: 6 years later he did just this.
Dolls (1987) [seen: 09/05]
Dreams in the Witch-House (2005) [seen: 11/05, 03/06]
Edmond (2005) [seen: 10/06] Stuart Gordon got his start in the Theater directing works by David Mamet, so this was hardly a stretch for him (even though within the world of film he is generally seen as only a ‘Horror’ director). The well-acted individual set pieces of Mamet’s play sort of lose something on film, but add to it the schizophrenic quality of Macy’s stellar performance, and the result is something of pulp marvel. Racism and misogyny run rampant in this picture, almost to offensive extremes, but not before being hammered home in one kicker of an ending that is about as over-the-top as it is effective. Fuck you Paul Haggis.
"Fear Itself" - Eater (2008) [seen: 10/09] Mick Garris’ PG rated version of the horribly underrated Master of Horror series, is better than I thought it would be, but sees most of the talented filmmakers he has brought on-board going through the motions rather than exploring anything new or interesting. Stuart Gordon re-tells John Brahm’s masterful Twilight Zone episode “The Four of Us are Dying” by adding cannibalism and baroque camera angles. Future episodes are in my future, but I can see that “risks” were the last thing on Garris’ agenda when he produced this, which is a shame coming from a man whose single greatest entry into the horror genre was a short story involving a director skull-fucking a deformed infant that he bought to use as a movie prop.
From Beyond (1986) [seen: 09/07, 02/08] This movie is pretty icky, almost too icky, but we’ll never see anything like it again. Ah real special effects…
King of the Ants (2003) [seen: 07/04, 10/05]
The Pit and the Pendulum (1991) [seen: 02/10]
Re-Animator (1985) [last seen: 04/06]
Stuck (2007) [seen: TIFF 07, 01/09] This was released in a cut that is 9min. shorter than the screening I attended at TIFF ’07, but very little has been written about the actual changes. I can confidently say that the tone of the film has not changed in the least and most of the trims were probably aimed at keeping the film leaner and meaner… Changes that I noticed which were probably ratings board oriented include Brandi’s (Mena Suvari) early sex scene with Rashid, which now runs a tad shorter and with less nudity as well as the scene where Brandi throws Rashid’s other girlfriend out of the apartment naked, that scene was trimmed to remove a few shots of full frontal nudity. As far as I can tell all of the gore is intact, and the film plays basically the same, which is a good thing, because Gordon is producing tremendous cinema these days.
Philippe Grandrieux (2)
La Vie Nouvelle (2002) [seen: 05/04]
Sombre (1998)
David Gordon Green (5)
All the Real Girls (2003) [2nd viewing last seen: 11/03]
Eastbound & Down SSN 1 (2009) 3 episodes [seen: 06/2009]
George Washington (2000)
Pineapple Express (2008) [seen: 01/2009]
Snow Angels (2007) [seen: 08/2008]
Undertow (2004) [seen: TIFF 2004]
Peter Greenaway (7)
8 1/2 Women (1999)
The Cook the Thief His Wife & Her Lover (1989)
Dear Phone (1977) [short]
The Draughtsman's Contract (1982)
The Falls (1980) [seen: 10/03] Peter Greenaway's three and a half-hour avant-garde masterpiece has to be seen to be believed. This is a wildly inventive, encyclopedic experiment, that attempts to document the lives of 92 people who are victims of the VUE or Violent Unknown Event, and all of whom have a last name beginning with the letters FALL. Greenaway breaks his film into 92 shorts, each one shot in a different style, about the bizarre effects of the VUE on these people's lives -- such as why they all somehow take on bird like qualities or a fascination with birds. The results are frequently hilarious, highly surreal, and almost certainly unlike anything you have ever seen before. My favorite passages include a tale about a man who weds a turkey after his wife dies, only to have it shot by a veterinarian whom he in turn shoots, and a brilliant section about an Ornithologist who hypothesizes that Hitchcock is behind the VUE and studies the film The Birds for answers. Michael Nyman wrote the wonderful score.
H Is for House (1973) [short]
Intervals (1969) [short]
The Tulse Luper Suitcases, Part 1: The Moab Story (2003) [seen: TIFF 03]
A Zed & Two Noughts (1985)
Vertical Features Remake (1978) [seen: 12/03]
A Walk Through H: The Reincarnation of an Ornithologist (1978) [short]
Water (1975) [short]
Water Wrackets (1975) [short]
Windows (1975) [short]
Paul Greengrass (2)
The Bourne Supremacy (2004) [seen: 07/04]
United 93 (2006) [seen: 04/06]
Christopher Guest (4)
Best in Show (2000)
For Your Consideration (2006) [seen: 02/07] As funny as any of the other recent Guest improv-comedies, but in this case when a joke missed, it missed by a mile. Good comedy is not just about hitting those highs, but about keeping the audience with you when you are hitting those lows. Mr. Guest has assembled a talented group of comedian, but they seem to be crying out for some direction already.
A Mighty Wind (2003)
Waiting for Guffman (1996) [last seen: 09/05]
Lasse Hallström (3)
Chocolat (2000)
The Cider House Rules (1999)
Hachiko: A Dog's Story (2009) [seen: 06/10] Devastatingly sad story, but not much of a film.
Michael Haneke (8)
Benny's Video (1992)
Caché (2005) [seen: TIFF '05] Another puzzling, yet masterfully constructed look at the breakdown of a bourgeois family from Michael Haneke. Taking the formal approach of his “Seventh Continent,” and mixing in the impending doom of “Funny Games,” this is a darkly pragmatic look at not only the way we view our own lives, but the role that cinema plays in this view, implicating the viewer in on the proceedings of this disturbing puzzle. It’s near impossible to discuss this on any sort of substantial level without disclosing some serious plot details -- the ending for example has left many scratching their heads -- although the answer might not be as elusive as some might think. Haneke is asking us to seriously engage the images onscreen (ie. camera placement), and your ability to reflect on this goes a long way towards your appreciation of the film.
Code Unknown (2000)
Funny Games (1997) [3rd viewing: 10/07] What better way to start off a marathon of depravity than with a film that takes the genre, smears it in the viewers face, and makes you re-think everything you ever felt when watching a horror film? Probably will be the most disturbing and terrifying film I view all month, this also remains Haneke’s most perfectly realized picture. If the American remake is anything like I’ve heard it is, oblivious American audiences expecting yet another torture-porn film are in for one hell of a mind-fuck.
The Piano Player (2001) [3rd viewing: 04/04]
The Seventh Continent (1989) [seen: 09/05]
Time of the Wolf (2003) [seen: 07/05]
The White Ribbon (2009) [seen: TIFF '09]
Tsui Hark (3)
Green Snake (1993) [seen: 11/04]
Time and Tide (2000)
We're Going to Eat You (1980) [seen: 05/07]
Byron Haskin (2)
Robinson Crusoe on Mars (1964) [seen: 12/07]
The War of the Worlds (1953) [seen: 06/04]
Howard Hawks (18)
Ball of Fire (1941) [seen: 06/08] I couldn't help but feel like Wilder's script was a little at odds with Hawks' sensibilities. Stanwyck however, is knockout.
The Big Sky (1952) [140 min. cut] [see: 04/05]
The Big Sleep (1946)
Bringing Up Baby (1938)
El Dorado (1966) [seen: 01/06]
Gentlemen Prefer Blondes (1953)
A Girl in Every Port (1928)
Hatari! (1962)
To Have and Have Not (1944)
His Girl Friday (1940) [seen: 11/04]
Man's Favorite Sport? (1964) [seen: 10/04]
Monkey Business (1952) [seen: 10/04]
Only Angels Have Wings (1939) [seen: 06/05]
Red River (1948)
Rio Bravo (1959) [seen: 10/03]
Scarface (1932)
The Thing from Another World (1951) [co-director]
Twentieth Century (1934) [seen: 04/05]
Hal Hartley (8)
Ambition (1991) [short] [seen: 10/05, 10/05]
Fay Grim (2006) [seen: TIFF '06]
The Girl from Monday (2005) [seen: 04/06]
Henry Fool (1997)
No Such Thing (2001) [seen: 07/03]
Simple Men (1992) [seen: 02/04]
Surviving Desire (1991)
Theory of Achievement (1991) [seen: 03/05]
Trust (1990) [seen: 02/04]
The Unbelievable Truth (1989) [seen: 08/04] The first feature from Long Island poet laureate Hal Hartley still has the director searching for a visual style, but his trademark dialogue is already in full effect. Hartley, who may be our country’s finest screenwriter, is noted for the Bressonian detachment he requires from his actors when reading their lines. Scenes consist of the actor’s ambivalent performances, with hardly any rapport amongst the players as they wax philosophy and prophesize the end of the world. Adrienne Shelly stars as an intelligent young girl with dreams of literature who is trapped by her mechanic father and his wishes for her future. Things get shaken up when Robert Burke’s character comes back to town after serving a lengthy jail sentence for killing two people years earlier. A love story develops and a great many people are “pushed” and deals are “struck” in between. Hartley’s script, as always, makes the proceedings compulsively watchable and at times deliriously profound.
Todd Haynes (6)
Dottie Gets Spanked (1993) [short]
Far from Heaven (2002)
I'm Not There. (2007) [seen: TIFF '07]
Poison (1991)
[safe] (1995)
Superstar: The Karen Carpenter Story (1987) [last seen: 03/04]
Velvet Goldmine (1998)
Amy Heckerling (6)
Clueless (1995) [last seen: 02/06]
European Vacation (1985) [last seen: 02/08]
Fast Times at Ridgemont High (1982) [last seen: 12/07]
I Could Never Be Your Woman (2007) [seen: 02/10]
Look Who's Talking Too (1990)
Look Who's Talking (1989)
Monte Hellman (5)
Beast from Haunted Cave (1959)
Cockfighter (1974) [seen: 03/04] An eclectic little film from Monte Hellman, who with the exception of John Cassavetes and Martin Scorsese, qualifies as perhaps the most important American director of the 1970’s. Warren Oates stars in a virtually silent performance as the enigmatic cockfighter who has taken a vow of silence after his big mouth almost ruined his career. I found it hard to stomach some of the film’s brutalanimal fights and mindless slaughter—did you know they affix huge spike heels to the roosters in order to speed up the carnage? In the hands of Hellman however, everything becomes strangely existential and even something as ridiculous as cockfighting begins to take on profound meaning. Not quite up to par with his earlier masterpieces such as Two-Lane Blacktop and The Shooting, nonetheless this like all of Hellman’s work, demands to be seen.
The Shooting (1967)
Silent Night, Deadly Night III: Better Watch Out! (1989) [seen: 02/04]
Trapped Ashes -- segment "Stanley's Girlfriend" (2006) [seen: 09/06, 08/08] Welcome back Monte… This just didn’t work for me the first time, and the flaws only came more into light the second time around. Hellman, maybe starved for work, goes for a full-blown movie here and psychological horror requires more time and patience from both the viewer and the filmmaker (both not present in this anthology form). Also, there are certain prerequisites to this segment (I’m thinking of the sex scenes) that are simply not Hellman’s strong suit.
Two-Lane Blacktop (1971)
Jim Henson (2)
Emmet Otter's Jug-Band Christmas (1977) [short]
The Dark Crystal (1982) [seen: 11/2009]
Labyrinth (1986)
Muppet*vision 3-D (1991) [short]
Werner Herzog (19)
Aguirre: The Wrath of God (1972)
The Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call - New Orleans (2009) [seen: 01/10]
Bells from the Deep: Faith and Superstition in Russia (1995) [short] [seen: 02/08]
Encounters at the End of the World (2007) [seen: TIFF 07]
The Enigma of Kaspar Hauser (1974)
Even Dwarfs Started Small (1970) [seen: 10/03] Werner Herzog's second feature film also happens to be one of his best. This is not an exploitation film, but a surreal nightmare, equal parts terrifying and hilarious. When a band of dwarfs takes over the compound that rules them, a revolution of violent and destructive behavior ensues. The cast, composed entirely of dwarfs, seems of normal size by the end the film, with the oppressive world around them turning into an out of proportion grotesquerie. Not to be missed.
Fitzcarraldo (1982)
God's Angry Man (1980) [short] [seen: 01/06]
The Great Ecstasy of Woodcarver Steiner (1974) [seen: 07/05]
Grizzly Man (2005) [seen: 12/05]
Heart of Glass (1976)
Herakles (1962) [short] [seen: 02/07]
How much Wood would a Woodchuck chuck... (1976) [short] [seen: 03/05] A documentary about those fast-talking auctioneers at American cattle events, this is classic Herzogian material—an alluring blend of the mundane and the macabre. For those people who take issue with Herzog’s documentaries claiming that he displays a lack of respect for the material and his subjects (a claim I happen to vehemently disagree with), you will be happy to find that Herzog has largely distanced himself from the material in this film, remaining a casual viewer, and allowing his images/audio to speak for themselves. You get the feeling that in Herzog’s mind this is like one gigantic horror show complete with ranting and raving cowboys, chewing tobacco, bake sales, and ugly patterned house dresses. His thesis is simple—what is it about the American capitalist drive that has necessitated the development of this strange new language? The answers are not very straightforward, and the film (rightly so) leaves you to address that on your own time, and presents itself as a surreal anthroplogical film. Herzog used one of his quick-tongued subjects to auction off Bruno S.’s house in his film Stroszek.
Invincible (2001)
Land of Silence and Darkness (1971) [seen: 09/05]
Lessons of Darkness (1992) [last seen: 11/05]
Little Dieter Needs to Fly (1997)
My Best Fiend (1999)
Nosferatu the Vampyre (1979)
Rescue Dawn (2006) [seen: TIFF 06]
La Soufrière (1977) [short] [seen: 07/05]
Stroszek (1977)
Ten Minutes Older: The Trumpet -- segment "Ten Thousand Years Older" (2002)
The Unprecedented Defence of the Fortress Deutschkreuz (1967) [short] [seen: 08/07]
Wheel of Time (2003) [seen: 04/08]
The White Diamond (2004) [seen: 06/05]
The Wild Blue Yonder (2005) [seen: 02/07] Like Herzog’s previous sci-fi/documentary Lessons of Darkness, this is a confounding experience to say the least, which may explain why so few have seen it. The sensibilities at work here are a bit more towards the surreal than the stark poetry of Lessons -- which seemed a bit ‘too real’ at times with all the Gulf War stuff -- and this film is a far gentler experience because of this. Like Tarkovsky’s Solaris, this is a work of intense metaphysical beauty. A film you should dive head first into and let your imagination run with. Dourif’s performance is amazing, and this stands as Herzog’s boldest venture into experimental/found footage movie making to date. The Wild Blue Yonder is classified as a fictional film, but to my mind, it is infinitely more potent than anything Al Gore’s An Inconvenient Truth has to offer.
Jared Hess (3)
Gentlemen Broncos (2009)[seen: 03/10] With the exception of Jemaine Clement, whose performance as a pretentious Sci-Fi author is one of those comic gems that it practically makes this thing worth recommending, this is ultimately a gigantic misfire from Hess. His brand of outcast humor and personal filmmaking simply does not lend itself to recognizable actors playing dress up; it needs an unknown to lend that uncomfortable hint of authenticity to the role (something Napoleon Dynamite had). In today’s YouTube age I can spare you the film and send you off with this…
Nacho Libre (2006) [seen: 06/06]
Napoleon Dynamite (2004) [seen: 07/04, 12/07] For the past 6 years or so, a group of American directors have been releasing features that are distinctly their own. Wes Anderson, Vincent Gallo, Alexander Payne, P.T. Anderson, Sofia Coppola, Harmony Korine, and Spike Jonze are some of the names that spring immediately to mind. Jared Hess’s hilarious new feature Napoleon Dynamite is a love child to most of the aforementioned names—an independent feature of assured brilliance and deadpan wit. The biggest influence here is obviously Wes Anderson and this should become apparent the second you see the inspired opening credit sequence. If the films of Charlie Chaplin are comparable to the works of Da Vinci, then this film might constitute a daydreaming teenager doodling in his notebook during 5th period study hall—and I mean this as a compliment. This film seems to spring directly from Hess’ subconscious—everything about the costumes, the way that the actors speak, the year in which the film is set, and even the age of the characters themselves is indeterminate and instead exists as a hodgepodge of various 1970’s, 80’s, and 90’s pop culture clippings. The end result is a perfectly realized, utterly hilarious little film and best of all (many may not agree) it has a heart, something absent from almost every summer film thus far.
Jack Hill (8)
The Big Bird Cage (1972) [seen: 03/04]
The Big Doll House (1971) [seen: 10/04]
Coffy (1973) [seen: 03/04]
Foxy Brown (1974) [seen: 03/04] Always sexy and never to be fucked with, Pam Grier battles a ring of drug dealers in this, perhaps my favorite of all the blaxploitation pictures. Jack Hill was one of the great B-movie auteurs of the Seventies. Despite making some tremendous pictures, he never quite got the deserved recognition that Larry Cohen and Monte Hellman did. In the spirit of all of Hill’s films, this one is vulgar, offensive, overloaded with sex and violence, and without a single dull moment. Grier cuts off a man's penis and claims to have a black belt in barstools. Girl, You is Bad Ass!
Pit Stop (1969) [seen: 06/09] This is Jack Hill’s The Lusty Men. One of those late night gems that screams for critical re-evaluation.
Spider Baby (1968) [seen: 12/03]
The Swinging Cheerleaders (1974) [seen: 08/06]
Switchblade Sisters (1975) [seen: 10/03]
Jody Hill (2)
Eastbound & Down (2009, USA) Ben Best & Danny McBride [co-creators] [seen: 06/09, 01/10]
The Foot Fist Way (2006) [seen: 04/09, 05/09]
Observe and Report (2009) [seen: 09/09]
Walter Hill (9)
Brewster's Millions (1985)
The Driver (1978) [seen: 10/03]
Extreme Prejudice (1987) [seen: 01/09]
Hard Times (1975) [seen: 03/04]
The Long Riders (1980) [seen: 03/10] Solid stuff all round, and Hill is clearly on his game (editing abounds!). The inventive casting goes a long way, but I just wish this wasn't so indebted to The Wild Bunch
Southern Comfort (1981) [seen: 10/03] Walter Hill's masterful backwoods thriller is less a Deliverance remake, than it is a telling showcase for the director's favorite themes of outsiders and male bonding. When a routine military exercise has a violent run in with some backwoods poachers, a group of National Guardsmen suddenly find themselves trapped and hunted in the Louisiana bayou. Hill exercises remarkable control over the material, keeping the acting and action to a minimum and the directing to a maximum. The photography is dazzling yet oppressive and the result is something that comes closer to resembling a B-horror film than a war picture. I'd take this over just about any Hollywood war film I can think of.
Streets of Fire (1984) [seen: 02/10]
"Tales from the Crypt" - Cutting Cards (1990) TV episode [seen: 01/06]
"Tales from the Crypt" - The Man Who Was Death (1989) TV episode [seen: 07/05]
Undisputed (2002)
The Warriors (1979) [seen: 10/03, 02/06]
John Hillcoat (3)
Ghosts... of the Civil Dead (1988) [seen: 10/07]
The Proposition (2005) [seen: 09/06]
The Road (2009) [seen: 12/09]
Alfred Hitchcock (30)
The 39 Steps (1935)
The Birds (1963)
Blackmail (1929)
Dial M for Murder (1954) [seen: 07/03]
Family Plot (1976) [seen: 12/07]
Foreign Correspondent (1940)
Frenzy (1972)
The Lady Vanishes (1938)
The Man Who Knew Too Much (1934)
Lifeboat (1944) [seen: 07/04]
Marnie (1964)
Murder! (1930)
North by Northwest (1959)
Notorious (1946)
Number 17 (1932) [seen: 08/04]
Psycho (1960)
Rear Window (1954)
Rebecca (1940)
The Ring (1927) [seen: 06/07]
Rope (1948)
Sabotage (1936)
Saboteur (1942) [seen: 06/04]
Shadow of a Doubt (1943) [last seen: 05/04] Despite the brutal nature of Producer David O. Selznick, who at this time was fighting a losing battle trying to break Hitchcock and rob him of his creative control, this remains one of the master’s finest achievements. Everything from the careful editing, to the fragmented lighting, right down to the hallucinatory soundtrack approaches sheer perfection. Most notable as the film that catapulted Hitchcock to godlike status for the young boys at Cahiers du cinema -- Francois Truffaut’s lucid essay on Hitchcock’s thematic use of “the double” remains one of the strongest pieces ever written about the director. For my money, you can’t talk Hitchcock until you’ve seen this at least twice.
Spellbound (1945)
Strangers on a Train (1951)
Suspicion (1941) [seen: 03/05]
To Catch a Thief (1955) [seen: 01/08] There are elements of style -- costume and set design -- that Hitchcock seems to throw to the wayside here, but that are vitally important when you are making a film set in a posh French Riviera villa cirque 1955. A minor quibble I know…
The Trouble with Harry (1955)
Vertigo (1958)
The Wrong Man (1956)
P.J. Hogan (3)
Confessions of a Shopaholic (2009) [seen: 06/09]
My Best Friend's Wedding (1997)
Peter Pan (2003) [seen: 01/04]
Ishirô Honda (7)
Dogora, the Space Monster (1964) [seen: 07/08] I’ve grown weary of the giant-monster attacks storyline, and this entry from Honda offers an interesting enough diversion from that formula to warrant closer consideration. This time through we have mysterious jellyfish from outerspace and a parallel storyline involving diamond thieves. Honda’s glorious ‘scope framing and his visionary approach to effects never cease to entertain.
Godzilla (1954) [seen: 04/07]
The H-Man (1958) [seen: 12/09]
Matango: Attack of the Mushroom People (1963) [seen: 07/05]
Mothra vs. Godzilla (1964) [seen: 07/07]
The Mysterians (1957)
Rodan (1956) [seen: 11/08]
Hong Sang-soo (8)
The Day a Pig Fell Into the Well (1996) [seen: 02/04]
Like You Know It All (2009) [seen: TIFF 09] Hong’s mundane stories and stream of thought narratives are starting to wear thin, hence he resorts to the self-conscious subtext. This is solid stuff but it has little, to nothing to say over the course of its two-hour runtime.
The Power of Kangwon Province (1998) [seen: 05/04]
Tale of Cinema (2005)
Turning Gate (2002) [seen: 02/04]
Virgin Stripped Bare by Her Bachelors (2000)
Woman Is the Future of Man (2004) [seen: 07/04]
Woman on the Beach (2006) [seen: TIFF 06]
Tobe Hooper (12)
Body Bags -- segment "Eye" (1993) [seen: 02/08]
The Damned Thing (2006) [seen: 10/06] After a phenomenal prologue that emphasizes muted lighting and fast-tracking cinematography (a Hooper strong point when he tries for it), this quickly devolves into your typical overly dramatic and FX based horror show. Hooper bites off more than his 1-hour episode can chew by trying for a Lovecraftian tale that encompasses an entire town and its dark past, spreading the narrative too thinly and over too much. By the time the big finale rolls around we have yet to develop any kind emotional rapport with anyone or anything (even the helpless child seems a tad wasted). I was even more unnerved to see Hooper leave a lot of unexplored political commentary by introducing the corruption of oil as if simply an afterthought. This damned thing could have been so much more…
Dance of the Dead (2005)
Eaten Alive (1977) [seen: 04/06]
The Funhouse (1981) [seen: 10/05]
Invaders from Mars (1986) [seen: 06/10] Well, maybe if the kid could act...
Lifeforce (1985) [seen: 05/10]
Mortuary (2005) [seen: 04/06] Believe it or not, this silly straight-to-video horror film represents some of Tobe Hooper’s best work in years. A mother moves her two children to a small town where she intends to take up residence as the newly hired mortician, but things get complicated when their new house by the cemetery proves home to an evil secret. The horror elements at work here are a mélange of everything from Friday the 13th, to Kaufman’s Invasion of the Body Snatchers, to even something as obscure as The Lair of the White Worm. Screenwriters Jace Anderson and Adam Gierasch have trouble settling down into just one idea. Of course there is a ton of Romero and Hooper in there as well, which is a good thing as Tobe is directing the film. He approaches this project with tongue firmly planted in cheek and directs the proceedings with the sort of campy sensibility he seems to have adopted since The Texas Chainsaw Massacre 2 -- expressive Christmas tree lighting included. The cast is serviceable (a few wincers are delivered but forgiven) and if you can handle that the film is out to have fun and not scare the shit out of you, you just might enjoy yourself.
Poltergeist (1982) [last seen: 04/07]
Salem's Lot (1979) [seen: 10/07]
The Texas Chain Saw Massacre (1974)
The Texas Chainsaw Massacre 2 (1986)
Toolbox Murders (2004) [seen: 03/05] It’s nice to see Tobe Hooper (The Texas Chain Saw Massacre) back and working with power tools again. His latest film, essentially a straightforward slasher flick, sees the filmmaker returning to his long absent fascination with cheap lighting effects and grotesquerie make-up. I never thought I’d say this, but it’s a tad refreshing to see a slasher film getting made. After the horror market became watered-down in the late eighties, slasher films essentially died off (as an aside, a quite similar trend is taking shape these days with imitation Japanese ghost stories), but taken in small doses these films can be quite entertaining. I wish there was more of a script here, but the execution is nice and there are quite a few gory indulgences. It has been posited before, but I must say it again—one has to wonder if Hooper and other filmmakers of his era (Romero, Craven, Carpenter) still take filmmaking very seriously. I know these guys are capable of better.
Stephen Hopkins (2)
A Nightmare on Elm Street 5: The Dream Child (1989) [seen: 04/04]
Predator 2 (1990)
Hou Hsiao-hsien (9)
Café Lumière (2003)  
Chacun son cinema -- segment "The Electric Princess House" (2007) [short] [seen: 07/07]
Flight of the Red Balloon (2007) [seen TIFF 07] A prime example of a master filmmaker who is not personally invested in his subject matter, I’ve sort of been at a loss to come up with anything meaningful to say about this film. On the commentary front, Hou decides not to use the character of Song Fang to make a deeper statement about social displacement. You can all but forget about calling this an ode to France (Juliette Binoche’s apartment could be mainland China), and the flights of fantasy with the titular balloon never really coalesce into anything beyond brief whimsy. All of this is not to say that the film is without merits -- Hou structures this as a series of 10 minute long takes in which the actors improvise, combined with the graceful camera, it captures the subtle rhythms of everyday life in a way that is sheer poetry -- it’s only when we consider this film in the sense of the larger Hou canon that this comes across as a minor work. But few filmmakers have such a grace and absolute mastery of the medium as Hou. Photos found here.
Flowers of Shanghai (1998)
Goodbye, South, Goodbye (1996)
Millennium Mambo (2001) [seen: 01/04]
The Puppetmaster (1993)
A Summer at Grandpa's (1984) [seen: 07/05]
Three Times (2005) [seen: TIFF 05] Three different stories each set during a pivotal time in Taiwanese history, and each featuring the same actors playing out variations of the same characters. Hou has made a beautiful and deeply moving film as he constructs each of his stories in a different style, the 1911 passage for instance is rendered faithful to the cinema of its time, silent with intertitles. The first passage set in 1966 and entitled “A Time of Love,” was probably my favorite – eloquent long takes in a pool hall as a young soldier falls for the girl who works there as music by The Platters emanates from the radio – this was 45 minutes of flawless filmmaking that had me transported in its sheer perfection. The last section is perhaps the most difficult to place, it would be unfair to call it a shortened version of Millenium Mambo, but there are certainly the same existential questions of youth handled in a similar manner. Needless to say, this is without a doubt a masterpiece, and has an incredible amount to say about Taiwan and its history, communication, music, and cinema itself.
A Time to Live and a Time to Die (1985) [seen: 01/06]
John Hough (5)
Dirty Mary Crazy Larry (1974) [seen: 04/10]
Escape to Witch Mountain (1975) [downgraded: 06/10]
The Legend of Hell House (1973) [seen: 10/08] Great haunted house film that certainly laid the groundwork for films like The Changeling and Poltergeist. Hough’s direction seems to be channeling Bava at times with his inspired art direction and baroque camera angles all of which are aided by some strong acting and a screenplay by the great Richard Matheson, making this a minor classic.
Return from Witch Mountain (1978)
Twins of Evil (1971) [seen: 10/07]
The Watcher in the Woods (1980) [seen: 03/10]
Ron Howard (9)
Apollo 13 (1995)
Cinderella Man (2005) [seen: 06/05]
Cocoon (1985)
The Da Vinci Code (2006) [seen: 05/06]
Edtv (1999)
Parenthood (1989)
Ransom (1996)
Splash (1984)
Willow (1988)
King Hu (2)
Come Drink with Me (1966) [seen: 11/04]
A Touch of Zen (1969)
John Huston (7)
The African Queen (1951) [last seen: 03/10]
The Asphalt Jungle (1950)
Beat the Devil (1953)
Fat City (1972) [seen: 09/06]
The Maltese Falcon (1941)
The Treasure of the Sierra Madre (1948)
Wise Blood (1979) [seen: 01/10]
Álex de la Iglesia (6)
800 Bullets (2002) [seen: 06/2005]
Acción mutante (1993)
The Day of the Beast (1995) [seen: 04/2007] de la Iglesia suffers from acute final act syndrome. Someone give this guy an ending already!
Ferpect Crime (2004) [seen: 03/2007]
Films to Keep You Awake: The Baby's Room (2006) [seen: 01/2008]
Perdita Durango (1997)
Shohei Imamura (5)
11'09''01 - September 11 -- segment "Japan" (2002) [seen: 10/03]
Dr. Akagi (1998) [seen: 01/04]
The Eel (1997)
The Pornographers (1966) [seen: 10/03]
Warm Water Under a Red Bridge (2001)
Vengeance Is Mine (1979) [seen: 07/04]
Alejandro González Iñárritu (3)
21 Grams (2003) [seen: 01/2004]
Amores perros (2000)
Babel (2006) [seen: TIFF 2006]
James Isaac (2)
Jason X (2001) [seen: 06/04]
Pig Hunt (2008) [seen: 10/09] Better than Razorback, but all over the place.
Katsuhito Ishii (3)
Party 7 (2000) [seen: 09/08]
Shark Skin Man and Peach Hip Girl (1998) [seen: 07/04] Japanese Yakuza films are pretty goddamn amazing these days. This one is only mediocre, although there are flashes of brilliance. The opening sequence is one of the best, featuring more stylized bad guys than I was able to count, each one posing for a photo shoot and modeling an array of kick ass suits and weapons --in a word, being “cool,” and that’s what this movie is all about. The plot is rather incidental, something about some stolen money and vengeful gangsters. A girl gets involved and things progressively move towards a large gunfight, which may I add is totally worth the wait. At only six years old, this film already feels a tad past its shelf life, however Katshito Ishii has proven himself as someone to watch out for.
The Taste of Tea (2004) [seen: 09/07]
Shunji Iwai (3)
All About Lily Chou-Chou (2001) [07/2004]
April Story (1998) [seen: 03/2005]
Hana and Alice (2004) [seen: 06/2005]
Peter Jackson (10)
Bad Taste (1987)
Dead Alive (1992)
The Frighteners (1996) [seen: 11/03]
Forgotten Silver (1995)
King Kong (2005) [seen: 12/05]
The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring (2001)
The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King (2003) [seen: 01/04]
The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers (2002)
The Lovely Bones (2009) [seen: 01/10]
Meet the Feebles (1989)
Steve James (2)
Hoop Dreams (1994) [seen: 05/05]
Stevie (2003) [seen: 01/04]
Jim Jarmusch (9)
Broken Flowers (2005)
Coffee and Cigarettes (2003) [seen: TIFF 2003]
Dead Man (1995)
Down by Law (1986)
Ghost Dog: The Way of the Samurai (1999)
The Limits of Control (2009)
Mystery Train (1989)
Night on Earth (1991) [seen: 01/2004]
Stranger Than Paradise (1984)
Ten Minutes Older: The Trumpet -- segment "Int. Trailer Night" (2002)
Garth Jennings (2)
The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy (2005) [seen: 04/05]
Son of Rambow (2007)
Jia Zhang ke (6)
24 City (2008) [seen: 02/10]
Cry Me a River (2008) [short] [seen: 02/10]
Platform (2000)
Still Life (2006) [seen: TIFF 06]
Unknown Pleasures (2002) [seen: 04/04]
The World (2004) [seen: 03/06] DVD reviewed HERE
Xiao Wu (1997) [seen: 09/04]
Alejandro Jodorowsky (4)
Fando and Lis (1968) [seen: 05/07]
The Holy Mountain (1973)
Santa sangre (1989)
El topo (1970)
Rian Johnson (2)
Brick (2005) [seen: 08/06]
The Brothers Bloom (2008) [seen: 01/10]
Evil Demon Golfball from Hell!!! (1996) [short]
Joe Johnston (5)
Honey, I Shrunk the Kids (1989)
Jumanji (1995)
Jurassic Park III (2001)
October Sky (1999)
The Wolfman (2010) I don't even know what this movie was about. No seriously. Not a clue.
Spike Jonze (3)
Adaptation (2002)
Being John Malkovich (1999)
Hello, Tomorrow (2005) [commercial] - Recommended - view here [11/2004]
Where the Wild Things Are (2009) [seen:11/2009]
Mike Judge (4)
Beavis and Butt-Head Do America (1996)
Extract (2009) [seen: 01/10]
Idiocracy (2006) [seen: 01/07, 02/07]
Office Space (1999)
Cédric Kahn (2)
L'Ennui (1998)
Red Lights (2004) [seen: 03/05] An interesting film for sure, part thriller, part masculinity crisis, you will no doubt be glued to your seat as this suspenseful tale unfolds. A husband and wife take a road trip to pick their children up from summer camp, while an increasing amount of booze and tragic foreshadowing mounts to an unforeseeable detour. Director Cédric Kahn has an innate gift for eliciting brilliant performances from his actors; his earlier film l’Ennui for example was one of the best-acted films of 1998. In this case, the performance by Jean-Pierre Darroussin is a tour-de-force, not just servicing the script, but actually breathing life into this character, and should make you question the validity of such soulless award ceremonies like the Oscars. Kahn is by all means a director to look up if you haven’t already done so.
Phil Karlson (3)
99 River Street (1953) [seen: 04/2005]
Kansas City Confidential (1952) [seen: 08/2004]
The Phenix City Story (1955)
Mathieu Kassovitz (2)
Gothika (2003) [seen: 11/03]
La haine (1995) [seen: 03/08] Solid but Ma 6-T va crack-er is most certainly a better film.
Lloyd Kaufman (7)
Citizen Toxie: The Toxic Avenger IV (2000) [seen: 12/08] Tasteless as it is, there is no denying that Troma is capable of good, even great, Midnight Madness fun. Also on display here is some effective commentary on selling out and the Hollywood system, something that informs all of Mr. Kaufman’s work.
Class of Nuke 'Em High (1986) [seen: 11/08] I finally think I “get” the cinema of Lloyd Kaufman, and while the man annoys me to no end, his work certainly deserves wider recognition. More to come following future screenings...
Poultrygeist: Night of the Chicken Dead (2006)
Terror Firmer (1999) [seen: 04/06]
The Toxic Avenger (1984) [seen: 04/04, 11/08]
The Toxic Avenger Part II (1989) [seen: 12/08]
The Toxic Avenger Part III: The Last Temptation of Toxie (1989) [seen: 12/08]
Aki Kaurismäki (8)
Ariel (1988) [seen: 01/04]
Chacun son cinéma -- segment "La Fonderie" (2007) [short] [seen: 07/07]
Drifting Clouds (1996) [seen: 01/04]
Juha (1999) [seen: 02/06]
Lights in the Dusk (2006) [seen: 07/07]
The Man Without a Past (2002)
The Match Factory Girl (1990) [seen: 01/04]
Shadows in Paradise (1986) [seen: 01/04]
Take Care of Your Scarf, Tatiana (1994)
Ten Minutes Older: The Trumpet -- segment "Dogs Have No Hell" (2002) [short]
Buster Keaton (9)
The Cameraman (1928) Edward Sedgwick co-director
Steamboat Bill, Jr. (1928) Charles Reisner co-director [seen: 05/04]
The General (1926) Clyde Bruckman co-director
Go West (1925) [seen: 11/04]
Seven Chances (1925)
The Navigator (1924) co-direcot Donald Crisp
Sherlock Jr. (1924)
Our Hospitality (1923)
Three Ages (1923)
Cops (1922) [short] [seen: 11/04]
Richard Kelly (3)
The Box (2009) [seen: 02/10]
Donnie Darko (2001)
Southland Tales (2006) [seen: 03/08]
Abbas Kiarostami (11)
10 on Ten (2004) [seen: 06/06]
ABC Africa (2001)
The Bread and Alley (1970) [short] [seen: 06/05]
Chacun son cinéma -- segment "Where is my Romeo?" (2007) [short] [seen: 07/07]
The Chorus (1982) [short] [seen: 06/05]
Close-Up (1990)
Five Dedicated to Ozu (2003) [seen: 02/07]
Homework (1989) [seen: 07/05]
Life, and Nothing More... (1991) [seen: 04/05]
Taste of Cherry (1997) [last seen: 03/04]
Ten (2002)
Through the Olive Trees (1994) [seen: 04/05]
Two Solutions for One Problem  (1975) [short] [seen: 06/05]
Where Is the Friend's Home? (1987) [seen: 01/04]
The Wind Will Carry Us (1999)
Kim Ji-woon (2)
A Bittersweet Life (2005)
A Tale of Two Sisters (2003) [seen: 04/05]
Kim Ki-duk (10)
3-Iron (2004) [seen: TIFF 2004]
Address Unknown (2001) [seen: 05/2004]
Bad Guy (2001) [seen: 05/2004]
The Birdcage Inn (1998) [seen: 05/2004]
The Bow (2005) - [Seen: 10/2005] As much as I wish I could run to Kim’s defense in the face of some of the harshest criticisms this side of Vincent Gallo (see Tony Rayns in Film Comment), there is simply no way to stick up for a film like The Bow. Kim fires one metaphor heavy image after another at the viewer, and the result although beautifully photographed, is flat out laughable. Keep in mind this is not El Topo and surrealism is not on Kim’s agenda. He actually wants us to buy into this story about an old fisherman who keeps a beautiful young girl on his boat under lock and key until she is old enough to marry. It works up to a point, but eventually the strained art that Kim tries so hard to achieve, winds up beating us over the head one too many times, and by the end I actually found myself embarrassed for this filmmaker. This untimely failure and the Tony Rayns backlash is enough to ruin a career, and let us hope that is not the case, as Kim needs the support of film festivals and programmers like Rayns, as his films don't really perform in his native country.
The Isle (2000) [seen: 01/2004]
Real Fiction (2000) [seen: 05/2004]
Samaria (2004) [seen: 06/2004]
Spring, Summer, Fall, Winter... and Spring (2003) [seen: 06/2004]
Time (2006) [seen: 11/2006]
Ryûhei Kitamura (4)
Alive (2002)
Azumi (2003) [seen: 08/04] A group of children are raised from birth to become deadly assassins and blah blah blah—a lot of people get killed, the camera is everywhere and a great many CGI effects are used. I had a lot of fun with Ryuhei Kitamura’s previous feature Versus, a film that playfully blended samurai swords and zombies. This feature attempts a slightly more serious tone, although its dedication to a “movie as video game” approach to filmmaking is so faithfully adhered to, any attempts at drama wind up seeming superfluous. There is a damn fine and entertaining piece of filmmaking to be found in this 145 minute clump of ideas, if only Kitamura would have spent a little more time in the cutting room.
The Midnight Meat Train (2008) [seen:02/09]
Versus (2000) [seen: 02/04] A pure guilty pleasure. Samuari zombies, lots of gore, snippets of dialogue like "Your slow bullets can't hit me! I move 500 times faster than Mike Tyson!" Fans of Evil Dead II should find lots to love here (I know I did), however just don't come looking for much substance over the 116 minute runtime. (unrated version)
Takeshi Kitano (13)
Achilles and the Tortoise (2008) [seen: 06/10] The best in Kitano's recent self-relfection trilogy, this harkens back to the shit-eating grin humor his early films (something that never ceases to make me belly laugh), while also being a potent look at the struggle for artistic originality and the absurd lengths we go to achieve it.
Boiling Point (1990)
Brother (2000) [seen: 10/04]
Chacun son cinéma -- segment "One Fine Day" (2007) [short] [seen: 07/07]
Dolls (2002) [seen: 08/04]
Getting Any? (1995) [seen: 12/09]
Hana-bi (1997)
Kids Return (1996) [seen: 04/05]
Kikujiro (1999)
A Scene at the Sea (1991) [seen: 07/04]
Sonatine (1993)
Takeshis' (2005) [seen: TIFF 05] Not quite the masterpiece that some have been claiming, this is nonetheless a very worthy and inventive film from the great Kitano. A deconstruction of the persona of ‘Beat’ Takeshi with “stream of conscious” narrative structure, it’s not hard to draw up the Fellini comparisons, although Chaplin’s “Limelight” is another worthy film to reference (just as Chaplin was forever seen as “The Tramp,” so Kitano is forever associated as the bad ass Yakuza). The elliptical editing is really something of a marvel and should be enough for even detractors of his work to finally recognize the “edited by” credit Kitano always takes, as signs of where his true filmic mastery lies. Frequently hilarious, I got the feeling that for every one “In-joke” I was picking up on, at least two were passing me by, so in this sense, the film might be a bit too esoteric for most Americans. 
Violent Cop (1989) [seen: 10/03]
Zatôichi (2003) [seen: TIFF 03]
David Koepp (2)
Secret Window (2004) [seen: 03/04]
Stir of Echoes (1999)
Hirokazu Korreda (5)
After Life (1998)
Air Doll (2009) [seen: 05/10] Too whimsical for my tastes but another solid effort from Koreeda who seems to always want reinvent himself.
Maborosi (1995)
Nobody Knows (2004) [seen: TIFF 2004]
Still Walking (2008) [seen: 11/2009]
Satoshi Kon (5)
Millennium Actress (2001) [seen: 12/03]
Paprika (2006) [seen: 07/07] Miles ahead of any animated film produced by this country in decades, Satoshi Kon has taken what has in recent years become a cliché art form, and elevates it to a level only hinted at in Richard Linklater’s recent work. A seamless -- almost Markerian-- meditation on the notion of history and memory combined with the Hollywood dream factory we find in films like Mulholland Dr, this is a surreal but equally cerebral piece of filmmaking. It may fall under the category of ‘cyberpunk’ however it has a far less dystopic and violent approach to the subject matter that lends to the film a more immediate and moving quality. Gorgeous and poetic in every sense, this is a powerful meditation on cinema, the state of the world, to the very nature of the human heart. In short, a major piece of cinema.
Paranoia Agent (2004) [seen: 03/08] In brief -- I’ll call it the greatest television series since Twin Peaks and place Satoshi Kon in the forefront of Japanese cinema. Just incredible stuff here…
Perfect Blue (1998) [seen: 01/04]
Tokyo Godfathers (2003) [seen: 03/08]
Ted Kotcheff (3)
Rambo: First Blood (1982) [last seen: 09/08] Hadn’t seen this one since my early teens. It’s amazing how given the number of action/revenge films made during the late 70’s/early 80’s, this was the one that made the biggest impression on the American public… (personally I'm a Bronson fan). For the record, William Friedkin outdoes this film in just about every category with his very similar The Hunted (2003).
Wake in Fright (1971) [seen: 01/10]
Weekend at Bernie's (1989)
Akira Kurosawa (10)
The Hidden Fortress (1958)
High and Low (1963) [seen: 02/10]
Ikiru (1952) [seen: 03/05]
Ran (1985)
Rashomon (1950)
Sanjuro (1962)
Seven Samurai (1954)
Stray Dog (1949) [seen: 10/05]
Throne of Blood (1957) [seen: 02/04]
Yojimbo (1961)
Kiyoshi Kurosawa (7)
Bright Future (2003) [seen: TIFF 03]
Charisma (1999) [seen: 10/03]
Cure (1997) [seen: 12/03]
Doppelganger (2003) [seen: 08/04]
Kairo (2001) [3rd viewing: 07/05]
Seance  (2000) [seen: 09/04]
Tokyo Sonata (2008) [seen: 07/09] Up until the ending wherein in Kurosawa abandons the mundane for the ridiculous in order to stuff his message down the audience’s throat, this was bordering on masterpiece territory.
Ken Kwapis (2)
He's Just Not That Into You (2009) [seen: 06/09]
The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants (2005) [seen: 06/05]
John Landis (14)
An American Werewolf in London (1981) [seen: 11/03, 06/10] This one has gotten better for me over the years and Landis is a great deal better than I’ve ever given him credit for. The key is not approaching this as a horror film.
Animal House (1978)
Beverly Hills Cop III (1994)
Black or White - Michael Jackson music video (1991)
The Blues Brothers (1980) [seen: 06/10]
Coming to America (1988)
Deer Woman - Masters of Horror SSN 1 (2005) [seen: 12/05]
Family - Masters of Horror SSN 2 (2006) [seen: 11/06]
Innocent Blood (1992) [seen: 03/09]
Into the Night (1985) [seen: 01/10]
The Kentucky Fried Movie (1977) [seen: 02/07]
Schlock (1973) [seen: 08/06]
Slasher (2004) [seen: 06/04]
¡Three Amigos! (1986)
Thriller - Michael Jackson music video (1983)
Trading Places (1983)
Twilight Zone: The Movie segments -- "Prologue" & "Kick the Can" (1983) [seen: 10/07]
Fritz Lang (18)
Beyond a Reasonable Doubt (1956)
The Big Heat (1953)
Clash by Night (1952) [seen: 09/04]
Dr. Mabuse: The Gambler (1922) [seen: 07/05]
Fury (1936)
Hangmen Also Die! (1943) [seen: 11/09]
M (1931)
Metropolis (1927)
Rancho Notorious (1952)
Secret Beyond the Door... (1948) [seen: 04/06]
Scarlet Street (1945) [seen: 04/06]
The Spiders (1919) [seen: 04/05]
Spies (1928) [seen: 06/07]
The Testament of Dr. Mabuse (1933)
Western Union (1941)
While the City Sleeps (1956) [seen: 11/04]
The Woman in the Window (1944) [seen: 01/08]
You Only Live Once (1937) [seen: 01/07]
David Lean (4)
The Bridge on the River Kwai (1957)
Brief Encounter (1945) [seen: 01/10]
Great Expectations (1946)
Lawrence of Arabia (1962)
Patrice Leconte (5)
Girl on the Bridge (1999)
The Man on the Train (2002) [seen: 12/03]
Monsieur Hire (1989) [seen: 03/08]
Ridicule (1996)
The Widow of Saint-Pierre (2000)
Lee Chang-dong (3)
Oasis (2002) [seen: 11/04]
Peppermint Candy (1999)
Secret Sunshine (2007) [seen: TIFF '07] One of those thoughtful human dramas interested in looking at the fragility of that dense universe of emotion housed inside us all, this is a mature and respectful -- to both characters and the audience alike -- bit of filmmaking that will probably leave you brooding over it long after the credits have rolled. Director Lee Chang-dong seems to specialize in these moral dramas, walking on the edge of sentimental sap, he chooses to keep his camera at a reserved distance and uses narrative ellipses to keep off-screen, numerous events that are better left imagined than shoved in our faces. Nobody teaches us how to deal with death, and like Japanese filmmaker Kor-eda’s Maborosi, this is a powerful and unforgettable look at that difficult subject, all elevated to monumental heights with the lead performance by Do-yeon Jeon (no surprise that she took Best Actress at Cannes). Add to this some pungent commentary on organized religion and the sanctimonious role it plays in the lives of the grieving, and you have a film whose moral complexity is capable of addressing not just the hot-button topics of contemporary South Korea, but the entire world.
Lee Kang-sheng (2)
Help Me, Eros (2007) [seen: TIFF '07]
The Missing (2003) [seen: 09/04]
Spike Lee (8)
25th Hour (2002)
Clockers (1995) [seen: 11/05]
Do the Right Thing (1989)
Inside Man (2006) [seen: 03/06]
Malcolm X (1992)
The Original Kings of Comedy (2000)
Passing Strange (2009) [seen: 04/10]
She's Gotta Have It (1986) [seen: 09/06]
Ten Minutes Older: The Trumpet -- segment "We Wuz Robbed" (2002) [short] [seen: 11/05]
Sergio Leone (3)
A Fistful of Dollars (1964) [06/06]
The Good, the Bad and the Ugly (1966)
Once Upon a Time in the West (1968) [seen: 03/04]
Mervyn LeRoy (4)
The Bad Seed (1956) [seen: 12/05]
Gold Diggers of 1933 (1933) Busby Berkeley co-director [seen: 04/05]
I Am a Fugitive from a Chain Gang (1932) [seen: 11/05]
Little Caesar (1931)
Herschell Gordon Lewis (12)
Blast-Off Girls (1967) [seen: 03/10]
Blood Feast (1963) [seen: 01/04]
Blood Feast 2: All U Can Eat (2002)
Color Me Blood Red (1965) [seen: 04/04] Part three of H.G. Lewis’ Blood trilogy represents a retreat from his two previous features. Both Blood Feast and 2,000 Maniacs were stupid, low budget excercises in on-screen gore, however both managed to be entertaining in their wacky premises and shoddy production values. Lewis, who photographs most of his films himself, is at his worst here with many poorly executed camera movements and frequent focus problems. The story deals with a painter who reacts to a critics remark that he “has no sense of color” by switching to a palette of human blood. The gore is scarce and even at 69 minutes it all seems too long. For a similarly themed story, I would recommend Roger Corman’s A Bucket of Blood, a film that was also shot in a few days, but manages to put everything about this movie to shame.
The Gore Gore Girls (1972) [seen: 03/04] H.G. Lewis has no idea how to frame a shot and if he had a light meter at any point in his career, he sure as hell didn’t know how to use it. Oddly enough, this small time director of over a dozen Z-grade horror pictures is probably the biggest influence for the early works of George Romero, John Waters, and Tobe Hooper. Lewis’ talent lies in the fact that he knows how to come up with a catchy premise. Recanting his plots typically makes them sound many times more frightening and gruesome than they really are. Even if you find his work to be nothing more than a curious oddity, as I do, we should still recognize that this filmmaker is probably the godfather of modern gore. The story this time around deals with a psychopathic killer who has a taste for disfiguring Go-Go dancers. If memory serves, this may be Lewis’ most gruesome picture, though far from his best.
The Gruesome Twosome (1967) [seen: 09/04]
Just for the Hell of It (1968) [seen: 03/10]
She-Devils on Wheels (1968)
Something Weird (1967) [seen: 09/04]
A Taste of Blood (1967) [seen: 09/04]
Two Thousand Maniacs! (1964)
The Wizard of Gore (1970) [seen: 09/04]
Jerry Lewis (4)
The Bellboy (1960)
The Patsy (1964)
The Ladies Man (1961) [seen: 10/04]
The Nutty Professor (1963) [seen: 07/03]
Joseph H. Lewis (3)
The Big Combo (1955)
Gun Crazy (1950) [seen: 07/04]
Terror in a Texas Town (1958)
Liu Chia-Liang (6)
36th Chamber of Shaolin (1978) [seen: 08/04]
 Dirty Ho (1979) [seen: 09/05]
Disciples of the 36th Chamber (1985)
The Eight Diagram Pole Fighter (1983) [seen: 11/04]
Legendary Weapons of China (1982) [seen: 03/05]
Shaolin Challenges Ninja (1979)
Jeff Lieberman (3)
Blue Sunshine (1976) [seen: 05/04] The 1970's horror genre is easily the most socio-politically minded cycle in filmmaking. This little slice of suburban paranoia is about a bad batch of acid ingested 10 years earlier by a group of Yale college students. A scathing look at the baby boomers, the film has former drug experimenters, now middle-aged housewives and business execs, losing their hair and turning into psychopathic killers. This film is reminiscent of the great Larry Cohen with its rich satire, detailed stereotypes, and frenetic pacing. If execution was everything, this would be far from a great film, but sometimes we need to give credit and respect to such daring and original works.
Just Before Dawn (1981)
Squirm (1976) [seen: 05/08] A dated piece of horror, but it all remains effective as Lieberman is a strong storyteller and his actors have the chops to keep things rolling. To judge this by the effects would be a mistake…
Richard Linklater (10)
Bad News Bears (2005) [seen: 07/05]
Before Sunrise (1995) [last seen: 08/04] The film that confirmed Richard Linklater as a major talent in American cinema, one of the key independent works of the 90’s, quite possibly the most romantic movie ever made, and according to critic Robin Wood’s passionate essay—one of the greatest achievements in the history of cinema. It isn’t hard to come up with great things to say about this film. Ethan Hawke plays Jessie, a heart broken youth on his way back to the US after a trip to Europe to meet with his girlfriend ends in breakup. On the train he meets Celine (Julie Delpy), a beautiful and intelligent French girl on her way home. The pair spends the next 12 hours walking around Vienna talking about love, and quite possibly finding it in each other. A magical experience on all levels, if this film doesn't fill you with bliss, I suggest checking for a pulse.
Before Sunset (2004) [seen: 08/04]
Dazed and Confused (1993)
Fast Food Nation (2006) [seen: 03/07]
A Scanner Darkly (2006) [seen: 07/06]
The School of Rock (2003) [seen: 10/03, 10/03]
Slacker (1991) [seen: 10/04]
Waking Life (2001)
SubUrbia (1996)
Dwight H. Little (2)
Anacondas: The Hunt for the Blood Orchid (2004) [seen: 09/04]
Halloween 4: The Return of Michael Myers (1988) [seen: 07/06]
Ken Loach (5)
Æ Fond Kiss (2004) [seen: 06/05]
11'09''01 - September 11 -- segment "United Kingdom" (2002) [seen: 10/03]
Chacun son cinéma -- segment "Happy Ending" (2007) [seen: 07/07]
Kes (1970)
Raining Stones (1993) [seen: 02/04]
Sweet Sixteen (2002) [seen: 10/03]
The Wind That Shakes the Barley (2006) [seen: TIFF 06]
Joseph Losey (2)
Modesty Blaise (1966) [seen: 11/03]
These Are the Damned (1963) [seen: 01/10]
Ernst Lubitsch (7)
Heaven Can Wait (1943) [seen: 10/05]
Lady Windermere's Fan (1925) [seen: 03/05]
The Love Parade (1929) [seen: 09/08]
Ninotchka (1939) [seen: 10/04]
The Shop Around the Corner (1940)
To Be or Not to Be (1942)
Trouble in Paradise (1932) [seen: 07/05]
George Lucas (6)
American Graffiti (1973)
Star Wars (1977)
Star Wars: Episode III - Revenge of the Sith (2005)
Star Wars: Episode II - Attack of the Clones (2002)
Star Wars: Episode I - The Phantom Menace (1999)
THX 1138 (1971) [seen: 10/04]
William Lustig (4)
Maniac (1980)
Maniac Cop (1988) [seen: 08/04, 01/06]
Uncle Sam (1997) [last seen: 08/04, 01/06] If the name Larry Cohen is unfamiliar to you then I suggest doing your homework and checking out a few other films before viewing this. For those of you who are familiar with the hardworking screenwriter/producer/director’s work, then the recent DVD release of this Cohen scripted slasher film was probably a welcomed delight. The story deals with an American soldier, killed by friendly fire in the Gulf War, who comes back from the dead to kill unpatriotic anti-war citizens in a small community on the 4th of July. Like Bob Clark’s masterful and similarly themed horror film Deathdream, here is a contemporary take on the effects that war can have on the domestic household. Lustig goes for an over the top, fireworks filled ending that I could have done without--it’s the disturbing themes underlying Cohen’s script that manages to keep this entertaining.
Vigilante (1983) [seen: 01/06]
David Lynch (11)
The Alphabet (1968) [short]
The Amputee (1974) [short]
Blue Velvet (1986)
Boat (2007) [short] Digital, 8 min.[seen: 03/10]
Chacun son cinéma -- segment "Absurda" (2007) [short] [seen: 07/07]
The Cowboy and the Frenchman (1988) [short]
Darkened Room (2002) [short]
DumbLand (2002) [short]
Dune (1984) [seen: 09/04]
The Elephant Man (1980)
Eraserhead (1976)
The Grandmother (1970) [short]
Hotel Room (1993)
Inland Empire (2006) [seen: 08/07]
Lost Highway (1997) [last seen: 10/03]
Lumière and Company -- segment "Premonition Following An Evil Deed" (1995) [short]
Mulholland Dr. (2001)
Out Yonder (2002) [short]
Rabbits (2002) [8 short series] [seen: 02/06]
Six Figures Getting Sick (Six Times) (1966) [short]
The Straight Story (1999)
Twin Peaks: Fire Walk with Me (1992)
Twin Peaks Season 1 (1990-1991) [director, creator]
Wild at Heart (1990)
Kevin Macdonald (3)
The Last King of Scotland (2006) [seen: 01/07] Well-acted for sure, but take way the performances and this is nothing more than an empty shell of a film with some decent Seventies grainy-overexposed throwback cinematography.
One Day in September (1999)
Touching the Void (2003) [seen: 03/04]
Alison Maclean (1)
Jesus' Son (1999)
Kitchen Sink (1989) [short] [seen: 03/05]
David Mackenzie (2)
Asylum (2005)
Young Adam (2003) David Mackenzie [seen: 06/04]
Guy Maddin (9)
Archangel (1990)
Berlin (2008) [short] B&W 1 min.
Brand Upon the Brain! (2006) [seen: TIFF 06]
Careful (1992)
Cowards Bend the Knee or The Blue Hands (2003) [seen: 10/04]
Dracula: Pages from a Virgin's Diary (2002) [seen: 11/04]
The Heart of the World (2000)
My Winnipeg (2007) [seen: 12/08] This one’s unique even for a Maddin film. By taking his wild brand of cinema and introducing some recognizable elements of the real world (and I’m speaking of the actual world, not the world of cinema that most Maddin film’s speak in), the great filmmaker injects an emotive quality only hinted at in his previous works. His most poetic film to date, and quite possibly his finest.
Odin's Shield Maiden (2007) [short] B&W 4 Min.
Odilon Redon or The Eye Like a Strange Balloon Mounts Toward Infinity (1995)
The Saddest Music in the World (2003) [seen: 11/04]
Sissy Boy Slap Party (1995) [short] [seen: 10/04]
Sombra dolorosa (2004) [short] [seen: 10/04]
Spanky: To the Pier and Back (2008) [short] B&W 3min.
Tales from the Gimli Hospital (1988)
A Trip to the Orphanage (2004) [short]
Twilight of the Ice Nymphs (1997)
Dusan Makavejev (2)
Sweet Movie (1974) [seen: 03/05]
WR: Mysteries of the Organism (1971)
Mohsen Makhmalbaf (2)
A Moment of Innocence (1996) [seen: 11/03]
Salaam Cinema (1995)
Samira Makhmalbaf (1)
11'09''01 - September 11 -- segment "God, Construction and Destruction" (2002) [seen: 10/03]
The Apple (1998) [seen: 03/05]
David Mamet (7)
Heist (2001)
Homicide (1991)
House of Games (1987)
Redbelt (2008)
The Spanish Prisoner (1997)
Spartan (2004) [seen: 03/04]
State and Main (2000)
Rouben Mamoulian (2)
Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (1931)
Love Me Tonight (1932) [seen: 08/04]
Anthony Mann (9)
Bend of the River (1952)  
The Furies (1950)
The Great Flamarion (1945) [seen: 01/07]
The Man from Laramie (1955) [seen: 09/04]
Man of the West (1958) [seen: 07/03]
The Naked Spur (1953) [seen: 07/04]
Raw Deal (1948)
T-Men (1947) [seen: 01/06]
Winchester '73 (1950) [seen: 07/04]
Michael Mann (8)
Collateral (2004) [seen: 08/04]
Heat (1995)
The Insider (1999)
The Keep (1983) [seen: 04/10]
The Last of the Mohicans (1992)
Manhunter (1986) [seen: 07/07]
Miami Vice (2006) [seen: 12/06]
Public Enemies (2009) [seen: 12/09]
James Marsh (2)
Man on Wire (2008) [seen: 12/08] Pertinent and skillfully crafted, this also happens to be one of the most entertaining docs in recent memory. It’s a crowd pleaser, but never to a fault, as Philippe Petit is a showman, so James Marsh must be.
Wisconsin Death Trip (1999) [seen: 02/04]
George Marshall (3)
Destry Rides Again (1939) [seen: 06/04]
Red Garters (1954) [seen: 04/06]
You Can't Cheat an Honest Man (1939) [seen: 11/04]
Rob Marshall (3)
Chicago (2002)
Memoirs of a Geisha (2005) [seen: 01/06] Represents just about everything that is wrong in American cinema. Despite some tremendous talent in the cast, most of the performances are hampered by their awkward English deliveries; this is after all, a 145-minute film set in Japan featuring not a single subtitle. What this film boils down to is, a glossed over look at Japanese culture aimed at audiences who could give a flying fuck about learning about another culture. Sets and costumes are attractive, but serve nothing other than to conceal the hollowness behind the bloated spectacle of it all. See for instance Marshall’s treatment of the war which is reduced to a couple of passing shots of planes, scenes with the actors wearing less make-up (they’re suffering after all), and John Williams god awful score kicking into ‘sad mode’. We learn nothing about the ‘life of a geisha’ other than that they look foreign, hence exotic and sexy, and American fashion designers rejoice, "Let's use this to sell us some new styles!" I imagine Marshall’s biggest obstacle when starting this consumer-minded production was the realization that he was going to have to do it with [gasp] real Asians. Michael Bay, you are starting to have yourself some competition.
Nine (2009) [seen: 12/09]
Lucrecia Martel (3)
The Headless Woman (2008)[seen: 02/10]
The Holy Girl (2004) [seen: 06/05]
La ciénaga (2001) [seen: 04/05]
Rey muerto (1995) [short] [seen: 04/05]
Elaine May (2)
The Heartbreak Kid (1972) [seen: 11/04]
Mikey and Nicky (1976) [seen: 08/06]
Les Mayfield (2)
Encino Man (1992)
Miracle on 34th Street (1994) [12/09]
Leo McCarey (4)
The Awful Truth (1937) [seen: 10/03]
Duck Soup (1933)
Make Way for Tomorrow (1937) [seen: 08/09]
The Milky Way (1936) [seen: 06/04]
Andrew Repasky McElhinney (2)
A Chronicle of Corpses (2000) [seen: 07/04]
Georges Bataille's Story of the Eye (2004) [seen: 08/06]
Scott McGehee & David Siegel (4)
Bee Season (2005) [seen: 12/05]
The Deep End (2001)
Suture (1993) [seen: 11/03]
Uncertainty (2009) [seen: 04/10]
Adam McKay (3)
Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy (2004) [seen: 07/2004] The biggest surprise of my summer viewing has been this eccentric little comedy from writers Will Ferrell and Adam McKay (from Upright Citizens Brigade). Occasionally a film comes along that happens to perfectly connect with a comic's persona, so much so that it manages to alienate half of the audience with its bold dedication to the comedian’s antics. Jim Carrey in Ace Ventura Pet Detective, Chris Farley in Tommy Boy, Adam Sandler in Billy Madison--each of these films were reviled upon release only to be reborn some years later when the country has had time to finally catch up with these comedians and get in-sync with their humor. Will Ferrell’s Anchorman is one of those films--a hilarious, no holds barred comedy that allows its star to cram a lifetime of comedy routines into a 90-minute film. Adam McKay directed, but this is clearly Ferrell’s show and a damn funny show it is. The “brawl” sequence is perhaps one of the most ingenious bits of comedy I’ve seen in years.
Eastbound & Down SSN 1 (2009) 1 episode [seen: 06/2009]
The Landlord (2007) [short]
Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby (2006) [seen: 12/2006]
Step Brothers (2008) [seen: 12/2008]
Norman Z. McLeod (4)
Alice in Wonderland (1933) [seen: 03/10]
Horse Feathers (1932)
It's a Gift (1934) [seen: 06/05]
Monkey Business (1931)
John McNaughton (3)
Haeckel's Tale (2006) [seen: 01/06] Take a Mario Bava film, strip it of every ounce of style and atmosphere, and you would be left with something like this; a movie that thinks that the elements of a good horror film are a twisted story and a couple of cheap exploitation shots. I’m not buying it and neither should you. This ranks with Mick Garris’ episode as the worst of the series, both of which should be embarrassed of the ‘Masters’ moniker they carry. And shame on Showtime for nixing the Miike episode, because God knows they wouldn’t want to tarnish their reputation of quality programming.
Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer (1986) [seen: 10/04]
Wild Things (1998)
Shane Meadows (4)
Dead Man's Shoes (2004) [seen: 02/08]
Le Donk & Scor-zay-zee (2009) [seen: 11/09]
Somers Town (2008) [seen: 11/09]
This is England (2006) [seen: 12/07]
Julio Medem (5)
Chaotic Ana (2007) [seen: TIFF '07]
The Lovers of the Arctic Circle (1998)
Sex and Lucia (2001)
Tierra (1996)
Vacas (1992) [seen: 10/03]
Jean-Pierre Melville (4)
Army of Shadows (1969) [seen: 08/07] I prefer Melville’s “detached” and “empty” films when these distinctive elements are used to highlight the understated “cool” of his gangster works, as opposed to here where they effectively chronicle the grim atmosphere of WWII. It’s an enthralling work by a master filmmaker, one that we are blessed to now have available, but for this viewer Melville’s contribution to cinema will probably be best remembered outside of this work.
Bob le flambeur (1956)
Le Cercle Rouge (1970) [seen: 0404] Perhaps my favorite film by Jean-Pierre Melville, this one surpasses his earlier Le Samourai with its slant on male machismo and lurid color cinematography. Alain Delon perfectly embodies the role of Corey, a recently released convict who finds himself uncontrollably involved in one last heist. Everything is dripping with noir fatalism, from the opening Buddhist quotation (which some may find a bit tepid), to the corrupt cops, the gloomy locales, and the extraordinarily paced finale. Recently re-released in a special edition DVD, you can’t afford to pass this up.
Le samouraï (1967)
William Cameron Menzies (3)
Invaders from Mars (1953) [last seen: 12/03] William Cameron Menzies, who served as the genius production designer behind Gone With the Wind and Thief of Baghdad, directed this 1953 Sci-Fi B-movie, and it’s a hard film to shake. Chicago Reader critic Dave Kehr put it best when he said “I can't say it's a good film, but it's fascinating, one of those rare movies that seem to tap directly into the director's subconscious, bypassing every rule of dramatic logic and most of those of filmmaking.” We all know the story by now -- a young boy sees a flying saucer land in his backyard, his parents may have become aliens themselves, and of course, nobody believes him. The beautiful sets combined with the horrific acting, and heavy use of military stock footage screams Ed Wood Jr. which isn’t always a bad thing, but even evoke the dreamlike mastery of Jean Cocteau
The Thief of Bagdad (1940) (uncredited) [seen: 07/07]
Things to Come (1936)
Radley Metzger (4)
Camille 2000 (1969) [seen: 08/04]
The Lickerish Quartet (1970) [seen: 09/04]
Score (1974) [seen: 02/06]
Therese and Isabelle (1968) [seen: 08/04]
Russ Meyer (15)
Beneath the Valley of the Ultra-Vixens (1979)
Beyond the Valley of the Dolls (1970) [seen: 03/04]
Black Snake (1973) Russ Meyer [seen: 03/10]
Cherry, Harry & Raquel! (1970) [seen: 03/07]
Faster, Pussycat! Kill! Kill! (1965) [seen: 02/04, 12/05]
Finders Keepers, Lovers Weepers! (1968) [seen: 03/09]
Good Morning... and Goodbye! (1967) [seen: 06/09]
The Immoral Mr. Teas (1959) [seen: 01/07]
Lorna (1964) [seen: 01/07]
Mondo Topless (1966) [seen: 06/05]
Motor Psycho (1965) [seen: 04/06]
Mudhoney (1965) [seen: 06/06]
Pandora Peaks (2001) [seen: 02/08]
Supervixens (1975) [seen: 09/04]
Up! (1976) [seen: 04/06]
Vixen! (1968) [seen: 08/04]
Nancy Meyers (2)
It's Complicated (2009) [seen: 04/10]
Something's Gotta Give (2003) [seen: 01/04]
Takashi Miike (22)
Audition (1999)
The Bird People in China (1998) [seen: 08/04]
Blues Harp (1998) [seen: 11/04]
The City of Lost Souls (2000) [seen: 11/04]
Crows Zero (2007) [seen: 06/10] Like most Miike, it's hard to know how to approach this. Young thugs attend high school solely to beat the shit out of each other and gain rank. Things grow to a boil and eventually we have a 200 man brawl, at which point Miike decides to cross cut with a Jap-Pop musical performance, undermining the machismo vibe like a slap in the face. This is more than just Manga stylized violence, and surely not a comment on Japanese youth culture, Miike is out to lambast the yakuza picture. By portraying the gangster heroes/villians as a bunch of misguided youths posturing for power, we see the criminal underworld is nothing more than a schoolyard to live out their childish fantasies.
Dead or Alive (1999)
Dead or Alive 2: Birds (2000) [seen: 01/04]
Fudoh: The New Generation (1996)
Gozu (2003) [seen: 08/04]
The Great Yokai War (2005) [seen: TIFF 05]
The Happiness of the Katakuris (2001)
Ichi the Killer (2001)
Imprint (2006) [seen: 06/06]
Izo (2004)
One Missed Call (2003) [seen: 09/05] I'm serious, look at what Miike does with this tiresome genre of post-Ringu films! This guy's genre talent is endless...
Silver (1999) [seen: 08/04]
Sukiyaki Western Django (2007) [TIFF 07]
Three... Extremes -- Segment "Box" (2004) [seen: 11/04]
Visitor Q (2001) [seen: 02/04] Easily one of Takashi Miike’s most sickening outings, this 2001 video feature holds nothing back. Incest, anal raping, necrophilia with shit oozing corpses, and plenty of squirting breast milk – would you believe me if I said that the only scene in the movie that really disturbed me was when a young boy brutally beats his heroin addicted mother? In many ways this is John Waters filtered through the world of reality TV. Sure it’s all excessive and definitely pornographic, but that’s the point. In a time when people will watch just about anything broadcast on television solely because of the fact that it’s ‘real,’ along comes this disgusting antidote that is entertaining solely because it is NOT.
Yatterman (2009) [seen: 06/10] Miike at his most anarchist is capable of out doing Tarantino and Eli Roth. Miike at his most playful, as is the case here, is capable of making some of the most inventive and enjoyable family films out there -- the kind that we convince ourself Robert Rodriguez's half-baked movies are -- in the world according to Adam, this movie would be on fucking lunchboxes.
Young Thugs: Innocent Blood (1997) [seen: 04/08] One of those instances where a two-star rating seems entirely appropriate for what is an overall pretty solid film. Perhaps this was something Miike just had to make and get out of his system? For now lets just leave it at that until I’ve had a chance to check out Young Thugs: Nostalgia.
Zebraman (2004) [seen: 10/04]
Ted V. Mikels (3)
Astro-Zombies (1969) [seen: 07/04]
The Corpse Grinders (1972) [seen: 06/05]
The Doll Squad (1973) [seen: 03/08]
Anthony Minghella (4)
Breaking and Entering (2006) [seen: 07/07]
Cold Mountain (2003) [seen: 01/04]
The English Patient (1996)
The Talented Mr. Ripley (1999)
Vincente Minnelli (8)
The Band Wagon (1953) [seen: 10/04]
Cabin in the Sky (1943)
The Clock (1945) [seen: 07/07]
Father of the Bride (1950) [seen: 03/05]
Meet Me in St. Louis (1944)
The Pirate (1948)
Yolanda and the Thief (1945) [seen: 04/05]
Ziegfeld Follies (1945) [seen: 04/06]
Hayao Miyazaki (8)
Howl's Moving Castle (2004) [seen: 06/05, 03/06]
Kiki's Delivery Service (1989) [seen: 02/04]
Laputa: Castle in the Sky (1986) [seen: 03/04]
My Neighbor Totoro (1988) [seen: 03/06]
Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind  (1984) [seen: 04/05]
Ponyo (2008) [seen: 08/09]
Princess Mononoke (1997)  
Spirited Away (2001) [last seen: 01/04]
João César Monteiro (5)
Amor de Mãe (1975) [seen: 08/04]
O Bestiário (1995) [short] [seen: 04/05]
Come and Go (2003) [seen: 03/05] As Jonathan Romney lucidly points out about Monteiro’s final film, “At once a fond farewell, a joyous celebration of sex and the lawless imagination, and an unrepentant 'fuck you' to the world, Come And Go sees Monteiro going out in inimitable style.” This three-hour masterpiece alternates between a public park in Portugal, a city bus, and Monteiro’s apartment, and is perhaps the closest the Portuguese master ever came to making a Tati film. Essentially a deconstruction of the director’s filmic persona, this is bound to illicit some head scratching from those unfamiliar with Monteiro’s “Deus Trilogy” (comprised of Recollections of the Yellow House, God’s Comedy, and God’s Wedding). But for the adventurous viewer, and for those who can appreciate this eccentric brand European humor, plan to be enraptured. The final shot is a stunner.
God’s Wedding (1999) [seen: 03/05]
God's Comedy (1995) [seen: 03/05] I can confidently state now, without any reservations whatsoever, that João César Monteiro was a Master. Directing exactly ten feature films since 1978 and a dozen more shorts, he developed an eccentric and paired down style along with a savagely funny and self-reflective on-screen persona that was entirely his own. Yet, despite receiving critical acclaim from publications such as Cahiers du Cinema and winning numerous awards at festivals such as Venice and Cannes, you rarely hear Monteiro’s name dropped w/r/t contemporary world cinema as you might Kieslowski or Kiarostami. This is truly a shame since no other filmmaker has given me this much inspiration, not to mention laughter, since I discovered the late period work of Luis Buñuel. Monteiro is most recognizable for his appearance—a frail and lecherous man, Nosferatu mixed with Buster Keaton—his performance was the center of most all of his films. The Keaton comparison is suitable for the stone-faced performance, but Chaplin’s Tramp might better sum him up, take this quote from Keaton for example, "Charlie's tramp was a bum with a bum's philosophy. Lovable as he was, he would steal if he got the chance…" This perfectly sums up Monteiro’s Deus character, add to it a piss and vinegar taste of surrealism and a prolific collection of woman’s pubic hairs and I think you’ll be able to form a suitable portrait of the kind troublemaker this guy was. Sadly, Mr. Monteiro passed away from cancer in early 2003, a major loss to the artistic world, that I’m sure anyone who has been afforded the experience of viewing one of his films can agree with, and for those of you who have not, I say you have not experienced cinema until you have sampled at least one Monteiro film.
Lettera Amorosa (1995) [short] [seen: 04/05] For this and O'Bestiario, we have two brilliant outtakes from when funding to shoot God’s Comedy in Cinemascope fell through. Gorgeous sample of “what coulda been,” as Monteiro shows tremendous discipline in his use of the widescreen frame. O Bestiário is the real standout and has the mad genius in top form, cooking dinner for a young woman while battling his cheap silverware and an annoying moth. Monteiro turns these mishaps into clever moments of seduction for his lady friend. Damn funny too.
Recollections of the Yellow House (1989)
A Sagrada Família (1972) [seen: 08/04]
Snow White (2000) [seen: 06/05]
Sophia de Mello Breyner Andresen (1969) [seen: 08/04]
What Will I Do with This Sword? (1975) [seen: 08/04]
Lukas Moodysson
Container (2006) [seen: 02/10]
Fucking Åmål (1998)
A Hole in My Heart (2004) [seen: TIFF 04, 03/06]
Lilya 4-Ever (2002) [seen: 10/03]
Mammoth (2009) [seen: 05/10]
Together (2000)
Michael Moore (3)
Bowling for Columbine (2002)
Fahrenheit 9/11 (2004) [seen: 06/04]
Sicko (2007) [seen: 07/07] Moore’s ego has always tended to spoil his work for me, and while it still rears its ugly face on occasion in this film, there is also a heartfelt sincerity underlying his typically poignant political commentary. As Jonathan Rosenbaum says, “this is essential viewing.”
Errol Morris (5)
Fast, Cheap & Out of Control (1997)
The Fog of War: Eleven Lessons from the Life of Robert S. McNamara (2003) [seen: 05/04]
Gates of Heaven (1978) [seen: 10/05]
Mr. Death: The Rise and Fall of Fred A. Leuchter, Jr. (1999)
The Thin Blue Line (1988)
Bill Morrison (1)
Decasia (2002)
Footprints (1998) [seen: 08/04] Like Morrison’s masterful Decasia, this small film also shows the filmmaker in all his found footage glory. Various snippets of cinema are sampled, starting with early Méliès and moving up to the modern 20th Century Fox logo. Essentially a film about cinema that tries to communicate via cinema-- its beautiful to look at and features an alluring sampled soundtrack, I’m sure there is more being worked out here than I was able to pick up on in my two viewings. (6 min. , B&W)
Paul Morrissey (2)
Andy Warhol's Frankenstein (1973)
Trash (1970) [seen: 04/05]
Greg Mottola (3)
Adventureland (2009) [09/09]
The Daytrippers (1997) [seen: 06/04]
Superbad (2007) [seen: 08/07, 12/07] For once the juvenile humor fits. Everything a high school movie aspires to be and a little bit more. Probably will be ranked with Fast Times at Ridgemont High someday, and I try not to make comments like that too often. I’ve been waiting for this guy to make a film ever since his indie gem The Daytrippers touched my heart, and while this isn’t exactly the type of film I was hoping for from Mr. Mottola, he handles himself beautifully. What’s with the HD however??
F.W. Murnau (6)
City Girl (1930) [seen: 02/09] Seriously folks, the sweeping beauty of this one made my heart hurt. This alone, is worth the price of admission on the Murnau/Borzage boxset.
Faust (1926) [seen: 11/04]
The Last Laugh (1924)
Nosferatu (1922)
Sunrise: A Song of Two Humans (1927) [seen: 11/04] Absolutely perfect in every way?
Tabu: A Story of the South Seas (1931) [seen: 01/06]
Mira Nair (2)
11'09''01 -- segment "India" (2002) [short]
Monsoon Wedding (2001)
Vanity Fair (2004) [seen: 09/04]
Vincenzo Natali (4)
Cube (1997)
Cypher (2003) [seen: TIFF '03]
Elevated (1997) [short, 19 min.] [seen: 06/10] One of those shorts you aren't really crazy about, but you know the filmmaker is destined for a promising feature-length work.
Nothing (2004) [seen: 11/05]
Paris, je t'aime -- segment "Quartier de la Madeleine" (2006)
Splice (2010) [seen: 06/10] Natali is not a "creature" nor a visceral director, so the cerebral first half of the film which sticks to the science is wonderful, while the final half, which is about as over the top as Verhoeven's Hollow man, the word "falters" would be putting it lightly.
Marcus Nispel (2)
Friday the 13th (2009) [seen: 06/09] I think it’s pretty obvious that the Studio execs and/or Nispel studied Adam Green’s Hatchet in detail during the making of this. The sad part is how far they fall short of his impressive reinvention of the slasher film. It’s not a good time to be an American horror film…
The Texas Chainsaw Massacre (2003) [seen: 10/03]
Christopher Nolan (7)
Batman Begins (2005) [seen: 06/05] This has to be the worst big screen comic book adaptation yet. Where Tim Burton’s Batman films were an absolute tour-de-force of expressionistic set design and off the wall theatricality, Nolan chooses to render his film in a more realist manner—real city streets, a rational approach to costumes and acting—the results of which come across as laughable at times when the “realism” clashes with the fantasy elements to produce an uncomfortable mishmash of styles (cf. the updated “I’m Batman,” line or just about anytime Bale speaks in his costume for that matter). Another example is a film like Sin City, which transposes the style of comic book story telling, so that you can practically feel each frame of illustration, Nolan edits his film to shambles using an insipid flashback structure to communicate Bruce Wayne’s inner-demons. While we are on the subject of realism, lets consider the casting of Katie Holmes for a moment, as one of the city’s top District Attorneys… mmmm realism. Now if all this wasn’t bad enough, we have a network of villains—racist stand-ins for Arabs with a hatred for Western Civilization, “realistically” played by an Irishman. They conspire to purge Gotham of the infidels, and Nolan goes for a 9-11 inspired bit of filmmaking channeling the chaotic smoke filled streets of New York City. By the time the climatic finale rolled around featuring a train hurling down the tracks with Liam Neeson on a suicide course to take out Gotham Tower, I had to muster all my strength not to throw-in the towel. Could Batman Begins be “too real” for my own tastes? Maybe someone in the theater was to blame, but I could have sworn I smelt shit.
The Dark Knight (2008) [seen: 07/08]
Following (1998)
Inception (2010) [seen: 07/10]
Insomnia (2002)
Memento (2000)
The Prestige (2006) [seen: 06/07]
Jehane Noujaim (2)
Control Room (2004) [seen: 08/04] The “truths” of war is a fascinating subject and is certainly worthy of an entire film as opposed to the brief aside given it in Michael Moore’s hastily assembled Fahrenheit 9/11. Director Jehane Noujaim (Startup.com), an Arab American, spent the entirety of Operation Iraqi Freedom at the media headquarters CentCom in the city of Qatar. The focus is on Al Jazeera, the gargantuan Arab news channel that pulls in about as many daily viewers as our Super Bowl does. Is this network spinning Iraqi propaganda or simply conveying the truth? A great many ideas and a great many versions of the “truth” are explored in this straightforward and vitally essential documentary. Noujaim presents the material justly and thoughtfully, and his ability to rattle our bones makes this required viewing. When asked who is going to keep the American’s from getting out of line as a World Power, Al Jazeera correspondent Hassan Ibrahim replies, “I have complete and utter faith in the American constitution. The Americans are the ones who will stop the Americans.” Let’s hope his words are prophetic of our upcoming election.
Startup.com (2001)
Dan O'Bannon (2)
The Resurrected (1992) [seen: 01/10]
The Return of the Living Dead (1985)
Naoko Ogigami (2)
Megane (2007) Naoko Ogigami [seen: 06/10] Snuck up out of nowhere on me, don't buy into the negative buzz, this a zen film that approaches the mastery of early Kitano, mixed with an enthralling stasis that rivals Jarmusch, it combines culinary charm and the natural world in such a way that I didn't want to stop looking through Ogigami's glasses...
Seagull Diner (2006) [seen: 06/10] Appreciating the quiet, simpler pleasures of life is what Ogigami is all about, be it a well made cup of coffee, a cold Sapporo on a hot day, a comforting silence, the smell of a new place, and what it means to share these moments with another person. These intangible elements are difficult to capture on film, and they can’t be realized without the viewer bringing a bit of themselves to the experience -- film cannot tell us what coffee tastes like -- a character drinks coffee, most of us know what that character is tasting. It is this notion – the intangible senses -- that Ogigami uses to bring us into his filmic worlds, linking us to the characters on screen much as they are linked to each other. There is no room for hate, sex, violence, or money in these movies, their tone is “life” and they exude it effortlessly.
Mamoru Oshii (3)
Avalon (2001) [seen: 07/05]
Ghost in the Shell (1995)
Ghost in the Shell 2: Innocence (2004) [seen: TIFF 04]
Nagisa Oshima (4)
Cruel Story of Youth (1960)
Gohatto (1999)
In the Realm of the Senses (1976) [3rd viewing: 03/04]
Max mon amour (1986)
Frank Oz (4)
Bowfinger (1999)
The Dark Crystal (1982) [seen: 11/2009]
The Indian in the Cupboard (1995)
What About Bob? (1991) [seen: 07/10]
François Ozon (9)
5x2 (2004) [seen: 10/2005]
8 Women (2002) [seen: 11/2003]
Angel (2007) [seen: 11/2009]
Criminal Lovers (1999)
See the Sea (1997) [seen: 11/2003]
Sitcom (1998)- [seen: 11/2003]
A Summer Dress (1996) [short] [seen: 11/2003]
Swimming Pool (2003) [second viewing: 02/2004]
Under the Sand (2000)
Water Drops on Burning Rocks (2000) [seen: 03/2005]
Yasujiro Ozu (10)
An Autumn Afternoon (1962) [seen: 04/07]
Early Summer (1951) [seen: 11/04]
The End of Summer (1961)
Floating Weeds (1959) [seen: 04/04]
Good Morning (1959)
I Was Born, But... (1932) [seen: 03/09]
Late Spring (1949) [seen: 05/06]
The Record of a Tenement Gentleman (1947) [seen: 09/08] Ozu at his most sentimental, yet entirely restrained. Amazing.
Tokyo Chorus (1931) [seen: 06/08]
Tokyo Story (1953) [seen: 07/04]
John Paizs (2)
Crime Wave (1985) [seen: 10/04]
Invasion! aka Top of the Food Chain (1999) [seen: 10/04]
Springtime in Greenland (1981) [short] [seen: 10/04]
György Pálfi (2)
Hukkle (2002) [seen: 01/04]
Taxidermia (2006) [seen: TIFF 06, 02/08] I suspect if this had been Pálfi’s first film I would be a great deal more skeptical of what he accomplishes here, however given the genuine strength (and restrained nature) of his previous film Hukkle, I’m willing to give him the benefit of the doubt on this one. Chronicling three generations of a Hungarian male bloodline, this absurdist triptych is obviously out to shock and disgust with its graphic depictions of twisted masturbation practices, copious vomit, actual animal slaughter, and numerous other things both taboo and icky. Fortunately, beneath all this ‘shock’ exists a rather poignant and frequently hilarious commentary of Hungary’s communist history (Ilya Khrjanovsky’s “4” works in a similar fashion). Pálfi also manages to spice things up with his remarkable talent for deftly edited extreme close-ups, something that gives this work a tangible albeit uncomfortable texture and rhythm. There is some sort of mad brilliance at work here that is both this movie's saving grace and (for most audiences I suspect) its downfall.
Jafar Panahi (4)
The Circle (2000) [last seen: 04/04]
Crimson Gold (2003) [seen: 05/04]
The Mirror (1997)
Offside (2006) [seen: TIFF 06]
The Pang Brothers (3)
The Eye (2002) [seen: 10/03] In a recent interview, Quentin Tarantino stated that the only cinema that really interests him these days are the terrifying Horror and gruesome Yakuza films coming out of Asia. He's on to something there… The works of Takashi Miilke and Kiyoshi Kurosawa are pretty fucking awesome to say the least. You could also add Hideo Nakata to that list, the man who directed the original and far superior Ring and wowed me with the highly effective Dark Water earlier this year. I suppose that right now, you either (a) Have no idea who any of these people I just mentioned are but you've seen the American version of Ring or (b) You've heard of the aforementioned and would like to point out that I didn't mention Fukasaku, Suzuki, or any of the Ishii's. Either way, there is no denying the popularity of these directors -- even Blockbuster Video has jumped on the band wagon and has started carrying some Miike titles (in horrendous R-rated cuts) and there are currently FOUR! American remakes of successful Asian films in the making by filmmakers like Wes Craven. One of these is from a pair of Thai brothers, Danny and Oxide Pang, who have constructed a fairly effective thriller with The Eye. Despite some Sixth Sense trappings, the story is about a young girl who after a cornea transplant finds that she can see dead people, the Pang's create a genuinely terrifying atmosphere with some brilliant camerawork. This is not as good as anything by the likes of Miike or Kurosawa, but it’s a hundred times better than anything creepy that Hollywood has to offer.
The Messengers (2007) [seen: 07/07] The script is horrendous, but these guys have a talent that’s hard to ignore. I’m eventually expecting a breakthrough film from the Pang Brothers, but there is little chance of that happening as long as they are making films in the US. File this one under “interesting failures.”
Re-cycle (2006) [seen: 05/09]
Park Chan-wook (5)
I'm a Cyborg, But That's OK (2007)
Old Boy (2003) [seen: 06/04, 07/04]
Sympathy for Lady Vengeance (2005) [seen: TIFF 2005] Given how crazy I went for Park’s previous entry into stylized manga violence, this rating should speak for itself. The film is drawn out with superfluous characters and events, and though the climax is something to behold for exploitation fans, it’s just a tasty morsel in an otherwise bland plate of leftovers.
Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance (2002) [seen: 01/04]
Thirst (2009) [seen: 11/2009]
Three... Extremes -- segment "Cut" (2004) [seen: 11/2004]
Nick Park (1)
Wallace and Gromit in 'A Matter of Loaf and Death' (2008) [short] [seen: 02/10]
Wallace & Gromit in The Curse of the Were-Rabbit (2005) Stev Box co-director [seen: 10/05] This was a rather hard film for me to assign a rating to. Park obviously has a formal control of over the medium that is beyond criticism, and in this sense the film is some kind of a masterpiece. Does this technical achievement trump the fact that W&G lose some of their magic when adopting feature length running time and I couldn’t help but feel like I was sitting through a protracted short? Laurel and Hardy for example, who clearly are a considerable influence on W&G, made some of their best work when sticking to the short film. Perhaps Park should do the same? In spite of these criticisms, you probably shouldn’t pass up the opportunity to soak up some of the most extraordinary art-house aesthetic and imaginative comedy to grace shopping-mall screens this year. Just don't be shocked if you are checking your watch by the end.
Wallace and Gromit in A Close Shave (1995) [short]
Wallace & Gromit in The Wrong Trousers (1993) [short]
Trey Parker (3)
Orgazmo (1997) [seen: 01/06]
South Park TV Series (187 episodes, 1997-2010)
South Park: Bigger Longer & Uncut (1999)
Team America: World Police (2004) [seen: 10/04, 06/05]
Pier Paolo Pasolini (7)
Accattone (1961) [seen: 02/08]
Arabian Nights (1974) [seen: 07/05]
The Gospel According to St. Matthew (1964) [seen: 10/04]
The Hawks and the Sparrows (1966) [seen: 04/05]
Mamma Roma (1962) [seen: 07/08]
La Ricotta (1963) [short]
Salò, or the 120 Days of Sodom (1975) [2nd viewing: 03/04]
Teorema (1968)
Alexander Payne (3)
About Schmidt (2002)
Carmen (1985) [short] [seen: 05/07]
Election (1999)
Paris, je t'aime segment "14e arrondissement" (2006) [seen: 12/07]
Sideways (2004) [seen: TIFF '04]
Sam Peckinpah (7)
The Ballad of Cable Hogue (1970) [seen: 04/10]
Bring Me the Head of Alfredo Garcia (1974) [seen: 03/04]
The Getaway (1972) [seen: 01/10] The ending is truly flawed, but given the cold control Peckinpah displays on the rest of the picture, one can forgive such a thing...
Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid (1973) [director's cut] [seen: 04/06]
Ride the High Country (1962) [seen: 01/04]
Straw Dogs (1971)
The Wild Bunch (1969)
Zak Penn (2)
The Grand (2007)
Incident at Loch Ness (2004)[seen: 03/05] I have to admit that I’m a little pissed off that Herzog decided not to go through with the “real” Loch Ness documentary (if there ever was one), but that’s not why this comedic sham fails to work. The idea is great—Werner Herzog sets out to make a documentary about the Loch Ness Monster while his Hollywood minded producer (Zak Penn) stages all kinds of elaborate hoaxes in order to spice up Herzog’s film. Before long Herzog catches onto Penn’s little tricks and the two clash, but not before possibly clashing with the real Loch Ness Monster. Given Herzog’s megalomaniacal reputation for pushing himself and his production crew to the very limit in his quest to capture the “ecstatic truth,” this had terrific comedic potential. In the end however, many of the great stories from Herzog productions past (the most famous of which has Herzog directing Klaus Kinski at gunpoint on Aguirre) wind up being too esoteric to stage lengthy jokes around, and to avoid having this lost on the viewer, the filmmakers reach out and try to walk the audience by the hand through the material, butchering the joke in the process. Another downfall is the presence of Zak Penn himself. Unlike Herzog who remains cool and totally convincing, Penn comes across as unfunny, thoroughly unbelievable, and even a tad obnoxious. Loch Ness on the other hand is completely gorgeous and the film remains compulsively watchable despite having failed as a comedy. Whether or not Penn and Herzog manage to succeed in their less obvious goal—to make a comment on the nature of truth in documentary filmmaking--remains debatable. [03/05], [rating raised to *** on second viewing, 06/06]
Wolfgang Petersen (6)
Das Boot (1981)
In the Line of Fire (1993)
The NeverEnding Story (1984)
Outbreak (1995)
The Perfect Storm (2000)
Troy (2004) [seen: 05/04]
Christian Petzold (2)
Jerichow (2008) [seen: 11/09]
Yella (2007) [seen: 02/08]
Nicolas Philibert (2)
In the Land of the Deaf (1992)
To Be and To Have (2002) [seen: 10/04]
Todd Phillips (4)
The Hangover (2009) [seen: 07/09, 04/10]
Old School (2003)
Road Trip (2000)
Starsky & Hutch (2004) [seen: 03/04]
Paco Plaza (4)
Films to Keep You Awake: The Christmas Tale (2005) [seen: 08/08] Following the success of .Rec -- the single most effective horror film I’ve seen since The Descent -- and based upon the general ease with which he pulls this little gem off, I’m keen to declare Paco Plaza a master of the genre. A cross between The Goonies and Stand By Me, this is a period film about a group of children who may have seen one too many scary movies, and when they stumble into a scenario straight out of one of those movies, their impressionable young minds proceed to make all the wrong decisions… Eliciting tremendous performances from his young players (Ivana Baquero from Pan’s Labyrinth), and with a keen eye for period detail (Spain cirque 1985), Plaza weaves a tightly knit little tale that is effective for both children and adults alike. For a horror film, that is no easy feat, but to pull that off while remaining intelligent as well as being mindful of the audience's intelligence, makes this little picture all the more remarkable.
[.REC] (2007) Jaume Balagueró co-director [seen: 06/08, 07/08]
[.REC] 2 (2009) Jaume Balagueró co-director [seen: 05/10] Very strong sequel, picks up where the first left off, but abandons the long-take approach for a more choppy, special effects driven thrill ride. The scripting and pacing are spot-on and the resulting frenetic film is one of incredible control. Great stuff.
Romasanta: The Werewolf Hunt (2004) [seen: 09/08]
Roman Polanski (13)
Bitter Moon (1992) [seen: 10/03]
Chacun son cinéma -- segment "Cinéma Erotique" (2007) [seen: 07/07]
Chinatown (1974)
Death and the Maiden (1994) [seen: 06/10] Masterfully crafted thriller that occupies a world where everything is a little “off,” from the strange choice of actors, to the fake exotic local, it plays out like a fever dream of pent up fears and anxieties, that explodes in a burst realist drama. Even a minor film in the Polanski cannon is something major.
The Fearless Vampire Killers (1967) [seen: 10/04]
The Ghost Writer (2010) [seen: 03/10]
Knife in the Water (1962)
Macbeth (1971)
The Ninth Gate (1999)
Oliver Twist (2005) [seen: 10/05] In his last two films, Roman Polanski has been cruising along on auto-pilot, allowing the material of his films to speak for themselves, and inserting very little of the nightmarish paranoia that we have come to associate with his work. This is not so much of a bad thing—both this film and The Pianist are worthy enough films in their own right—but I have to express a yearning for the darker, more twisted Polanski of old. That having been said, you have to commend the painterly composition and carefully handled of the material that is on display here. Like The Pianist, this is a story which holds a rather personal connection to the filmmaker, whom at the age of 10 was orphaned when the Nazis hauled off his parents, and who like Oliver Twist, was left to lead a life drifting in and out of various residences and avoiding being exploited by corrupt guardians . What could have easily been yet another tired adaptation of classic Dickens, is instead a rather personal piece of filmmaking, utilizing a familiar text, intent on revealing a warmer side of the filmmaker’s heart. In this sense, the film is an overwhelming success.
The Pianist (2002)
Repulsion (1965)
Rosemary's Baby (1968)
The Tenant (1976)
Michael Powell (8)
Age of Consent (1969) [seen: 01/10]
Black Narcissus (1947) Emeric Pressburger co-director
A Canterbury Tale (1944) Emeric Pressburger co-director [seen: 03/07]
The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp (1943) Emeric Pressburger co-director [seen: 10/05]
A Matter of Life and Death (1946) Emeric Pressburger co-director
Peeping Tom (1960)
The Red Shoes (1948) Emeric Pressburger co-director
The Thief of Bagdad (1940) Ludwig Berger & Tim Whelan co-director [seen: 07/07]
Otto Preminger (11)
Anatomy of a Murder (1959) [seen: 07/05]
Angel Face (1953) [seen: 05/04]
Bonjour Tristesse (1958) [seen: 05/04]
Bunny Lake is Missing (1965) [seen: 06/04]
Daisy Kenyon (1947) [seen: 06/08]
Fallen Angel (1945) [seen: 05/04]
Laura (1944)
River of No Return (1954) [seen: 05/04]
Skidoo (1968)
Where the Sidewalk Ends (1950) [seen: 05/04]
Whirlpool (1949) [seen: 05/04]
Alex Proyas (4)
The Crow (1994)
Dark City (1998)
I, Robot (2004) [seen: 07/04]
Knowing (2009) [seen: 04/09]
Timothy and Stephen Quay aka The Brothers Quay (5)
De Artificiali Perspectiva (1991) [short]
In Absentia (2000) [short] [seen: 10/04]
The Phantom Museum: Random Forays Into the Vaults of Sir Henry Wellcome's Medical Collection (2003) [short] [seen: 10/04]
The PianoTuner of EarthQuakes (2005)  [seen: TIFF '05] I am now fairly convinced that the Brothers quay are not capable of making a feature length film, and even more so, a film with live actors. What starts out as a promising story—a piano tuner is hired by a mysterious inventor of automatons to help clean up his precious inventions—quickly morphs into a drawn out series of half-baked ideas. The performances are wooden, and the Quay brothers seem to acknowledge the shortcomings of their actors by editing the live-action stuff to shambles. Some life occasionally pops into the film when the Quay’s adopt the stop-motion stuff that the are accustomed to, but for the most part it seems at odds with the rest of the film, which dully plays out to be as lifeless as the animated automatons it depicts.
Street of Crocodiles (1986) [short]
Sam Raimi (10)
Army of Darkness (1992)
Darkman (1990) [seen: 03/06]
Drag Me to Hell (2009) [seen: 05/09, 02/10]
Evil Dead II (1987)
The Evil Dead (1981) [last seen: 06/09]
The Gift (2000)
A Simple Plan (1998)
Spider-Man (2002)
Spider-Man 2 (2004) [seen: 07/04] The difference between Sam Raimi’s latest comic book adaptation and something like Stephen Sommer’s Van Helsing is phenomenal. It’s like comparing Tiger Wood’s golf game to my own rather meager 15 handicap. This is because even though he displays exquisite control over the CGI effects, Raimi is not afraid to abandon them for a guerrilla style of filmmaking; one that fans of his earlier Evil Dead films should recognize in the form of the “battering ram -- aka Raimi” camera. This is hardly the great film that the first was, but it is every bit as entertaining and as far as big budget action films are concerned, it's a knockout. Where the first movie was a parable for becoming a man, this one tackles the issue of economics. And once again Kirstin Dunst manages find her way into a soaking wet outfit. Oh darn.
Spider-Man 3 (2007) [seen: 11/07]
Harold Ramis (7)
Analyze That (2002)
Analyze This (1999)
Caddyshack (1980) [last seen: 07/10]
Groundhog Day (1993)
The Ice Harvest (2005) [seen: 11/05]
Vacation (1983)
Year One (2009) [seen: 07/10]
Lynne Ramsay (2)
Morvern Callar (2002) [seen: 01/04]
Ratcatcher (1999)
Gasman (1997) [short]
Nicholas Ray (11)
Bigger Than Life (1956) [seen: 01/07]
Bitter Victory (1957)
Hot Blood (1956) [seen: 01/08]
In a Lonely Place (1950) [seen: 07/03]
Johnny Guitar (1954)
The Lusty Men (1952) [seen: 10/04]
On Dangerous Ground (1952) [seen: 10/04]
Party Girl (1958) [seen: 08/04]
Rebel Without a Cause (1955)
The Savage Innocents (1960) [seen: 03/05]
They Live by Night (1949) [seen: 05/04]
Peyton Reed (3)
The Break-Up (2006) [seen: 06/06]
Bring It On (2000)
Down with Love (2003) [seen: 10/03]
Yes Man (2008) [seen: 07/10]
Nicolas Winding Refn (2)
Bronson (2008) [seen: 11/09]
Valhalla Rising (2009) [seen: 05/10] Brutal and deftly executed, Refn has produced a purely primal film, a thinking man’s version of 300 blended with Malick’s The New World. If you think that sounds like a batshit crazy Herzog-riff you may be right, but wait until you have your breath taken away by the ever-gorgeous visuals that contrast lush lowlands with the shattering of human skulls. A case for further study for sure…
Rob Reiner (3)
The Princess Bride (1987)
Stand by Me (1986) [last seen: 07/10]
This Is Spinal Tap (1984)
Jason Reitman (3)
Juno (2007) [seen: TIFF '07, 04/08]
Thank You for Smoking (2005) [seen: 12/06]
Up in the Air (2009) [seen: 01/10]
Jean Renoir (9)
La bête humaine (1938)
Boudu Saved from Drowning (1932) [seen: 07/04]
The Crime of Monsieur Lange (1936) [seen: 06/06]
French Cancan (1954) [seen: 06/05]
The Golden Coach (1952) [seen: 04/05]
The Grand Illusion (1937)
Partie de campagne (1936) [seen: 10/04]
The River (1951) [seen: 04/05]
The Rules of the Game (1939)
Alain Resnais (5)
Hiroshima mon amour (1959)
Last Year at Marienbad (1961)
Night and Fog (1955)
Not on the Lips (2003) [seen: 11/04]
Private Fears in Public Places aka Cœurs (2006) [seen: TIFF '06]
Guy Ritchie (4)
Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels (1998)
RocknRolla (2008) [seen: 02/09]
Sherlock Holmes (2009) [seen: 12/09]
Snatch. (2000)
Jacques Rivette (3)
La belle noiseuse (1991)
Celine and Julie Go Boating (1974) [seen: 11/03]
Gang of Four  (1988)
Bruce Robinson (2)
How to Get Ahead in Advertising (1989) [seen: 06/04]
Withnail and I (1987)
Robert Rodriguez (10)
Bedhead (1991) [short] [seen: 04/09]
Desperado (1995)
The Faculty (1998)
From Dusk Till Dawn (1996)
El mariachi (1992) [seen: 04/09]
Grindhouse trailer "Machete" (2007) [short] [seen: 04/07]
Planet Terror (2007) [seen: 04/07, 12/07]
The Robert Rodriguez Ten Minute Film School (1998)[short] [seen: 04/09]
Shorts (2009)
Sin City (2005) [seen: 04/05] Alas, an R-rated film that fully takes advantage of the violent potential of enormous budget CGI filmmaking. It took someone with balls to make this picture--both literally and figuratively--and Robert Rodriguez is the “pair” that is credited, in this testosterone oozing, violent and sexed up spectacle based on Frank Miller’s misogynistic graphic comics. A hollow film, with frivolous voice-over narration that lacks the vitriolic flair of a Raymond Chandler, Miller’s noir fantasies are best served up as a rapid succession of images, much like the windows of a comic book that move your eye from one candy-coated frame to the next. The epitome of mindless fun, hurry up and bring on the fuckin’ sequel Robert.
Spy Kids (2001)
Spy Kids 2: Island of Lost Dreams (2002)
Spy Kids 3-D: Game Over (2003)
Nicolas Roeg (6)
Bad Timing (1980) [seen: 05/10] Plays like like the remarkable sex scene in Don't Look Now made into a feature film and exhibits just about every positive and negative inherent with such a concept.
Don't Look Now (1973)
The Man Who Fell to Earth (1976) [seen: 05/10] Rather brilliant, and not just in a cult film sort of way, it’s a deeply realized bit of pulp philosophy. Derails slightly at the end, but I could care less by that point.
Puffball (2007) [seen: 02/09]
Walkabout (1971)
The Witches (1990) [last seen: 04/10]
Eric Rohmer (8)
The Aviator's Wife (1981) [seen: 06/04]
The Bakery Girl of Monceau (1963) [short] [seen: 02/07]
Chloe in the Afternoon (1972)
Claire's Knee (1970)
The Green Ray (1986) [seen: 06/09]
My Night at Maud's (1969)
Nadja in Paris (1964) [short] [seen: 02/08]
Pauline at the Beach (1983) [seen: 06/09] Just about perfect. Rohmer in top form is capable of making you reevaluate just about everything you love about movies.
Perceval (1978)
Presentation, or Charlotte and Her Steak (1960) [short] [seen: 02/07]
Suzanne's Career (1963) [seen: 02/08]
Jean Rollin (5)
Demoniacs (1974) [seen: 06/09]
Fascination (1979) [seen: 01/09]
The Living Dead Girl (1982) [seen: 04/05]
Night of the Hunted (1980) [seen: 01/08]
Zombie Lake (1981)
George A. Romero (14)
Bruiser (2000) [seen: 10/04]
The Crazies (1973)
Creepshow (1982)
The Dark Half (1993) [seen: 03/05]
Dawn of the Dead (1978) [8th viewing: 09/05]
Day of the Dead (1985) [last seen: 03/04]
Diary of the Dead (2007) [seen: TIFF 07, 05/08] My Pictures and Audio from the World Premiere - Ever since Day of the Dead, Romero’s films have split audiences upon release only to pick up supporters later on as their finer, more subtle world views come into light in all of their scathing and hideous glories. Diary of the Dead should prove none too different in following this paradigm. Structured as a diary/student film the “movie” (voice-over by one female maker explains that music cues were added for dramatic effect) is a mixed media platform of news footage, bloggers/You-Tuber accounts, surveillance video, and amateur DV. It’s obvious that if the shit hit the fan in today’s world (Katrina anyone?), things would go down different from the farmhouse that Romero set his original story in some 40 years ago. We live in a state of media over-saturation, so the question arises-- is this a good thing? Is it reliable and should it be trusted? Is technology actually empowering the people in a way that we are not even aware of and/or is this effecting the way our government’s lord over us? Phrased simply, there is a lot more than just human flesh to be chewed on in this entry, which in addition to its sharp social undertones, also happens to be a model of perfectly paced, gore filled, tongue-in-cheek B-movie making. Keep 'em comin George.
Knightriders (1981)
Land of the Dead (2005) [seen: 06/05, 10/05]
Martin (1977)
Monkey Shines (1988) [seen: 10/03]
Night of the Living Dead (1968)
Season of the Witch (1972) [seen: 07/07]
Survival of the Dead (2009) [seen: TIFF 09]
Two Evil Eyes -- segment "The Facts in the Case of Mr. Valdemar" (1990) [seen: 04/04]
Eli Roth (3)
Cabin Fever (2002) [seen: 02/04, 01/06]
Grindhouse trailer -- "Thanksgiving" (2007) [short]
Hostel (2005) [seen: 01/06, 05/07] The most effective and worthwhile horror movie to splatter the screens of mainstream cinema in quite some time, this is a crass and obnoxious film about a group of American backpackers who party their way through Europe on the endless quest for “pussy” and wind up the victims of a nasty business specializing in torture. I can’t speak for the work-print that director Eli Roth screened to several festivals, but based on the strong negative response that many people I know had to that cut, I can only assume he has significantly reworked the film. This “theatrical version” (one imagines that DVD will bring yet another, more extreme cut) shows that Roth has no pretensions about the type of film he is making, his characters are a reprehensible bunch whose favorite words include ‘pussy,’ ‘fag,’ and ‘retard’, the nudity is gratuitous, and the plot screams of contrived. Yet, the fact that the film is so hell-bent on making you hate certain aspects of American culture, and that it then makes you pay for this hatred, raises it out of the gutter where recent shit films like Saw II reside, and gives you something to think about. Horror cinema in this country is in the midst of something special, and Hostel, like Joe Dante’s Homecoming and George A Romero’s Land of the Dead, go to prove where some of America’s most relevant films can be found
Hostel: Part II (2007) [seen: 06/07]
Joseph Ruben (4)
The Forgotten (2004) [seen: 10/04]
The Good Son (1993)
The Pom Pom Girls (1976) [seen: 09/09]
The Stepfather (1987) [seen: 11/04]
Raoul Ruiz (2)
Chacun son cinéma segment "Le Don" (2007) [seen: 07/07]
Dog's Dialogue (1977) [short][seen: 04/05]
On Top of the Whale (1982) [seen: 06/05]
Three Lives and Only One Death (1996) [seen: 04/05]
David O. Russell (4)
Flirting with Disaster (1996) [seen: 11/04]
I Heart Huckabees (2004) [seen: 10/04] David O. Russell really goes over the top in this one, and despite what you might hear elsewhere, he manages to make it all work. This delightful adult comedy follows the exploits of a group of lost souls, whom, frustrated with life and the unending search for its meaning, employ the help of the Existential Detectives—a pair of foppish philosophers (Dustin Hoffman & Lily Tomlin) who follow you around and help you sort out your life with their “Inter-connectedness philosophies.” Jason Schwartzman plays an environmental activist, loosely based on a young O. Russell, and Mark Whalberg plays his 9/11 inspired Other, a petroleum obsessed firefighter who upon arriving on the scene of a fire decides to take to watering a neglected lawn than to putting out the fire. There are quite a few inside jokes with regards to the writings of Kafka, Hegel, Freud, Plato, Sartre, and Lacan that are spouted off with a snobbish brilliance. If none of those names are familiar to you, don’t worry, the rest of the cast, which includes Naomi Watts, Isabelle Huppert, Tippi Hedren, and Jude Law (in his 450th film of the year) are dynamite as well. This is the kind of sharp-witted intellectual humor that often reminded me of the great Woody Allen of twenty years ago.
Spanking the Monkey (1994) [seen: 12/05]
Three Kings (1999)
Ken Russell (4)
Altered States (1980)
Crimes of Passion (1984) [seen: 07/05]
Gothic (1986) [seen: 02/09]
The Lair of the White Worm (1988) [seen: 10/03]
Trapped Ashes -- segment "The Girl With Golden Breasts" (2006)
Walter Salles (2)
Central Station (1998)
Chacun son cinéma -- segment "A 8944 km de Cannes" [seen: 07/07]
The Motorcycle Diaries (2004) [seen: 11/04]
Paris, je t'aime -- segment "Loin du 16e" (2006) [seen: 12/07]
Joseph Sargent (2)
The Taking of Pelham One Two Three (1974) [seen: 04/05]
White Lightning (1973) [seen: 04/06]
Joseph W. Sarno (6)
Abigail Leslie Is Back in Town (1975) [seen: 07/07]
Inga (1968) [seen: 01/07]
Laura's Toys (1975) [seen: 05/08]
The Love Merchant (1966) [seen: 02/08]
Moonlighting Wives (1966) [seen: 12/06]
Suburban Secrets (2004) [seen: 04/10]
Lone Scherfig (2)
An Education (2009) [seen: 04/10]
Italian for Beginners (2000)
Volker Schlöndorff (2)
The Tin Drum (1979) [03/10] Many of the complaints about this film failing to work as allegory are spot on, but its just too damn bizarre and unique to dismiss as a failure.
Young Torless (1966) [seen: 02/07]
Paul Schrader (7)
Affliction (1997)
Auto Focus (2002)
Blue Collar (1978) [seen: 03/10] Incisive, entertaining, maybe even timeless (it’s sure as hell still relevant today), this documents the woes and mischief of a trio of Detroit line workers as they uncover corruption in their union, and it's probably as good as anything I expect to see this year. Amazing that this was Schrader’s first film as it is arguably his finest. Pryor was never better.
Cat People (1982) [seen: 02/08]
Hardcore (1979) [seen: 02/09]
Light Sleeper (1992)
Mishima: A Life in Four Chapters (1985)
Martin Scorsese (16)
After Hours (1985) [seen: 09/04]
The Aviator (2004)
Bringing Out the Dead (1999)
Cape Fear (1991)
Casino (1995)
The Color of Money (1986) [seen: 01/10]
The Departed (2006) [seen: 10/06]
Gangs of New York (2002)
Goodfellas (1990) [5th viewing seen: 03/04]
The King of Comedy (1982)
The Last Temptation of Christ (1988) [seen: 01/04]
The Last Waltz (1978)
Mean Streets (1973)
Raging Bull (1980)
Shutter Island (2010) [seen: 02/10]
Taxi Driver (1976)
Fred F. Sears (3)
Earth vs. the Flying Saucers (1956) [seen: 04/08]
The Giant Claw (1957) [seen: 04/10]
The Werewolf (1956) [seen: 02/08]
Peter Segal (4)
Anger Management (2003) [seen: 10/2003]
50 First Dates (2004) [seen: 02/2004]
Get Smart (2008) [seen: 12/2008]
Tommy Boy (1995)
Ulrich Seidl (3)
Animal Love (1995) [seen: 12/05]
Dog Days (2001) [seen: 10/03]
Import/Export (2007) [seen: TIFF 07]
M. Night Shyamalan (6)
The Happening (2008) [seen: 06/08]
Lady in the Water (2006) [seen: 07/06] Refusing the lure of Hollywood, Shyamalan is a family man whose craft is deeply informed by his rejection of the big studio draw. All of his films are set in his hometown of Philadelphia and indeed, the filmmaker refuses to shoot more than a twenty-minute drive from his family. If anything, Lady in the Water can be read as the manifestation of Shyamalan’s fears of losing his family to his career. For those who like to sit in the theater and be mindlessly entertained, or those who feel like they are above that and try to guess what will happen next, you will be sorely disappointed in this film. This is a contemplative film, one that asks you to look deeper and consider the implications of what is on-screen. It’s screening at Shopping Malls nationwide, but this is an art-house work through and through.
Signs (2002)
The Sixth Sense (1999)
Unbreakable (2000) [seen: 09/04]
The Village (2004) [seen: 08/04] A lot of the same stuff from twist ending provocateur M. Night Shyamalan, however some astute political undertones rises this one above the rest. As usual the script is shoddy and the characters are plagued with afflictions that serve as plot devices. Also customary to a Shymalan film is his flair for cockeyed framing, offscreen space and impacting sound to enforce impending dread. Everything grandly spirals towards the big twist ending, which in the case of this film, is quite a bit different from his usual works. In this case the horror is a reality that is our own, the effect of which is like waking from a dream only to find that it wasn’t a dream—a prospect ten times scarier than seeing dead people.
Jim Sheridan (3)
Brothers (2009) [seen: 03/10]
In America (2002) [seen: 01/04]
My Left Foot (1989)
Takashi Shimizu (3)
Ju-on (2000) [seen: 03/04]
Marebito (2004) [seen: 04/06]
Reincarnation (2005)
Kaneto Shindô (2)
Kuroneko (1968) [seen: 10/05]
Onibaba (1964) [seen: 08/04]
Akihiko Shiota (2)
Harmful Insect (2001) [seen: 03/05]
Moonlight Whispers (1999) [seen: 09/04]
Brad Silberling (3)
Casper (1995)
Land of the Lost (2009) [seen: 07/10]
Lemony Snicket's A Series of Unfortunate Events (2004)
Andy Sidaris (3)
Picasso Trigger (1988) [seen: 01/10]
Hard Ticket to Hawaii (1987) [seen: 06/09]
Malibu Express (1985) [seen: 02/08] camp rating
Don Siegel (9)
The Beguiled (1971)
The Big Steal (1949)
Charley Varrick (1973) [seen: 01/07]
Dirty Harry (1971) [last seen: 01/06]
Escape from Alcatraz (1979) [seen: 09/05]
Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1956)
The Killers (1964) [seen: 09/04]
Riot in Cell Block 11 (1954) [seen: 07/05]
The Shootist (1976) [seen: 01/06]
Elliot Silverstein (2)
The Car (1977) [seen: 05/10]
Cat Ballou (1965)
Bryan Singer (4)
Superman Returns (2006) [seen: 07/06]
The Usual Suspects (1995) [last seen: 11/03]
X2 (2003)
X-Men (2000)
Robert Siodmak (5)
Cobra Woman (1944) [seen: 01/08]
Criss Cross (1949) [seen: 06/05]
The Killers (1946) [seen: 07/04]
Phantom Lady (1944) [seen: 06/04]
The Spiral Staircase (1945) [seen: 10/09] Very ahead of its time, Siodmak’s film is a story of a serial killer at heart, but is also a Gothic romance, dealing with a young nurse who cares for an elderly woman and the dark secrets her family is housing. Gorgeously lit interiors, “anything can happen in the dark,” intones one of the characters, and indeed anything does, as Siodmak channels both Rebecca and The Magnificent Ambersons with his painterly mise-en-scene. This deserves a deeper reputation, as I would be shocked if names like Mario Bava and Dario Argento weren’t deeply influenced by this.
Douglas Sirk (5)
Imitation of Life (1959)
The Tarnished Angels (1958) [seen: 01/08]
Written on the Wind (1956)
There's Always Tomorrow (1956) [seen: 12/09]
Magnificent Obsession (1954) [seen: 07/08]
Chris Smith (2)
American Movie (1999)
Home Movie (2001) [seen: 11/03]
Christopher Smith (3)
Creep (2004) [seen: TIFF 04]
Severance (2006) [seen: 01/07]
Triangle (2009) [seen: 01/10]
Jack Smith (2)
Flaming Creatures (1963) [3rd viewing; last seen: 02/04]
Scotch Tape (1963)
Zack Snyder (3)
300 (2006) [seen: 08/07]
Dawn of the Dead (2004) [seen: 03/04] " I guess it is only fair that a movie about mindless cannibals should be made by mindless cannibals as well…" This was my vehement reaction several months ago when I heard that Hollywood planned to “attempt” a remake of George A. Romero’s 1979 masterpiece and one of the greatest films ever made, Dawn of the Dead. I’ll start by saying that the film is not all bad, and aside from some questionable camera work and a few glaring holes in the plot, it’s pretty damn entertaining. Screenwriter James Gunn, whose roots lie in the schlock distributor Troma Films, seems at home in the genre, even if he has stripped the story of the brilliance that was Romero’s political undertones and scathing comments on consumerism. As for the films watchability, I think it is the simple premise of being trapped in a shopping mall while the world crumbles around you that almost guarantees you will be glued to your seat. The characters this time around are cardboard cutouts so you won’t be growing even the slightest emotional attachment to them. A blonde female character for example, is so hastily introduced that the audience I saw the film with could be heard uttering the phrase “who’s she?” and before we had time to think up an answer she was promptly fucked only reappear some 20-minutes later only to be cut in half by a chainsaw. All in all this is a far cry from Romero, mostly a lot of loud things that jump out of the dark and say Boo, however I suspect this might be one of the better mainstream horror films we’ll see this year. Tom Savini, Scott H. Reiniger, and Ken Foree from the original film all have cameos.
Watchmen (2009) [seen: 07/09]
Michele Soavi (4)
The Church (1989) [seen: 04/05]
Dellamorte Dellamore (1994)
The Sect (1991)
Stage Fright (1987) [seen: 01/06]
Steven Soderbergh (13)
Bubble (2005) [seen: TIFF '05] Welcome back Steven Soderbergh! Aiming for the opposite side of the spectrum of his George Clooney collaborations, Soderbergh has (in one of the biggest surprises if the festival) made a very small, concise, and yet effective film. Working entirely with non-professional actors and shooting on HD video, the lives of these working class protagonists is palpable amidst the sharply realized class observations. There are also some underpinnings of film noir, as the story deal with the effects on a couple of co-workers when a beautiful but manipulative girl gets a job at their factory. This is easily Soderbergh’s best film since The Limey.
Erin Brockovich (2000)
Eros -- segment "Equilibrium" (2004) [seen: 10/05]
Full Frontal (2002)
The Girlfriend Experience (2009) [seen: 09/09]
The Informant! (2009) [seen: 09/09]
King of the Hill (1993) [seen: 10/03]
The Limey (1999)
Ocean's Eleven (2001)
Ocean's Twelve (2004)
Out of Sight (1998)
Sex, Lies, and Videotape (1989)
Solaris (2002)
Traffic (2000)
Todd Solondz (4)
Feelings (1989) [short] [seen: 05/07]
Happiness (1998)
Life During Wartime (2009) [seen: 07/10]
Palindromes (2004) [seen: TIFF '04, 09/05]
Storytelling (2001)
Welcome to the Dollhouse (1995)
Stephen Sommers (4)
Deep Rising (1998)
G.I Joe: The Rise of Cobra (2009) [11/2009]
The Mummy (1999)
Van Helsing (2004) [seen: 05/2004] The absolute pits. The first 20 or so minutes were decent, but the remaining 120 had me so bored that I sat contemplating which fast food drive-thru to hit on the way home. Hugh Jackman embodies one of the most lifeless and boring characters in recent memory. Even if the film did teach me some interesting tidbits such as that the Frankenstein monster can spout biblical witticisms and Count Dracula desperately needs a good fertility doctor, when I consider that gas prices rose three cents a gallon while I sat through this garbage, I can’t help but feel cheated.
Sion Sono (5)
Exte: Hair Extensions (2007) [seen: 04/08]
Love Exposure (2009) [seen: 02/10]
Noriko's Dinner Table (2005) [seen: 06/08]
Strange Circus (2005) [seen: 04/07]
Suicide Club (2001) [seen: 11/07]
Stephen Spielberg (19)
Amistad (1997)
Artificial Intelligence: AI (2001)
Catch Me If You Can (2002)
Close Encounters of the Third Kind (1977)
Duel (1971) [seen: 01/06]
E.T.: The Extra-Terrestrial (1982)
Hook (1991)
Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull (2008) [seen: 05/08]
Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade (1989)
Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom (1984)
Jaws (1975)
Jurassic Park (1993)
The Lost World: Jurassic Park (1997)
Minority Report (2002)
Munich (2005) [seen: 01/06] There is no doubt that Steven Spielberg is a filmmaker of incredible talent, in particular, one with an innate gift for visual storytelling. Munich displays the range of this talent as Spielberg seems to know exactly the right kind a shot – when the camera should be handheld, or when to use a dolly, etc. – added to which his ability to wield this talent to elicit a desired psychological effect in the viewer is equally frightening. The problem lies in the fact that this ‘gift’ of Spielberg’s only works when he is making a nail-biting adventure film (Jaws, Duel) and to apply these techniques to a project that is intent on conveying a deeper importance (ie. political message) results in nothing but a string of half truths; a filmmaker whose heart is in two places at the same time. Munich wants to be an artful reflection of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict mirroring the post-9/11 American “War on Terror,” but has trouble pulling this off, since a well-executed episode of Mission Impossible is what the film genuinely is.
Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981)
Saving Private Ryan (1998)
The Terminal (2004) [seen: 06/04]
Twilight Zone: The Movie -- segment "Kick the Can" (1983) [last seen: 10/07]
War of the Worlds (2005)
Michael & Peter Spierig (2)
Daybreakers (2009) [05/10]
Undead (2003) [seen: 10/04]
Danny Steinmann (3)
Friday the 13th Part V: A New Beginning (1985) [seen: 04/04]
Savage Streets (1984) [seen: 01/09] Overlooked 80’s rape-revenge film that screams camp but actually has social and feminist value worth contemplating. It’s also entertaining as all hell.
The Unseen (1980) [seen: 01/09]
George Stevens (2)
Shane (1953)
Swing Time (1936) [seen: 09/04]
Preston Sturges (8)
Christmas in July (1940)
The Great McGinty (1940) [seen: 07/05]
Hail the Conquering Hero (1944) [seen: 01/06]
The Lady Eve (1941)
The Miracle of Morgan's Creek (1944) [seen: 01/04]
The Palm Beach Story (1942)
Sullivan's Travels (1941)
Unfaithfully Yours (1948) [seen: 01/04]
Brett Sullivan (2)
The Chair (2007) [seen: 10/09] What could have easily been just another forgettable ghost story turns out to be a rather impressive little gem, as editor turned filmmaker Brett Sullivan handles the material like a genre master. A young woman moves into a new apartment which she suspects of being haunted. She sleeps with a camcorder running and discovers her house is home to a secret that just might drive her out of her mind. It is no surprise that Sullivan is an editor, as much of the film’s suspense and scares are the work of a cinematic craftsmen rather than a special effect. More impressive however is how Sullivan manages to overcome the downfalls of the digital format, even though the story screams for the detail of 35mm, he places his camera and his characters in all the right places, and uses the harsh feel of daylight to tremendous effect.
Ginger Snaps: Unleashed (2004) [seen: 01/10]
Norifumi Suzuki (3)
Girl Boss Guerilla (1972) [seen: 02/06]
Sex & Fury (1973) [seen: 12/09]
Terrifying Girls' High School: Lynch Law Classroom (1973) [seen:03/06]
Seijun Suzuki (8)
Branded to Kill (1967)
Fighting Elegy (1966) [seen: 01/05] Off-site review here
Kanto Wanderer (1963) [seen: 01/04]
Princess Raccoon (2005) [seen: 04/06] Off-site review here
Pistol Opera (2001)
Tattooed Life (1965)
Tokyo Drifter (1966) [seen: 12/03]
Youth of the Beast (1963) [seen: 01/05] Off-site review here
Joe Swanberg (4)
Alexander the Last (2009) [seen: 03/10]
Nights and Weekends (2008) Greta Gerwig co-director [seen: 12/09]
Hannah Takes the Stairs (2007) [seen: 05/08]
LOL (2006) [seen: 01/08]
Béla Tarr (6) photo taken @ TIFF '07
Damnation (1987) [seen: 03/08]
Family Nest (1978) [seen: 06/05] DVD reviewed here
The Man from London (2007) [TIFF '07] Tarr’s most minimalist film to date is beyond gorgeous, but unfortunately a step beneath any of his previous films. Intact are the master’s patented long takes, the hauntingly monotonous Mihály Vig score, and László Krasznahorkai intelligent script collaboration… Missing? The poetry that seemed to be the raison d’etre for his brand of cinema. Tarr has managed to make a film about boredom, like Hou he is examining the rhythms of life (mainly exposing the monotony and tedium of it all), but all of this seems to be in the service of something entirely different from anything he has done in the past. Call it the bleakest film Kaurismaki never made. This forlorn feeling could be blamed on the fact that production was bogged down in legal bullshit for 7 years after the producer committed suicide, or we could have entered a new, more modern phase in Tarr’s work (let’s hope another film is not far off -- until then we will say the jury is still out). Bluntly phrased, this is cinema served straight-up -- very dry, very simple, certainly intoxicating but lacking that something special that makes you want to savor it.
The Prefab People (1982) [seen: 06/05] DVD reviewed here
Sátántangó (1994) [seen: 03/05]
Werckmeister Harmonies (2000) [seen: 03/04] Every shot is a masterpiece. I was fairly certain of this after the first reel… 145 min. later I was speechless. This ranks amongst the greatest I have ever seen. Tarr is a filmmaker of assured brilliance and a master craftsman. More comments coming as I watch it again and again
Quentin Tarantino (7)
Death Proof (2007) [seen: 04/07]
Inglourious Basterds (2009) [seen: 08/09]
Jackie Brown (1997) [last seen: 03/04]
Kill Bill: Vol. 2 (2004) [seen: 04/04]
Kill Bill: Vol. 1 (2003) [seen: 10/03, 04/04, 03/06]
Pulp Fiction (1994)
Reservoir Dogs (1992)
Frank Tashlin (4)
Artists and Models (1955)
The Girl Can't Help It (1956) [seen: 06/05]
Hollywood or Bust (1956) [seen: 07/07]
Will Success Spoil Rock Hunter? (1957) [seen: 06/04]
Jacques Tati (6)
L'école des facteurs (1947) [short] [seen: 04/05]
Jour de fête (1949) [seen: 04/05]
Mon oncle (1958)
Mr. Hulot's Holiday (1953)
Parade (1974) [seen: 07/09]
Playtime (1967)
Trafic (1971) [seen: 08/05]
Peter Tscherkassky (7)
L'Arrivée (1998) [seen: 06/05]
Dream Work (2001) [seen: 06/05]
Get Ready (1999) [seen: 06/05]
Manufraktur (1985) [seen: 06/05]
Miniatures - Man Berlin Artists in Hoisdorf (1983) [seen: 06/05]
Motion Picture (1984) [seen: 06/05]
Outer Space (1999) [seen: 05/04]
Lewis Teague (3)
Alligator (1980) [seen: 10/07] Highly entertaining, with a sharp script by John Sayles, it’s a shame that with the ease of CGI these days, low-budget efforts like this are all but extinct. The impending terror of the beast in these ‘animal attack’ pictures is drawn from keeping the monster off-screen. When you had very little money, your picture was limited in its monster effects, forcing filmmakers to focus on a purer form of terror inducing filmmaking via editing and sound as well as developing the characters. This one deserves so much more than a reputation as a “camp film.”
Cat's Eye (1985) [seen: 07/10] It's funny that all I hear about it the Troll segment, but in fact the first two are small marvels, harkening back to vintage EC comic horror, and the Troll bit borders on camp these days. Over the top morality parables are so underrated...
Cujo (1983) [seen: 01/10]
Hiroshi Teshigahara (2)
Pitfall (1962) [seen: 11/2009]
Woman in the Dunes (1964)
Ondi Timoner (2)
DiG! (2004) [seen: 01/06, 02/06, 04/06] Adopting the ebb and flow of your basic MTV special, but without the commercial conceits, cliff hanger commercial pauses, forced storylines, and a far more rigid dedication to the material, DiG! is something of a minor miracle. A film that captures not only the harsh truths of the music industry, but one that in a haze of cigarette smoke and booze, displays a perfectly guileless study into the egocentric world of musicians. It’s a ‘cool’ movie with a built-in cult following, but like all great documentaries, it functions as a mirror to the culture that embraces it. My gut tells me that ten years from now this won’t be some Dylan or Stones time capsule piece, but a righteous send-up of my generation by way of two all but forgotten bands.
We Live in Public (2009) [seen: 03/10]
Johnnie To (6)
Exiled (2006) [seen: 01/08]
Fulltime Killer (2001) Ka-Fai Wai co-director [seen: 07/04]
The Mission (1999) [seen: 09/05]
PTU (2003) [seen: 06/05]
Running on Karma (2003)
Throw Down (2004) [seen: 07/05]
Jacques Tourneur (6)
Cat People (1942) [3rd viewing: 10/04, 4th viewing 10/05]
The Comedy of Terrors (1963) [seen: 04/09]
I Walked with a Zombie (1943) [last seen: 05/04]
The Leopard Man (1943) [seen: 11/04, 10/05]
Night of the Demon (1957)
Out of the Past (1947)
Tran Anh Hung (3)
Cyclo (1995) [seen: 09/05]
The Scent of Green Papaya (1993)
Vertical Ray of the Sun (2000) [seen: 10/04]
Brian Trenchard-Smith (4)
BMX Bandits (1983) [seen: 05/10] Nicole Kidman's feature debut and Trenchard-Smith's most tame film, plays out like your typical "kids get mixed up with gang of goons, goons try to eliminate pesky kids, kids save the day." 80's camp factor of dudes popping serious BMX wheelies abounds though, which is always a plus.
Dead-End Drive In (1986) [seen: 01/10]
Night of the Demons 2 (1994) [seen: 01/10]
Turkey Shoot (1982) [seen: 11/09]
François Truffaut (5)
The 400 Blows (1959)
Day for Night (1973)
Fahrenheit 451 (1966) [seen: 08/04]
Jules and Jim (1962)
Shoot the Piano Player (1960)
Tsai Ming-liang (9)
Face (2009) [seen: TIFF 09] The first and the final 20-minutes of this were quite something, but I found the 2 hours in the middle to be borderline unwatchable. Tsai’s sensibility is completely at odds with any and everything French in this film and plain awkward. The fact that some are championing this is quite frankly ridiculous to this viewer.
Goodbye, Dragon Inn (2003) [seen: 06/04]
The Hole (1998)
I Don't Want to Sleep Alone (2006) [seen: TIFF 06]
Rebels of the Neon God (1992)
The River (1997)
The Skywalk Is Gone (2002) [short]
To Each His Own Cinema -- segment "It's a Dream" (2007) [short] [seen: 07/07]
The Wayward Cloud (2005) [seen: 07/05, 07/05]
What Time Is It There? (2001)
Vive L'Amour (1994)
Shinya Tsukamoto (4)
Gemini (1999) [seen: 10/04]
Haze (2005) [seen: 11/06]
A Snake of June (2002)
Tetsuo, the Iron Man (1989)
David Twohy (2)
Perfect Getaway (2009) [seen: 01/10]
Pitch Black (2000)
Edgar G. Ulmer (4)
Detour (1945)
The Naked Venus (1959)
Strange Illusion (1945) [seen: 09/05]
The Black Cat (1934) [seen: 09/04]
Lee Unkrich (3)
Finding Nemo (2003) (co-director)
Toy Story 2 (1999) (co-director)
Toy Story 3 (2010) [seen: 06/10] These Pixar projects are beginning to feel like a brainstorming session wherein a dozen different people’s great ideas are pieced together to form one big crowd-pleasing picture. It’s hard not to enjoy, but movies are not an assembly line, and mass-produced media has never really been my cup.
W.S. Van Dyke (2)
Tarzan the Ape Man (1932) [seen: 06/07]
The Thin Man (1934) [seen: 07/04]
Buddy Van Horn (2)
The Dead Pool (1988) [seen: 05/10]
Pink Cadillac (1989) [last seen: 06/10] This movie is pure Eastwood and at the same time the anti-Eastwood film, anti-climatic with the ending, it's essentially a course on pathos, ethos, and logos in the Eastwood canon. All in all great stuff and vastly overlooked.
Gus Van Sant
Chacun son cinéma -- segment "First Kiss" (2007) [seen: 07/07]
The Discipline of D.E. (1982) [short] [seen: 12/07]
Drugstore Cowboy (1989)
Elephant (2003) [seen: TIFF 03]
Even Cowgirls Get the Blues (1993) [seen: 11/04]
Gerry (2002) [3rd viewing: 11/03]
Good Will Hunting (1997)
Last Days (2005) [seen: 08/05]
Mala Noche (1985) [seen: 05/08]
Milk (2008) [seen: 12/08] I love how there is such a direct lineage between Mala Noche, My Own Private Idaho and Milk. Today, Van Sant has so matured as an artist, he has a vast array of filmic styles that he has acquired (early beatnick/queer cinema, mainstream Hollywood, and art house meditations) and he juggles these to astounding effect in Milk, illiciting just the right vibe in practically every scene and never once overdoing it. This is how you make a bio pic folks.
My Own Private Idaho (1991)
Paranoid Park (2007) [seen: TIFF 07]
Paris, je t'aime -- segment "Le Marais" (2006) [seen: 12/07]
To Die For (1995)
Paul Verhoeven (11)
The 4th Man (1983)
Basic Instinct (1992) [seen: 03/06]
Black Book (2006) [seen: 05/07]
Business Is Business (1971) [seen: 01/07] It’s no Belle de Jour, but it’s a respectable debut feature from a major filmmaker, and this alone makes it essential.
Hollow Man (2000) [seen: 02/06]
RoboCop (1987) [last seen: 02/06]
Showgirls (1995)
Spetters (1980) [seen: 03/10]
Starship Troopers (1997)
Total Recall (1990) [seen: 02/06]
Turkish Delight (1973) [seen: 03/06]
Jean Vigo (4)
L'Atalante (1934)
À propos de Nice (1930) [short] [seen: 11/04]
Taris (1931) [short] [seen: 03/05]
Zéro de conduite (1933) [seen: 03/05]
Luchino Visconti (2)
The Leopard (1963) [seen: 04/05] It’s not very fashionable to call Luchino Visconti’s widely praised epic anything less than a masterpiece, but in this case I feel like that’s exactly what it is. While the final hour is simply superb--shot, edited, and acted to sheer perfection, the film’s preceding two hours tends to overstay their welcome, perhaps a little too bent on achieving ‘masterpiece’ status. Visconti’s strict dedication to the literary source—the story of a dying Italian aristocracy in the face of a rising middle class—remains interesting, but it’s not until Visconti happens to confine his characters to the stifling ballroom in the finale that the real dramatic tension begins to take shape. It’s for this stunning 60 minutes of film alone, which confirms The Leopard as a major achievement.
Ossessione (1943) [seen: 08/09] I have yet to be completely bowled over by a Visconti film and while this has so many merits to consider – for me, the Noir underpinnings are at odds with the humanist qualities so typically associated with the Neorealist style. I’d like to celebrate this as a strong noir, but I can’t back calling it the height of Neorealism.
Eric von Stroheim (2)
Foolish Wives (1922) [seen: 11/04]
Greed (1924) [4 hour Schmidlin version] [seen: 10/04]
Lars von Trier (9)
Antichrist (2009) [seen: 11/2009]
The Boss of it All (2006) [seen: 01/2008]
Breaking the Waves (1996)
Chacun son cinéma -- segment "Occupations" (2007) [short] [seen: 07/2007]
Dancer in the Dark (2000) [Last seen: 3rd viewing 04/2004]
Dogville (2003) [seen: 09/2003]
The Five Obstructions (2003) Jørgen Leth co-director [last seen 2nd viewing: 10/2004] I can't remember the last time I was so ambivalent towards a film only to be knocked flat by an ending that made me reconsider and deeply appreciate everything that came before. No, this is not a Sixth Sense twist, but a brilliant meditation on the artistic process. In fact I find it impossible to even engage this film in so few words, even if I could reveal vital plot points, what with the layers upon layers of reality that exist in this, I use the term loosely, "documentary." Sharp, brilliant filmmaking in every way, this is the kind of thing Kiarostami was once capable of pulling off before the film festival circuit got to his head. Do yourself a favor and just see it.
The Idiots (1998)
Manderlay (2005) [seen: TIFF 2005] Much better than I had anticipated (those Cannes backlashes can be brutal), but not quite up to the level that Dogville was. The political implications of Manderlay are certainly far more applicable to the world of today (eg. US occupation of Iraq), with the prior film's meaningful commentary on America’s history of slavery as well as Christian charity metaphors, having been tossed out the window. Bryce Dallas Howard is a worthy predecessor for Nicole Kidman, her performance plays like an alluring interpretation of a similar, yet alternate psyche of the same character. She should win considerable acclaim for this role, but the impressive supporting cast is largely wasted, and in the end character is one of this film’s biggest downfalls. Where Dogville was able to function on many different levels, simultaneously a straightforward drama, an experiment in Brechtian detachment, and an allegory for the immigrant experience, Manderlay is merely allegory, and fails to exist as anything else.
Medea (1988) [seen: 01/2004]
The Wachowski Bros. (4)
Bound (1996)
The Matrix (1999)
The Matrix Reloaded (2003) [seen: 11/03]
The Matrix Revolutions (2003) [seen: 11/03]
Raoul Walsh (8)
Colorado Territory (1949) [seen: 09/05]
Objective, Burma! (1945) [seen: 09/09]
High Sierra (1941) [seen: 07/04]
Pursued (1947) [seen: 07/07]
The Roaring Twenties (1939) [seen: 07/05]
The Strawberry Blonde (1941)
The Thief of Bagdad (1924)
White Heat (1949)
James Wan (3)
Death Sentence (2007) [seen: 01/08]
Dead Silence (2007) [seen: 07/07] Cluttered back-story and all, this feels like a poor attempt at creating a franchise. Thankfully the box office fish didn’t bite, so we won’t be hearing from Mary Shaw and her stupid dolls again anytime soon.
Saw (2004) Average across the board for this one—from the hammed up performances and flashy direction, to the serviceable script and toned down violence. The premise of a single setting works well for horror films (as Cube masterfully demonstrated), but screenwriters Wan and Whannell are never confidant enough in their scenario to confine the events to such a small setting and frequently resort to cross-cutting and a flashback structure that I quickly grew tiresome of. The television series “24” and the ticking countdown recipe for suspense is, for better and for worse, the real inspiration here. [seen: 11/04]
Wayne Wang (3)
Blue in the Face (1995) [seen: 08/04]
The Center of the World (2001)
Smoke (1995)
John Waters (11)
Cecil B. DeMented (2000) [seen: 03/04, 10/05]
Cry-Baby (1990)
Desperate Living (1977) [seen: 03/04, 01/06]
A Dirty Shame (2004) [seen: TIFF 04]
Female Trouble (1974)
Hairspray (1988) [seen: 03/04] Very close to a masterpiece. This film represents John Waters at his most tame, but it also represents the filmmaker at his most mature, most political, and at his most cinematically adept. The story deals with racial integration on a TV dance show during the early 1960’s. Ricki Lake stars as Waters plump little starlet and does a wonderful job with the character. Waters axiom Divine plays a dual role in what would be his last screen appearance. Perhaps everything is a little “too” candy coated for my tastes, which explains why I only give this a three star rating, and would also explain the success of the Broadway adaptation. I have to admit I deeply respect what Waters is doing in this picture, even if I prefer the anarchistic approach to filmmaking that defined his earlier work. Waters has yet to make another film of this caliber
Multiple Maniacs (1970) [seen: 07/05]
Pecker (1998) [seen: 03/04]
Pink Flamingos (1972)
Polyester (1981) [seen: 03/04]
Serial Mom (1994) [seen: 03/04]
Mark Waters (2)
Freaky Friday (2003)
Mean Girls (2004) [seen: 05/04] Despite having a trailer aimed at herding in droves of 14 year old girls, this film is infused with enough sharp wit to perfectly counterbalance its less appealing mainstream side—call it, mindless cheesy entertainment. Tina Fey, Saturday Night Live’s first female head writer, is responsible for the hilarious script based on a New York Times story. Fey seems right at home in the teen genre and even her role as a young teacher who wants to appear hip to her students seems dead on. The film never manages to bite off more than it can chew; its handling of teen homosexuality for instance is wisely glossed over rather than reflected upon. Mark Waters, the director of one of last year’s most entertaining teen comedies Freaky Friday, once again manages to work wonders with the popular Lindsay Lohan.The tongue in cheek cinematography seems to have noticed that the 17 year old has had some breast augmentation since her last role and is hardly shy in pointing this fact out--and possibly make a case for other members of the plastic cast. Over time this film may earn a place next to other great teen pictures such as Clueless and Fast Times at Ridgemont High, even if like a similarly themed The Breakfast Club, the ending is a total copout.
Apichatpong Weerasethakul (5)
The Adventures of Iron Pussy (2003) [seen: 04/2005]
Blissfully Yours (2002) [seen: 01/2004]
Mysterious Object at Noon (2000)
Phantoms of Nabua (2009) Apichatpong Weerasethakul [short. 12 min.] [seen: 03/2009]
Prosperity for 2008 (2008) [short, 1 min.] [seen: 01/2008]
Syndromes and a Century (2006) [seen: TIFF 2006]
Tropical Malady (2004) [seen: TIFF 2004]
Lo Wei (2)
Dragon Swamp (1969) [seen: 04/05]
Fists of Fury (1971) [seen: 04/04]
Peter Weir (7)
The Cars That Ate Paris (1974) [seen: 10/03]
Dead Poets Society (1989)
Gallipoli (1981)
Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World (2003) [seen: 11/03]
Picnic at Hanging Rock (1975)
The Truman Show (1998)
Witness (1985)
Chris Weitz (2)
American Pie (1999)
New Moon (2009)
Orson Welles (7)
Citizen Kane (1941)
F for Fake (1973) [seen: 10/03]
The Hearts of Age (1934) [short, 8 min.] William Vance co-director
The Lady from Shanghai (1947)
The Magnificent Ambersons (1942)
Mr. Arkadin (1955) [Corinth version] [seen: 01/07] I believe the muddy VHS version I saw in college was the Confidential Report cut, as I seem to have no recollection of a flashback structure, which may explain why this cut feels vastly superior. Speaking of college, I had a professor at one point who claimed that, “you didn’t deserve to graduate with a film degree until you have seen Kane at least 20 times.” Now at the time that did (and actually it still does now that I hear said again) come off a bit pompous. Welles is not easy. Like my recent von Sternberg screening, here I am almost a decade into my hardcore cinephilia with literally thousands of screenings under my belt, and I am only now feeling like I have the necessary tools to grapple with these great directors. How these professors think they can sit a 20 year old college kid down at 9am in cramped classroom and show him something like Kane at and have that kid cry out “NOW THIS IS CINEMA!” is beyond me. The cinema of Orson Welles is beyond great, but he is something we need to discover and come to appreciate on our own terms, not something that should be force-fed. The same might be said for Joyce, or Warhol, or Mozart, but I simply cannot fathom what this work will look like to me 10 years from now.
The Trial (1962) [seen: 10/03]
Touch of Evil (1958)
Wim Wenders (3)
The American Friend (1977)
Paris, Texas (1984)
Ten Minutes Older: The Trumpet -- segment "Twelve Miles to Trona" (2002) [short] [seen: 11/05]
To Each His Own Cinema -- segment "War in Peace" (2007) [short] [seen: 07/07]
Tokyo Ga (1985) [seen: 10/03] By definition, German director Wim Wenders' earlier films can be described as stories about characters that seem to have wandered into a Sam Fuller or Nicholas Ray film. This 1985 essay film has the director placing himself in Tokyo and documents his failed attempts to find himself in a Yasujiro Ozu film. The results are distinctly German, with Wenders' imagery sharing in the existential malaise of his droll narration, but that’s not the point. This is less a film about Tokyo than it is an endearing tribute to one of the greatest filmmakers of all time. Wenders displays a passion that only a true cineaste can identify with and when Ozu's longtime cameraman begins to shed tears as he recounts his times spent with Ozu, we know we are bearing witness to something special.
Jake West (3)
Doghouse (2009) [seen: 07/10]
Evil Aliens (2005) [seen: TIFF '05] Ha ha, I get it. I too have seen Bad Taste and Evil Dead II. Remember when that eyeball shot out of a creatures head in Evil Dead II and sailed across the room into that girl’s mouth? Wasn’t that hilarious? Or how about the end of Dead Alive when he grabs a lawnmower and the film turns into a pool of fake blood and guts, wasn’t that just grand? This movie is crap. Also, did you know they hire shills to sit in the theater and pretend to actually enjoy this shit, hoping some studio exec will take the bait and buy the film?
Razor Blade Smile (1998) [seen: 08/09]
Ti West (4)
Cabin Fever 2: Spring Fever (2009) [seen: 02/10] West is one of the few in the new young generation of Horror filmmakers out there who genuinely excites me. It’s a goddamn shame that the DGA denied his claim to be discredited from this pathetic pile of shit, as I would hate for it tarnish the career of such a promising talent. Anchor Bay dvd does not win any fans with their DVD release either – West shot in a 2.40:1 scope, while the studio re-shoots are in a mismatching 2.35:1 – the DVD itself is anamorphically formatted for 2.35:1 so everything West shot is a squished disaster of pencil faced people. Pretty ridiculous if you ask me, post-screening this DVD went straight into the trash can.
Dead & Lonely (2009) [short, 25 min.] [seen: 05/10] Serial made for IFC and available for free online. Keeps you watching, but the builds up to very little. West's understated horror works better at feature length.
The House of the Devil (2009) [seen: 01/10]
Prey (2005) [short] [seen: 10/06] A weak student film that has an interesting premise of two backpackers being pursued by some kind of “creature.” It would have worked, but West constantly resorts to lame POV shots through the creatures eyes that recall Predator and numerous other unimaginative sci-fi films. A “DVD Extras” filler if I ever saw one.
The Roost (2005) [seen: 10/06] If the name Larry Fessenden means nothing to you, then you are missing out on some of the most personal and original horror works being made today. This is a Fessenden produced B-film, usually a sign of quality, and it never fails to impress. A minimal story, with a subtle use of scares and atmosphere, director Ti West never overreaches even though his story of undead-infecting bats is a tiresome retread of the mass-produced zombie films of today. I’m hoping this “less is more” approach to horror is West’s idea of good movie making and not a result of budget constraints, we’ll have to watch his next feature to find out.
Trigger Man (2007) [seen: 03/08]
Billy Wilder (13)
Ace in the Hole (1951) [seen: 03/2005]
Avanti! (1972) [seen: 01/2007] These later films in the careers of master filmmakers are such a joy to watch. Wilder takes risk after risk (even the running time seems bold) and executes it all with a nonchalance and sheer perfection that is simply put, a joy.
Double Indemnity (1944)
Five Graves to Cairo (1943) [seen: 07/2005]
The Fortune Cookie (1966) [seen:05/2006]
Kiss Me Stupid (1964) [seen: 03/2005]
The Lost Weekend (1945)
The Major and the Minor (1942) [seen: 06/2008]
The Private Life of Sherlock Holmes (1970) [seen: 01/2006]
The Seven Year Itch (1955) [seen: 11/2003]
Some Like It Hot (1959)
Sunset Blvd. (1950)
Witness for the Prosecution (1957) [seen: 04/2004]
Robert Wise (6)
The Body Snatcher (1945) [seen: 10/05]
Born to Kill (1947) [seen: 12/06]
The Curse of the Cat People (1944) Gunther von Fritsch co-director [seen: 10/05]
The Day the Earth Stood Still (1951) [2nd viewing; 01/07] This is just as pertinent today as it was over 50 years ago... Somebody should send Kim Jong-il a copy.
The Haunting (1963) [seen: 10/04]
The Set-Up (1949)
Doris Wishman (13)
The Amazing Transplant (1971) [seen: 12/07]
Bad Girls Go to Hell (1965) [seen: 06/06]
Blaze Starr Goes Nudist (1962) [seen: 03/04] One of the first films Doris Wishman ever made, is what many commonly refer to as a “nudie cutie,” a term used to describe low budget skin flicks of the 1960’s, where the films were too 'innocent' to be labelled lewd. Wishman would go on to earn a reputation as a cult filmmaker of tremendous prestige, her body of work is most often compared to that of the woefully underrated Ed Wood Jr. This heavily dated work is part of a DVD box set of Wishman’s films that is newly available from Something Weird Video. To say the title means giving away the entire plot, which mostly consists of topless women playing volleyball, jumping in pools, and shooting suction cup tipped arrows on the “archery range.” It was all I could do not to fall asleep during this. As an artifact of vintage erotica though, I suppose this might interest somebody.
Deadly Weapons (1974) [seen: 03/04]
Diary of a Nudist (1961) [seen: 03/04]
Double Agent 73 (1974) [seen: 04/04] I have now seen five films by Doris Wishman and have yet to muster anything more than mild amusement from her work. This may be her greatest achievement, worthy of a place in my heart right next to my favorite item on the McDonalds dollar menu. Chesty Morgan, a woman endowed with 73 inches of natural breasts, stars as a secret agent who has a camera implanted in her nipple. She goes around killing off bad guys and is constantly taking off her top to snap pictures of the dead bodies. Repeated shots of people’s feet and random ashtrays hide errors in continuity in what can be defined as “classic Wishman.” Viewed with friends this could make a hell of a drinking game, taken alone it may induce a nap. Taken as a relic of exploitation cinema, it's priceless.
Hideout in the Sun (1960) [seen: 06/08] Nowhere near the camp value that Wishman's other nudie-colony films contain.
Indecent Desires (1967) [seen: 01/07] Wishman is never easy to assign a rating to. Her cinema is singular to say the least. This seems to be part of a larger work -- one that consists of Bad Girls Go to Hell and a few other “woman in trouble” pictures -- that mixes Cassavetes homemade apartment realism with shoddy peep show interludes. A fantastic plot involving a voodoo Barbie doll combined with Wishman’s typical flair for bizarre coverage shots of shoes, handbags, and ashtrays and you can’t help but think that the surrealists would have eaten this one up.
Let Me Die a Woman (1977)  [seen: 04/06]
My Brothers Wife (1966) [seen: 02/07]
A Night to Dismember (1983) [seen: 02/04]
Nude on the Moon (1961) [seen: 07/04] Her finest achievement!
Satan Was a Lady (2001)
Wong Kar-Wai (8)
2046 (2004)
Ashes of Time (1994)
Chacun son cinéma -- segment "I Travelled 9000 km To Give It To You" (2007) [short]
Chungking Express (1994)
Days of Being Wild (1990)
Eros -- segment "The Hand" (2004)
Fallen Angels (1995)
Happy Together (1997) [seen: 05/04]
In the Mood for Love (2000)
My Blueberry Nights (2007) [seen: 04/08]
Edward D. Wood Jr. (5)
Bride of the Monster (1955) [seen: 03/04]
Glen or Glenda (1953) [seen: 01/04]
Jail Bait (1954)
Night of the Ghouls (1959) [seen: 04/04] I’m a sucker for Ed Wood films. This feature, although a far cry from his greatest (Glen or Glenda), is certainly not without its moments. The plot resembles an episode of Scooby Doo—a mysterious fortuneteller takes over a spooky house and has actors pose as ghosts in order to keep away “meddlers” while he dupes innocent widows out of their money. This is actually a sequel to Wood’s earlier Bride of the Monster, with Swedish wrestler Tor Johnson reprising his role as Lobo, the brute with a fetish for angora. Appearances by other Wood players like Criswell liven things up a bit, however by this time Wood’s suffering career and drinking had taken its toll on him and everything lacks that strange energetic appeal that made his earlier works such a joy.
Plan 9 from Outer Space (1959) [seen: 11/03]
Edgar Wright (3)
Don't (2007) [short] [seen: 04/07]
Hot Fuzz (2007) [seen: 05/07]
Shaun of the Dead (2004) [seen: 09/04]
Spaced (1999-2001)
Edward Yang (2)
A Brighter Summer Day (1991) [seen: 06/05]
Yi yi (2000)
Peter Yates (4)
Krull (1983) [seen: 01/06]
Breaking Away (1979)
The Deep (1977) [seen: 07/09]
The Friends of Eddie Coyle (1973) [seen: 01/10]
Herman Yau (2)
Ebola Syndrome (1996) [seen: 06/08]
The Untold Story (1992) [seen: 09/04]
Wayne Wang (3)
Blue in the Face (1995)
The Center of the World (2001)
Smoke (1995) Wayne Wang [seen: 08/04]
Andy Warhol (2)
Blow Job (1963)
Vinyl (1965) [seen: 04/05]
John Woo (9)
A Better Tomorrow (1986)
A Better Tomorrow II (1987)
Broken Arrow (1996)
Face/Off (1997)
Bullet in the Head (1990) [seen: 07/05]
Hard Boiled (1992)
Hard Target (1993)
The Killer (1989)
Paycheck (2003) [seen: 06/04]
Yuen Woo-ping (3)
Drunken Master (1978) [seen: 12/09]
Iron Monkey (1993) [seen: 06/04]
The Magnificent Butcher (1979) [seen: 06/04]
Robert Zemeckis (11)
Back to the Future (1985)
Back to the Future Part II (1989)
Back to the Future Part III (1990)
Beowulf (2007) [seen: 03/08]
Cast Away (2000)
Contact (1997)
Forrest Gump (1994)
The Polar Express (2004) [seen: 11/04]
Romancing the Stone (1984) [last seen: 07/10]
Tales From the Crypt Season 1 --episode "And All Through the House" [seen: 10/05]
What Lies Beneath (2000)
Who Framed Roger Rabbit (1988) [last seen: 04/04]
Zhang Yimou (5)
Chacun son cinéma -- segment "Movie Night" (2007) [seen: 07/07]
Curse of the Golden Flower (2006) [seen: 07/07]
Happy Times (2000) [seen: 09/04]
Hero (2002) [seen: 05/04]
House of Flying Daggers (2004) [seen: TIFF '04]
Ju Dou (1990) [seen: 11/04]
Joseph Zito
Friday the 13th: The Final Chapter (1984) [seen: 04/04]
The Prowler (1981) [seen: 04/05]
Rob Zombie (5)
The Devil's Rejects (2005) [seen: 07/05, 12/05, 05/10]
Halloween (2007)
Halloween II - Director's Cut (2009) [seen: 04/10]
The Haunted World of El Superbeasto (2009) [seen: 05/10]
House of 1000 Corpses (2003)
"Werewolf Women of the S.S." -- Grindhouse trailer (2007) [short] [seen: 04/07]
Andrzej Zulawski (3)
La femme publique (1984) [seen: 01/09]
Possession (1981) Starts off as a promising thriller about a husband driven mad by his wife’s infidelity, I was consistently reminded of Polanski during the first half of the film. What follows is a muddled mess of screaming fits, doppelgangers, detectives in pink socks, and a sexually active mutant creature. The inventive cinematography and the good looks of Isabelle Adjani kept my interests peaked throughout, but in the end this amounts to nothing more than a collection of interesting ideas that fail to coalesce into anything larger. Two years later, I proved myself dead wrong and the film is indeed a brilliant look at one man's projected anxieties. [seen: 02/04, upgraded 05/06]
The Third Part of the Night (1971) [seen: 11/07]
Terry Zwigoff (4)
Art School Confidential (2006) [seen: 05/06] A major letdown from both director Terry Zwigoff and writer Daniel Clowes, this smug comedy shows both of these unique talents at their most undistinguished. The film chronicles the journey of Jerome (Clowes stand-in Max Minghella) from high school into a NYC art school where he aspires to become the 21st Century’s greatest artist and to lose his virginity in the process. Much of the film’s critique on art school stereotypes is spot-on and is the source of most of the laughs, but that is short-lived and the rest consists of a pointless murder mystery, some dick jokes, and some gay jokes. The deepest question the film manages to probe is whether Max can actually achieve his goal of sex without first becoming a successful artist. It’s lame to the Nth degree, and for the most part this resembles nothing more than a disposable Kevin Smith comedy. Fortunately, Zwigoff is a great deal more talented as a director than Smith, and things remain watchable despite remaining pedestrian. Where the Hell is that wonderful soundtrack that Ghost World had!?
Bad Santa (2003) [seen: 11/03, 12/03] In 1983 Bob Clark released what remains to be the greatest holiday film of all time, A Christmas Story. The film worked so well because it had the holidays figured out. It showed that Christmas was not a season of joy and giving, and instead depicted it for the overblown spectacle that it truly is -- a depressing month overflowing with stress, frustration, and ultimately letdown. Fast-forward twenty years to Terry Zwigoff’s new film Bad Santa, about a contemptible SOB with a taste for booze and penchant for cracking safes. Following in line with the previous Zwigoff protagonists, Billy Bob Thornton brings just the right touch of misanthropic flair to his character. This is a man who never got a Red Ryder BB gun as child, but he doesn’t complain, he knows he'd just end up shooting his goddamn eye out. A lot of people have attacked this film calling it rude, vulgar, and misogynistic. They might be right, but I’d like to add that this is quite possibly the funniest movie I’ve ever had the good fortune of seeing.
Crumb (1994) [last seen: 11/04]
Ghost World (2001)
11'9"01- September 11th (Various Directors, 2003) [seen: 10/03]
2LDK (2002) Yukihiko Tsutsumi [08/04]
The 5,000 Fingers of Dr. T (1953) Roy Rowland [seen: 03/04]
(A)torsion (2002) Stefan Arsenijevic [short] [seen: 01/04]
Acne (2000) Rusty Nails [seen: 11/05]
Acolytes (2008) Jon Hewitt [seen: 01/10]
An Actor's Revenge (1963) Kon Ichikawa [seen: 04/05]
The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai (1984) W.D. Richter [seen: 12/03]
Afterschool (2008) Antonio Campos [seen: 03/10]
Air Guitar Nation (2006) Alexandra Lipsitz [seen: 02/10]
Alice, Sweet Alice (1976) Alfred Sole [seen: 04/05]
Alvin and the Chipmunks (2007, USA) Tim Hill [seen: 12/09]
American Splendor (2003) Shari Springer Berman & Robert Pulcini [seen: 02/04]
The Angry Red Planet (1959) Ib Melchior [seen: 10/03]
Animal Crackers (1930) Victor Heerman [seen: 11/03]
Anvil! The Story of Anvil (2008) Sacha Gervasi [seen: 01/10]
Arizona Dream (1993) [seen: 06/05]
Away With Words (1999) Christopher Doyle [seen: 08/04]
Baba Yaga (1973) Corrado Farina [seen: 02/04] Rather unexciting erotic giallo about witchcraft and lesbian seduction. Based on a popular S&M comic book series, this apparently created quite the stir when it was released in the 70's, but seems rather tame by today's standards. Genre fans might find something to enjoy here.
Babies (2010) Thomas Balmes [seen: 05/10] A doc on babies. Works best when it isn't hammering home jokes with cross cutting, and simply let's the viewer find their way through the material.
Ballast (2008) Lance Hammer [seen: 11/09]
The Barbarian Invasions (2003) Denys Arcand [seen: 02/04]
Bashu, the Little Stranger (1986) Bahram Beizai [seen: 02/04] Saves face a little in the final reel, but can't make up for some obvious Spielberg trappings. This film was apparently a tremendous success when first released--which for this viewer is just another sign of its mediocrity.
Beneath Loch Ness (2001) Chuck Comisky [seen: 12/03]
Better Luck Tomorrow (2002) Justin Lin) [seen: 12/03]
Beyond Dreams Door (1989) Jay Woelfel [seen: 01/10]
Big Fan (2009, USA) Robert D. Siegel [seen: 01/10]
Bio Zombie (1998) Wilson Yip [seen: 10/04]
Bitch Slap (2009) Rick Jacobson [seen: 04/10]
Black Dynamite (2009) Scott Sanders [seen: 02/10]
The Blind Side (2009) John Lee Hancock [seen: 04/10]
Blonde Cobra (1963) Ken Jacobs [seen: 11/03] - An indelible masterpiece, Ken Jacobs' 1963 avant-garde work is constructed around the mad genius of filmmaker Jack Smith. Jacobs works with footage shot by Bob Fleischner, which was given to him to do with as he pleased after Smith and Fleischner had a fallout due to a fire that was started when Smith's cat knocked over a candle. Most of the black and white 16mm footage has Smith dressed in drag playing an array of characters (or are they personas?). The film frequently cuts to screens of black leader where Jacob's inserts audio clips from tapes of Smith saying bizarre and hilarious things. The beauty of this work rests in the bravery of Jack Smith, who bares his creative soul for all to see, a Beat poet sensibility combined with that of a frightened little boy. Deeply personal, highly creative, equal parts hilarious and sad, this is one of the true marvels of cinema.
Bloodsucking Freaks (1976) Joel M. Reed [seen: 03/04] Cool title. Fucking terrible movie. Lots of full frontal nudity. Still a fucking terrible movie. A guy slurps brains through a straw. Still a fucking terrible movie. A black midget sporting an afro and armed with a blowgun. That's pretty cool.
Blue Gate Crossing (2002) Chin-yen Yee [seen: 03/04]
The Blue Veil (1994) Rakhshan Bani Etemad [seen: 02/04]
Body Melt (1993) Philip Brophy [seen: 01/04]
Bored to Death Season 1 (2009) Jonathan Ames creator [seen: 12/09]
Born into Brothels (2004, USA/India) Zana Briski & Ross Kauffman [seen: 04/05]
A Boy and His Dog (1975) L.Q. Jones [seen: 01/04]
Bride of the Gorilla (1951) Curt Siodmak [seen: 10/04]
Brief Interviews with Hideous Men (2009) John Krasinski [seen: 01/10]
Bronson (2009) Nicolas Winding Refn [seen: 11/09]
The Burning (1981, USA) Tony Maylam [seen: 11/04, 10/07] I’ve always been a sucker for this summer camp stuff, but wouldn't it be great if more people recognized this as one of Harvey Weinstein's greatest contributions to cinema? Perhaps they do and that is why he chose to hate on Mandy Lane?
Bus 174 (2003) Felipe Lacerda & José Padilha [seen: 08/04]
Bus Stop (1956) Joshua Logan [seen: 11/04]
Caged (1950) John Cromwell [seen: 06/10]
Camp (2003) Todd Graff [seen: 04/04]
Candyman (1992) Bernard Rose [seen: 11/04] I remember nothing about seeing this film when it first came out, but I recall finding it genuinely frightening. Oh, how things change. The premise is decent and I even found the first 30 minutes or so rather gripping, but unfortunately after the first two reels things go sour. Like the cannibal exploitation films of the seventies, this relies on white anxieties of the other race to produce a mood of fear. The crazy scientists in the cannibal films would stop at nothing for the sake of science, including marching into the perilous jungles. This is the same story only we supplant the ghetto for the jungle and an attractive white female for the anthropologists. The formula is simple--places inhabited by white people are safe and peaceful—places home to black people are scary and hellish. The special effects are quite good but the film’s politics are fucked. [seen: 04/04]
Cane Toads (1988) Mark Lewis
Capturing the Friedmans (2003) Andrew Jarecki [seen: 01/04, 04/04]
Cargo 200 (2007) Aleksey Balabanov [seen: 05/10] It's an eye opener to be sure, but I'd be lying if I said I could explain the politics behind it all -- and since almost everything Balabanov includes is a political jab of some form -- I must confess to not fully "getting it."
Carriers (2009) Àlex Pastor & David Pastor [seen: 03/10]
The Centerfold Girls (1974) John Peyser [seen: 02/10]
Un Chant D'amour (1950) Jean Genet [seen: 03/04]
The Chaser (2008) Na Hong-jin [seen: 01/10]
The Cheerleaders (1973) Paul Glickler [seen: 03/10]
C.H.U.D. (1984) Douglas Cheek [seen: 04/04]
Chunhyang (2000) Im Kwon Taek [seen: 03/05]
The Clearing (2004) Pieter Jan Brugge [seen: 07/04]
Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs (2009) Phil Lord and Chris Miller [seen: 01/10]
Cold Souls (2009) Sophie Barthes [seen: 02/10]
Confessions of a Teenage Drama Queen (2004) Sara Sugarman [seen: 02/04] I suppose I could argue for a level of unintentional surrealism on the part of the filmmaker behind this, but I'm not sure it deserves it. Things just seem to 'happen' in order to further the plot, characters come and go without explanation, and the extras seem to be having more fun than the leads. During at least three different points of this cheese-fest I could be heard uttering the phrase "What. The. Fuck." I can't say I had a bad time with this, but I can't say I quite 'got' it either. Mark Mothersbaugh, the man responsible for the genius scores behind Rushmore and The Royal Tenenbaums picked up an easy paycheck for the soundtrack.
Couples Retreat (2009) Peter Billingsley [seen: 02/10]
The Cove (2009) Louie Psihoyos [seen: 02/10]
CQ (2001) Roman Coppola [seen: 10/03]
Crac (1981) Frédéric Back [short] [seen: 04/05]
The Crazies (2010) Breck Eisner [seen: 07/10]
Crazy Heart (2009) Scott Cooper [seen: 04/10]
Crazy Love (1987) Dominique Deruddere [seen: 11/04]
Day & Night (2010) Teddy Newton [short] [seen: 06/10] Cute little love story showcases some clever animation. Oscar short film fodder.
De-Lovely (2004) Irwin Winkler [seen: 08/04]
Dead Birds (2004) Alex Turner - [seen: TIFF 04]
Dead End (2003) Jean-Baptiste Andrea & Fabrice Canepa [seen: 11/04]
Dead of Night (1945) Cavalcanti, Crichton, Dearden, & Hamer [seen: 07/04]
Defendor (2009) Peter Stebbings [seen: 06/10]
The Descent: Part 2 (2009) Jon Harris [seen: 05/10] Lame sequel which rehashes the first film's action but leaves out every bit of tension and character which raised the first film to greatness.
Die, Monster, Die! (1965) Daniel Haller [seen: 12/09]
Dodgeball: A True Underdog Story (2004) Rawson Marshall Thurber [seen: 06/04]
The Door in the Floor (2004) Tod Williams [seen: 08/04] I have not read the John Irving story that this film is based on, but I have a hard time imagining that it could be as uneven as this movie is. The script is all over the place, beginning as a serious family drama and then inexplicably morphing into 30 minutes of comedy before quickly returning to drama for the final act. Kim Basinger and Jeff Bridges play Marion and Ted Cole, a couple grieving the loss of their children some years earlier. A young teenager shows up as Ted’s summer writing assistant (newcomer Jon Foster doing an admirable Timothy Hutton impersonation), but the poor lad spends most of his time fucking Kim Basinger and driving around Bridges’ who is fucking Mimi Rodgers. There is a very quick passage where Ted reads his “Door in the Floor” story that--no big surprise here--serves as the key to unlocking the big ending.
Dread (2009) Anthony DiBlasi [seen: 03/10]
Duck (2005) Nicole Bettauer [seen: 03/10]
Duel to the Death (1982) Ching Siu-Tung [seen: 10/03] The first in a long line of martial arts flicks that I intend to watch in the wake of Kill Bill, Ching Siu Tung's Duel to the Death is a lot of fun. This Hong Kong film falls into the category of Wu Xia Pan or flying swordsman film, the basis for the style of Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon. The story revolves around a Chinese school of martial arts and a rival Japanese school who arrange a duel to prove whose technique is the best. I often had a hard time figuring out who was doing what to whom and why as I watched this film, but I didn't much care. The marvelous Scope cinematography and ass kicking choreography kept things thoroughly entertaining.
Easier With Practice (2009) Kyle Patrick Alvarez [seen: 05/10] Potent indie stuff, along with The Vicious Kind, there seems to be a stream of hard edged Labute influenced indies out there, the perfect antidote to the Post-Juno nonsense.
Eija-Lisa Ahtila: The Cinematic Works (1993-2002) [shorts] [seen: 05/04]
Eureka (2000) Shinji Aoyama [seen: 02/04] I'm still brooding over this 221 minute beauty and suspect that I will continue to do so for some time. The sepia photography is a wonder to behold and makes life in Technicolor seem drab by comparison. Why the critical world didn't fall head over heels in love with this is beyond me. Download the Jim O'Rourke song of the same name.
Das Experiment (2001) Oliver Hirschbiegel [seen: 11/03]
Exposed (1971) Gustav Wiklund [seen: 11/09]
Eyes of Crystal (2004) Eros Puglielli [seen: 03/10] Modern day giallo has some moments, but remains a bit too predictable, especially in a genre known for its twists, to be anything major.
Father of My Children (2009) Mia Hansen-Løve [seen: 06/10] I'm more or less ambivalent to this on first viewing. Hansen-Løve has something to show us and I'd love to explore more, but this is a little too novelistic for my tastes. Killer soundtrack.
Female Convict Scorpion (1972) Shunya Ito [seen: 01/04]
I Fidanzati (1963) Ermanno Olmi [seen: 09/04]
The Final (2010) Joey Stewart [seen: 04/10]
Fist of Legend (1994) Gordon Chan [seen: 05/04]
Food, Inc. (2008) Robert Kenner [seen: 03/10]
Forbidden Planet (1956) Fred M. Wilcox [last seen: 10/03]
Forbidden World (1982) Allan Holzman [seen: 07/10]
Forbidden Zone (1980) Richard Elfman [seen: 09/04]
Foreignland (1984) Götz Spielmann [short] 16mm, 45 min. [seen: 02/10]
The Forest for the Trees (2003) Maren Ade [seen: 02/10]
The Fourth Kind (2009) Olatunde Osunsanmi [seen: 03/10]
Freeze Me (2000) Takashi Ishii [seen: 07/04]
French Roast (2008) Fabrice Joubert [short]
Friday the 13th Part VI: Jason Lives (1986) Tom McLoughlin [seen: 10/04]
Friday the 13th Part VIII: Jason Takes Manhattan (1989) Rob Hedden [seen: 03/05]
From the Journals of Jean Seberg (1995) Mark Rappaport [seen: 11/04]
Frownland (2007) Ronald Bronstein [seen: 07/10]
Funeral Procession of Roses (1969) Toshio Matsumoto [seen: 04/05]
Fuses (1967) Carolee Schneemann [2nd viewing: 02/04]
Galaxy of Terror (1981) Bruce D. Clark [seen: 07/10]
Garden State (2004) Zach Braff [seen: 08/04]
Garfield (2004) Peter Hewitt [seen: 06/04]
Gary's Touch (2006) Ken Takahashi [seen: 11/09]
The Ghouls (2003) Chad Ferrin [seen: 03/05]
Giant From the Unkown (1958) Richard E. Cunha [seen: 08/04]
The Girl Next Door (2004) Luke Greenfield [seen: 04/04]
Go West (1940) Edward Buzzell [seen: 07/04]
A Good Lawyer's Wife (2003) Im Sang-soo [seen: 06/05]
Granny O'Grimm' Sleeping Beauty (2008) Nicky Phelan [short] [seen: 02/10]
Green Porno - Bon Appetit (2009) [short] Isabella Rossellini & Jody Shapiro [seen: 01/10]
Gunner Palace (2005) Petra Epperlein & Michael Tucker [seen: 04/05]
Harold and Kumar Go to White Castle (2004) Danny Leiner [seen: 07/04]
The Haunted Mansion (2003) Rob Minkoff [seen: 11/03]
He Knows You're Alone (1980) Armand Mastroianni [seen: 03/10]
The Hitcher (1986) Robert Harmon [seen: 10/03]
Home (2008) Ursula Meier [seen: 01/10]
Horror Express (1972) Eugenio Martin [seen: 07/04]
Hostage (2005) Florent Siri [seen: 03/05]
Hot Tub Time Machine (2010) Steve Pink [seen: 07/10] Ok, so we could only come up with a half-dozen 1980's jokes??? The set-up is great, but is wasted on a bunch of "dick and fuck Apatow-humor" and throws the 80's setting to the wayside.
The House is Black (1963) Forugh Farrokhzad [1st viewing; 01/04], [2nd viewing; 02/04], [3rd viewing; 02/04]
The House That Dripped Blood (1971, UK) Peter Duffell [seen: 01/10]
How to Train Your Dragon (2010) Dead DeLois & Chris Sanders [seen: 04/10]
The Human Centipede (2009) Tim Six [seen: 05/10]
The Human Stain (2003) Robert Benton [seen: 12/03] A well acted but ultimately an enormous let down from director Robert Benton. Based on a novel by the talented Philp Roth (which I haven’t read), this tells the story of a successful college professor who watches his life go to shambles after a slip of the tongue brings about accusations of racism. He finds sexual reawakening in the form of a woman half his age (Nicole Kidman), whose life is an even bigger mess than his own, and things progressively get colder and more depressing from there. I found it hard to swallow that we are supposed to believe Anthony Hopkins in the role of an aging Jew, but the ludicrous denouement is potentially even more offensive. This kept my interest for a while, but eventually I couldn’t wait for it to end. Gary Sinese and Ed Harris co-star giving evidence that whoever cast this picture wasn't a complete jackass.
Humpday (2009) Lynn Shelton [seen:11/09]
The Hustler (1961) Robert Rossen [seen: 04/05]
I Don't Just Want You to Love Me (1993) Hans Günther Pflaum [seen: 04/04]
I Like Killing Flies (2004) Matt Mahurin [seen: 01/10]
I Sell the Dead (2008) Glenn McQuaid [seen: 12/09]
I'm Gonna Explode (2008) Gerardo Naranjo [seen: 04/10]
Ilsa, She Wolf of the SS (1975) Don Edmonds [seen: 04/05]
In a Glass Cage (1986) Agustin Villaronga [seen: 06/04]
In the Electric Mist (2009) Bertrand Tavernier [seen: 03/10]
The Incredibly Strange Creatures Who Stopped Living and Became Mixed-Up Zombies!!? (1964) Ray Dennis Steckler [seen: 10/04] It’s hard for me to articulate just how bad this movie is. In fact, I found myself watching this all the way through just to see if there was anything even remotely entertaining to be found in this unending piece of nonsense (the answer turned out to be no). For an 80 minute film there is a phenomenal amount of time spent on the dreadful musical acts and dancehall routines of the carnival in which the film is set. I can only suspect that these served as “make-out interludes” for the drive-in audiences of thirty years ago, as they serve no purpose other than to put this reviewer to sleep. Take my advice and avoid this at all costs.
Inside Deep Throat (2005) Fenton Bailey & Randy Barbato [seen: 03/05]
It Came From Beneath the Sea (1955) Robert Gordon [seen: 07/04]
The Item (1999) Dan Clark [seen: 11/03]
Journey Into Amazing Caves (2001) Stephen Judson [seen: 04/05] Not much of a film, but there is a sense of a return to the idea of cinema as 'spectacle' and 'community experience' in the IMAX format that I find pleasantly invigorating.
Junk (2000) Atsushi Muroga [seen: 08/04]
Kick-Ass (2010) Matthew Vaughn [seen: 05/10]
Kill Theory (2009) Chris Moore [seen: 04/10]
The Killer Shrews (1959) Ray Kellogg [seen: 12/09]
King Arthur (2004) Antoine Fuqua [seen: 07/04]
Kronenzeitung (2002) Nathalie Borgers [short] [seen: 12/03]
Lady and the Reaper (2009) Javier Recio Gracia [short]
Lake Mungo (2009) Joel Anderson [seen: 04/10]
Last Night (1998) Don McKellar [seen: 05/04]
Laws of Gravity (1992) Nick Gomez [seen: 04/05]
Leave Her to Heaven (1945) John M. Stahl [seen: 03/05]
Lemora: A Child's Tale of the Supernatural (1973) Richard Blackburn [seen: 10/04]
Lesbian Vampire Killers (2009) Phil Claydon [seen: 02/10]
Let Sleeping Corpses Lie (1974) Jorge Grau [seen: 08/04]
Let the Right One In (2008) Tomas Alfredson [seen: 03/09, 06/10]
Lila Says (2004, France) Ziad Doueiri [seen: TIFF '04]
Liquid Sky (1982) Slava Tsukerman [seen: 04/05]
Logorama (2009) François Alaux, Herve de Crecy, Ludovic Houplain [short]
London in the Raw (1964) Arnold L. Miller [seen: 05/10] Average Mondo film, strives for playfulness rather than shock value, which is a welcomed change of pace for that genre.
Lonely are the Brave (1962, USA) David Miller [seen: 01/10]
Looking For Lulu (1998) Hugh Munro Neely [seen: 04/05]
Lord of the G-Strings (2002) Terry West - • worthless [seen: 11/04]
Lost in La Mancha (2003) Keith Fulton & Louis Pepe [seen: 06/04]
The Lost Skeleton of Cadavra (2002) Larry Blamire [seen: 06/04, 10/04, 09/06]
The Lost World (1925) Harry O. Hoyt [seen: 10/04]
Love Object (2003) Robert Parigi [seen: 08/04]
Mad Hot Ballroom (2005) Marilyn Agrelo [seen: 06/05]
Mad Men Season 1 (2007) Matthew Weiner creator
Mad Men Season 2 (2008) Matthew Weiner creator
The Maid (2009) Sebastián Silva [seen: 06/10] Very well acted little film about a bat-shit-crazy housemaid and her struggle to define a life of her own in a profession that requires her to live through others. Silva’s film is socially and politically relevant, but the picture is marred by some horrendous cinematography that does a disservice to scene after scene of brilliant material.
La maison en petits cubes (2008) Kunio Katô [short, 12min, hand drawn]
Maria Full of Grace (2004) Joshua Marston [seen: 10/04]
Memento Mori (1999) Kim Tae-Yong & Min Kyu-Dong [seen: 11/04]
The Messenger (2009) Oren Moverman [seen: 05/10] Incredible performances, with a pulse of Cassavetes-like realism, is more than just comment on the war, but a look at the inevitable confrontation with death we must all deal with in our lives.
Midnight Madness (1980) Michael Nankin & David Wechter [last seen: 07/10]
Monday (2000) Sabu [seen: 06/05]
Monday Morning (2002) Otar Iosseliani [seen: 06/05]
Mondovino (2004) Jonathan Nossiter [TIFF '04]
Monster (2003) Patty Jenkins [seen: 01/04]
Moon (2009) Duncan Jones [seen: 01/10]
The Most Terrible Time in My Life (1994) Kaizo Hayashi [seen: 09/04]
Mother's Day (1980) Charles Kaufman [seen: 10/03]
Motorama (1991) Barry Shils [seen: 10/03] A 10 year old boy cracks his piggy bank, steals his father's Mustang, and heads out on an R rated cross-country adventure where he becomes obsessed with collecting promotional Motorama cards given out by participating gas stations. This is easily one of the most refreshing and original films I have seen in a while. Many people will be put off by the bizarre story, which might explain why it's taken me almost 12 years to catch up with this gem of a movie, but others should find it ingenious. This is light-hearted David Lynch in way, dark yet revealing and always original. A hard movie to track down, but if you get the chance to see it, don't pass this up for anything.
Mr. Vampire (1985) Ricky Lau [seen: 11/04] A damn fun Hong Kong action/comedy, this set off a wave sequels and spin-offs in what became to be known as the “Hopping Vampire” sub-genre. A group of bumbling martial artists protect a small community from the invasion of a vampire plague by relying on an array of obscure Chinese mysticisms that includes holding your breath and something called “sticky rice.” The brilliant choreography is both a throwback to the classic Wu Xia Pan of the Shaw Brothers Studios and a zany live-action version of a Tex Avery cartoon. If you are new to this, like I was, I suspect you will be hunting down the sequels. Highly recommend.
Murder By Contract (1958) Irving Lerner [seen: 06/04]
Murder, My Sweet (1944) Edward Dmytryk [seen: 03/05]
Murderous Maids (2000) Jean-Pierre Denis [seen: 10/03]
My Little Eye (2002) Marc Evans [seen: 10/04] Maybe one or two people can recall an unfamiliar face that was on the cover of Sight & Sound about a year and a half ago along with Mike Leigh and Lynne Ramsay for an article promoting a new wave of talented UK directors. The mystery man was director Mark Evans. To think they couldn’t come up with a third person for that photo (perhaps Jonathan Glazer was busy?) is utterly ridiculous. That image will forever be seared in my mind as the photographic representation of the current drought that British cinema is experiencing. My Little Eye is the film Evans made that earned him that magazine cover. The premise is interesting—5 people sign up for a web cam show where they live in a secluded house for 6 months—as long as everyone remains for the full amount of time, they win a million dollars. Outside influences, such as a letter informing that one contestant’s Grandfather has passed away show up, raising the question “Is this real, or just a trick to get us to lose the game?” Eventually a gun comes in the mail… It’s funny that no matter how creative and contemporary these digital age horror films try to feel, in the end they always regress into formulaic horror scenarios that have been around for decades. Evans directs the proceedings in a style not unlike the recent multi-screen experiments of Mike Figgis. This excess of style and an attractive young cast keeps the proceedings watchable, but the lack of substance and original ideas means you won’t be remembering this one a week later.
NEKRomantik (1987) Jörg Buttgereit [seen: 07/04] No film that features this much depravity can be entirely worthless; however just don’t ask me to enjoy it. Easily one of the sickest films I’ve come across, the loose narrative has a man who transports corpses for a living, bringing home a heavily decayed body so that he and his girlfriend can use it for wild sex. Director Jörg Buttgereit is obviously out to push our buttons. A man kills his cat, bathes in its blood, and masturbates with its entrails for Christ's sake! John Waters is a rumored fan of the film, which doesn’t surprise me since it basically one-ups him in just about every category (save shit eating). Despite being a hard film to watch, I have to say that anyone interested in the psychologies behind horror cinema can afford to miss this. Sure Buttereit flirts with pornography, he ends his film with a cum shot (albeit a bloody one), but is there really much of a difference between the two genres in the first place?
The Night Flier (1997) Mark Pavia [seen: 06/10] An overlooked gem that builds to a rolling boil, this is written and directed with an intensity sorely missing from the majority of contemporary horror films. The resolution is a bit of a letdown, but the journey is well worth taking. Happy to see this filmmaker has a sophomore project underway.
Night of the Giving Head (2008) Rodney Moore [04/10]
Night of the Living Dead (1990) Tom Savini [seen: 04/04] Prolific make-up artist Tom Savini (Dawn of the Dead, Day of the Dead) made his directorial debut in this remake of George A. Romero’s 1968 classic. Scripted and Produced by Romero, this mostly comes across as a moneymaking project, despite a couple of interesting twists on the original film. I was most surprised that Savini, given his background, decided not to up the on-screen carnage. Rather than indulge in a few scenes of zombies feasting on flesh, Savini instead keeps the proceedings deeply psychological. The results, although rather unsatisfying, manage to rival the original in its dark view of social hostility. Savini speaks frequently about his experiences as a soldier in Vietnam and how he used to practice make-up effects by replicating the violence he witnessed everyday. If practicing gore was his way to deal with the horrors of the physical, the depressing undertones of this work suggest a means of working out the psychological.
North Face (2008) Philipp Stölzl [seen: 06/10] I expected Touching the Void, and I got an equal amount of suspense, but also a riveting love story and a wonderful pre-WWII setting wherein the doomed mountain climbers are a symbol for the bald-faced arrogance of the German empire. Stölzl displays remarkable control utilizing his landscapes to figure a larger role in the film.
Not Your Typical Bigfoot Movie (2008) Jay Delaney [11/09]
Open Water (2003) Chris Kentis [seen: 08/04]
Oseam (2003) Seong Baek-yeob [seen: 08/04]
The Other Side of the Bed (2002) Emilio Martínez Lázaro [seen: 11/04]
Pale Flower (1964) Masahiro Shinoda [seen: 11/03]
Pandora's Box (1928) G.W. Pabst [seen: 04/05]
Paper Heart (2009) Nicholas Jasenovec [seen: 12/09]
Parents (1989) Bob Balaban [seen: 11/04]
Peppermint Frappé (1967) Carlos Saura [seen: 04/05]
Pillow Talk (1959) Michael Gordon [seen: 12/03]
Platonic Sex (2001) Masako Matsuura [seen: 09/04]
Powder Blue (2009) Timothy Linh Bui [seen: 01/10]
Precious: Based on the Novel Push by Sapphire (2009) Lee Daniels [seen: 03/10]
Primer (2004) Shane Carruth [seen: 04/05]
Purana Mandir (1984) Shyam Ramsay & Tulsi Ramsay [seen: 05/10] My first exposure to Bollywood horror and let's just say I'm not rushin' out to see more. At 144 min this feels like a patch quilt of about 3 different films, although the horror elements do have a sort of visual charm that was simultaneously showing up in the States via Sam Raimi.
Quid Pro Quo (2008) Carlos Brooks [seen: 06/10] The cold and clinical melancholia we typical associate with Atom Egoyan is the method of choice from newcomer Carlos Brooks who employs this unusual approach to a script so absurd, it has to be taken with a dose of dark humor in order to work. The story deals with a subculture of folks who envy the paralyzed, pretending themselves to be crippled; they depend on their wheelchairs for a sense of self. There is a predictable twist, some fine acting (when is Farmiga bad?), and enough bizarre dysfunctional sorrow on display to keep things watchable, but it’s a tough pill to swallow, both as truth or as metaphor. Bunuel would have had a field day with a story like this, but Brooks barely seems to scratch the surface.
Re-Penetrator (2004) Doug Sakmann [short]
Resurrection of the Little Match Girl (2002) Jang Sun-Woo [seen: 08/04]
The Return (2003) Andrei Zvyagintsev ) [seen: 05/04]
Revanche (2008) Götz Spielmann [seen: 02/10]
Rivers and Tides: Andy Goldsworthy Working with Time (2001) Thomas Riedelsheimer [seen: 10/04]
River's Edge (Tim Hunter) [seen: 10/03]
Robot Monster (1953) Phil Tucker [seen: 01/04]
Robots (2005) Chris Wedge & Carlos Saldanha [seen: 03/05]
Screwballs (1983) Rafal Zielinski [seen: 11/09]
Satan's Sadists (1969) Al Adamson [seen: 10/03]
Save the Green Planet (2003) Jeong Jun-hwan [seen: 01/04]
Saved! (2004) Brian Dannely [seen: 06/04]
Scenes From the Life of Andy Warhol:Friendships and Intersections (1990) Jonas Mekas [short]
Scooby-Doo 2: Monsters Unleashed (2004) Raja Gosnell [seen: 04/04] I watched a lot of Scooby-Doo cartoons as a child and for that I can appreciate some of this movie. I can’t for the life of me however figure out why they needed to alter the successful premise of the original series. The mystery gang is now world famous, complete with fancy clothes and elaborate mansions, and much of the childhood innocence from the cartoon series has been exorcised by pop cultural references. The Mystery Machine now comes equipped with fancy “Rims” and cameos by American Idol contestants makes this all seem superfluous. Add to the fact that Shaggy does a “whip-it” and a couple of jokes about homosexuality and pot smoking also show up. Just how old do the filmmakers think their audience is? I yawned and my little nephews laughed from beginning to end…go figure.
The Seashell and the Clergyman (1928) Germaine Dulac [03/04, 11/07]
The Secret of Kells (2009) Tomm Moore [seen: 04/10]
The September Issue (2009) R.J. Cutler [seen: 03/10]
Serbis (2008) Brillante Mendoza [seen: 04/10]
Shattered Glass (2003) Billy Ray [seen: 11/03]
She's Out of My League (2010) Jim Field Smith [seen: 07/10]
Shogun Assassin (1980) Kenji Misumi [seen:05/04] In case you were interested, this is the movie that the Bride’s daughter watches at the end of Kill Bill vol. 2. One of the classics in the Samurai genre, this is actually an export for American consumption that is edited from three superior Japanese films. The Lone Wolf and Cub series is famous for its trademark geysers of blood and sharp widescreen compositions. All of that is evident here, however director Robert Houston has taken Kenji Musumi’s first three entries in the seven part series and robbed them of any interesting storyline. The results are a non-stop festival of carnage that is sure to arouse interest in even casual fans of the genre. I loved every second of it, even if I sorely missed Musumi’s carefully balanced storytelling. Dubbed in English.
Shuzou River (2000) Lou Ye [seen: 04/05]
A Single Man (2009) Tom Ford [seen: 07/10]
Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow (2004) Kerry Conran [seen: 09/04]
Slash (2002) Neal Sundstrom [seen: 11/04]
Sleepaway Camp (1983) Robert Hiltzik [seen: 10/03, 04/04, 07/10]
Sleepaway Camp II: Unhappy Campers (1988) Michael A. Simpson [seen 04/04] The absolute worst! I rent these stupid horror films because I have a weak spot for the genre and I find them easy to watch late at night when focusing on a serious film simply isn’t an option. At this point I’m thinking I may have exhausted the selection at my local video store. This “horror film” is never scary, contains hardly any gore, and even lacks that “it’s so bad it’s good” laughable storyline that makes some of these enjoyable. Hell on earth might involve marathon viewings of this piece of shit.
Slime City (1988) Greg Lamberson [seen: 02/10]
Sling Blade (1996) Billy Bob Thornton [4th viewing: 05/04]
Slumber Party Massacre (1982) Amy Holden Jones [seen: 03/04] In many ways this formulaic Halloween spin-off is a minor classic of the genre. The title advertises the few gratuitous breast shots that help sell the film while diverting attention away from director Amy Holden Jones’ sharp feminist sensibility. Don’t think it’s a stretch of the imagination when you see the killer chasing these scantily clad girls with an enormous phallic drill muttering, “I just want to love you.” It is possible to psychoanalyze a film with a dead pizza deliveryman! The ending has a very unique Hitchcockian moment involving a blanket and also manages to turn the “final girl” syndrome on its head. Recommended.
“Smack My Bitch Up” -- video for Prodigy (1997) Jonas Ackerlund [last seen: 05/10]
Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (1937) David Hand [seen: 11/09]
Sonny Boy (1990) Robert Martin Carroll [seen: 10/04]
Spider Forest (2004) Song Il-gon [seen: TIFF '04]
Spring Break Shark Attack (2005) Paul Shapiro [seen: 11/04]
The Stepfather (2009) Nelson McCormick [seen: 06/10] The whole demystification of the suburbs thing has long been played out and the fact that the politically sharp edge of the 1980's Reagan era original is no longer pertinent did not stop Hollywood from remaking this one. With not a drop to say it leaves hardly an impression, but there is some suspense to had in between. Hey, where the hell is that Mandy Lane movie?? That shit was pretty good...
The Stepford Wives (1975) Bryan Forbes [seen: 03/10]
Story of the Weeping Camel (2003) Byambasuren Davaa & Luigi Falorni [seen: 11/04]
Stranded (2002) María Lidón [seen: 11/04] Vincent Gallo in space rating
Suburban Nightmare (2004) Jon Keeyes [seen: 10/04]
Suicide Girls Must Die! (2010) Sawa Suicide [seen: 07/10]
Summer Wars (2009) Mamoru Hosoda [seen: 07/10]
Super Fly (1972) Gordon Parks Jr. [seen: 06/04]
Super Size Me (2004) Morgan Spurlock [seen: 05/04] This guy can't direct worth a damn. He's obviously very smart and his film delivers more than enough food for thought, however I am no smarter for having watched this and in the end, the only thing Super Sized in Spurlock's life is his wallet.
Take Care of My Cat (2001) Jeong Jae-eun [seen: 03/05]
Telephone - Lady Gaga music video (2009, USA) Jonas Åkerlund [seen: 03/10]
Tenement: Game of Survival (1985) Roberta Findlay [seen: 04/05]
Tentacles (1977) Ovidio G. Assonitis [seen: 05/10] The worst movie I have ever seen constructed with a cast of great actors. Astonishing really, there is not a single thing to enjoy here...
Terry Tate, Office Linebacker (2002) Rawson Marshall Thurber [short]
Them! (1954) Gordon Douglas [seen: 04/04] Released the same year as Godzilla, this is the first in a long line of Nuclear Age Monster movies—this time around it’s giant ants that have been mutated by Atomic testing and are threatening to take over America. What most impressed me about this able thriller was it’s ability to handle the story on a macro level. Instead of the usual insignificant and secluded town that became a cliché for this cycle of films (Tremors is a decent modern version of this), we get a threat of national proportions. Seen today, in a world where every TV show fantasizes about bio-terrorist outbreaks and containing the threat, this little film is able to speak wonders. Both speak to the fears of a country in the wake of a war, and personally I find giant ants more entertaining than Kiefer Sutherland.
This Is It (2009) Kenny Ortega [seen: 01/10]
This Island Earth (1955) Joseph M. Newman [seen: 09/04]
Thriller: A Cruel Picture (1974, Sweden) Bo Arne Vibenius [seen: 10/04] Sometimes referred to as They Call Her One Eye, here is an exploitation picture of the highest order—cheap, offensive, and wholly entertaining. Director Bo Arne Vibenius made this film under a pseudonym--even the cast was sworn to secrecy regarding his identity—and his intent was to make a quick dollar in order to fund something more “artistic.” Vibenius would go on to do nothing else, but his film would survive in various bootleg copies, eventually landing in the hands of a wide-eyed Quentin Tarantino who would base the Elle Driver character from his Kill Bill series entirely on this film. Technically, this is miles above similar rape-revenge films like I Spit on Your Grave, Vibenius has a striking sense for composition and the slow motion he adds to the aestheticized violence is highly evocative of Sam Peckinpah. Viewing the 100-minute extended cut, which includes shots of penetration for when the film screened in porno houses, has a fascinating effect of reminding us of the film’s various derivations while at the same time confronting us with our own social taboos. If you think you can stomach the subject matter, or if you are a fan of the work of Abel Ferrara, prepare to be blown away.
Tigrero: A Film That Was Never Made (1994) Mika Kaurismaki [seen: 08/04]
Tokyo! (2008) Various [seen: 11/09]
Tough Guys Don't Dance (1987) [seen: 10/03]
A Town Called Panic (2009) Stéphane Aubier & Vincent Patar [seen: 07/10]
Treeless Mountain (2008) Kim So Yong [seen: 04/10]
True Blood Season 1 (2008) Alan Ball creator [seen: 06/09]
True Blood Season 2 (2009) Alan Ball creator
The Ugly (1997) Scott Reynolds [seen: 11/04] A very silly horror film from New Zealand about a serial killer recounting his murders in flashback to a criminal psychiatrist who is trying to determine if he is sane or not. Even if like yours truly, you find yourself getting the chills over the sight of a straight razor being run through human flesh, you won’t find yourself very shaken by any of this. All of the blood in the film is rendered to look like black ink—some kind of profound statement into the killer’s psyche that eluded me, and by the time the grand finale rolls around everything is wallowing in enough Dressed to Kill nostalgia to induce groans.
The Ugly Truth (2009) Robert Luketic [seen: 11/09]
United States of Tara SSN 1 (2009, USA) Diablo Cody creator [01/10]
United States of Tara SSN 2 (2010, USA) Diablo Cody creator [06/10]
The Vicious Kind (2009) Lee Toland Krieger [seen: 03/10] Described as "the best film Neil LaBute never made" by the Village Voice, and I can't say I disagree. LaBute himself Executive Produced, and while the film is a bit predictable and hard to swallow at times, the seething misanthropy beneath the surface makes me long for the LaBute of old to return to these types of pictures. Krieger handles the widescreen frame exceptionally well and his actors have the chops to carry his script. Solid stuff all around, I'm curious to see what's on the horizon.
You Only Live Twice (1967) Lewis Gilbert [seen: 11/09]
The Young Victoria (2009) Jean-Marc Vallée [seen: 04/10]
Underworld (2003) Len Wiseman [seen: 01/04]
The Unknown Chaplin (1983) Kevin Brownlow & David Gill [seen: 06/05]
The Upside of Anger (2005) Mike Binder [seen: 04/05]
Venom (1982) Piers Haggard [seen: 04/05]
Waltz With Bashir (2008) Ari Folman [seen: 11/09]
Wax Mask (1997) Sergio Stivaletti [seen: 07/04]
We Don't Live Here Anymore (2004) John Curran [seen: 09/04]
Westworld (1973) Michael Crichton [seen: 04/10]
Whip It (2009) Drew Barrymore [seen: 01/10]
Whisky Galore! (1949) Alexander Mackendrick [seen: 06/05]
White Lightnin' (2009) Dominic Murphy [seen: 01/10]
Wild Zero (2000) Tetsuro Takeuchi [01/04]
Willard (2003) Glen Morgan [seen: 04/04]
Within Our Gates (1919) Oscar Micheaux [seen: 01/04]
The Wolf Man (1941) George Waggner [seen: 07/04]
Yeelen (1987) Souleymane Cissé [seen: 04/05]
You Can Count On Me (2000) Kenneth Lonergan [last seen: 05/04]
Zatoichi and the Chess Expert (1965) Kenji Misumi seen: 05/04]
Zatoichi's Vengeance (1966) Tokuzo Tanaka [seen: 05/04]
Zombies of Mass Destruction (2009) Kevin Hamedani [seen: 04/10]

 

 

Films Seen in October 2005

02. Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (1932, USA) Rouben Mamoulian - *** a must see
03. Le Révélateur (1968, France) Philippe Garrel - **** Masterpiece
04. Love Rites (1988, France) Walerian Borowczyk - ** worth seeing
05. Zabriskie Point (1970, USA) Michelangelo Antonioni - *** a must see
07. Warriors Two (1978, Hong Kong) Sammo Hung - *** a must see
08. Murders in the Rue Morgue (1932, USA) Robert Florey - ** worth seeing
10. The Ghost Ship (1943, USA) Mark Robson - *** a must see
13. Cry_Wolf (2005, USA) Jeff Wadlow - * has redeeming facet
A group of teens at an upscale prep school take a Halloween prank too far when they invent a masked killer that may actually turn out to be for real. It’s a pretty silly movie, not a horror film, but a disappointing mystery, that sacrifices every bit of bloodshed in order to exploit the dollar of the PG-13 market. The filmmaker Jeff Wadlow won a contest to “direct his own feature film,” and this is the million-dollar result. From a business perspective, it seems like a decent time to refresh the I Know What You Did Last Summer plot structure and I admit the film is successful at giving the audience a lot of play at guessing who the killer may be, but there is far too much build up at work here. By the time the payoff rolls around, it should be fully apparent that the guise of a horror film was what this movie used to get audiences into the theater, and even the dramatic plot twist at the end couldn’t distract me from feeling had. Aptly titled Cry_Wolf, I suppose I shouldn’t fault the film when I find myself asking, “Where the fuck is the wolf?”
14. Lord of War (2005, USA) Andrew Niccol - ** worth seeing
For those who like their films with a heavy dose of cynicism, then this is the picture for you. Nicholas Cage stars as a suave and unapologetic arms dealer who tries to rationalize the “need” for his profession to we the audience. Writer/director Andrew Niccol can be either brilliant (cf. his script for The Truman Show) or hopelessly laughable (cf. The Terminal), and this movie falls somewhere in between the two. Niccol is working double time here with his role as director, and it’s obvious that he is out to entertain first and make a point second. Every time the film threatens to take a turn towards ‘seriousness,’ along comes Jared Leto (in an obnoxious performance as the doped up brother) to add some comic relief. Cage plays the role with a deadpan seriousness, and combined with Niccol’s script (when it’s working in high gear) there are several harrowing sequences worthy to remember, like the opening CGI long take that shows the manufacturing and ultimate harrowing fate of a single bullet. For the most part however, I just couldn’t take the film on any serious level, and its use of ironic music grew tiresome, very fast, almost like a feature length version of the end credit sequence of Dogville. This is about as risky as mainstream cinema can get, and it’s commendable for this, even if it cannot escape the fact that it is mainstream cinema.
15. Massacre at Central High (1976, USA) Rene Daalder - *** a must see
16. Thumbsucker (2005, USA) Mike Mills - *** a must see
A story about a teenage boy who is addicted to his thumb and his gradual mental unwinding as he attempts to give up his childhood addiction, this is not your typical American indie film with big name actors and contrived story bent on revealing a darker side to American suburbia. Instead, this is a pointed critique of the overmedicated/-mediated American culture that seems to be rearing its ugly face these days. Not a Tom Cruise rant on the negatives of antidepressants, Mike Mills’ film is instead a poignant look at the consumerist need that these drugs can often fulfill (ever seen those commercials at 2am “Are you feeling sad? Alone?”). You could just as easily supplant antidepressants for any number of things – television, fast food, recreational drugs, dieting, etc – because the point is the personal comfort we gain by displacing the most natural of human fears and anxieties onto the most trivial of consumerized items, and how we allow these to rule our very lives. I would have hated this film when I was 17, which is exactly the age of the audience that Sony Pictures has been marketing this to.
19. A Time For Drunken Horses (2000, Iran) Bahman Ghobadi - *** a must see
20. In Her Shoes (2005, USA) Curtis Hanson - ** worth seeing
A very capable Hollywood film, directed without the slightest auteurist sensibility by Curtis Hanson, who is now a sure thing for studios everywhere looking for “hired help.” Following up his work on 8 Mile and Wonder Boys, Hanson has proven he can approach just about any project, and regardless of whether he is invested in the material or not, he seems to always be able to grind out a well made and well-acted film. Based on the novel by Jennifer Weiner, who was obviously aiming for the “Sex in the City” crowd, the story chronicles the relationship between two sisters—one a shy workaholic (Toni Collette) and the other an extroverted mess (Cameron Diaz)—who have a falling out and in their loneliness discover a grandmother (Shirley MacLaine) they didn’t know they had. The real standout here is Collette who turns in a subtle piece of acting, and who may finally get the recognition she’s always deserved. How well this film works for you however, depends largely on how well you stomach stories about people undergoing life-changing transformations and live happily ever after, and if like me you find them trite and forgettable, then you certainly can afford to skip this.
25. Blood Freak (1972, USA) Brad F. Grinter & Steve Hawkes - • worthless
26. Body Parts (1991, USA) Eric Red - *** a must see
28. Serenity (2005, USA) Joss Whedon - * has redeeming facet
The term “fanboy” seems applicable when trying to rationalize some of the overwhelming praise this has been receiving. I’ve not seen the original series “Firefly,” but I suspect it’s better than this big-screen adaptation, which never feels like anything other than a filmed television show. Although Whedon brings several refreshing elements into the mix – witty dialogue, well drawn out characters, ACTUAL locales over CGI reconstructions – it never manages to create that dense and original world that typically characterizes great fantasy serials. Instead, it feels like a glam soap opera, utilizing leftover Star Wars props and costumes with nothing more than cheesy entertainment on the agenda. In this sense the film is a success, but to call it visionary is a joke.
29. High Tension (2003, France) Alexandre Aja - *** [2nd viewing; last viewing Sept.2003]
This works even better the second time around when you can prepare yourself for the laughable final act (which really is just plain awful). I’ve learned to forgive Aja’s messy ending because minute for minute, the first 45-minutes of this have to be some of the sharpest, most visceral horror cinema of the decade. Here’s hoping that he can stick to his guns on his next project, a remake of Craven’s The Hills Have Eyes.
31. May (2003, USA) Lucky McKee - *** [2nd viewing]
34. Xala (1975, Senegal) Ousmane Sembene - *** a must see
37. The Garbage Pail Kids Movie (1987, USA) Rodney Amateau - * has redeeming facet (childhood nostalgia I’m sure.)
38. Dreamer (2005, USA) John Gatins - ** worth seeing
42. The Last Man on Earth (1964, Italy/USA) Ubaldo Ragona and Sidney Salkowin - ** worth seeing
44. Elizabethtown (2005, USA) Cameron Crowe - • worthless
Cameron Crowe, are you making a film or a fucking music video? Your soundtrack is horrible, your lead actor worse. Please understand that inserting a song in every sequence cannot hide the fact that practically every character and action in your movie rings false. You have made a film so overblown and condescending and you deliver it with such superficial aplomb to attain that “feel good” effect, you actually left me feeling angered and depressed. Thank you.
45. Solaris (1972, Soviet Union) Andrei Tarkovsky - **** Masterpiece
47. Proof (2005, USA) John Madden - *** a must see
49. Domino (2005, USA) Tony Scott - * has redeeming facet
50. Tale of Tales (1979, Soviet Union) Yuri Norstein [short] - **** Masterpiece
51. Alone in the Dark (1982, USA) Jack Sholder - ** worth seeing
52. Street Trash (1987, USA) James Muro - ** worth seeing
53. Le Retour à la raison (1923, France) Man Ray [short] - [umpteenth viewing]
54. Emak-Bakia (1926, France) Man Ray [short]
55. L'Étoile de mer (1928, France) Man Ray [short]
56. North Country (2005, USA) Niki Caro - * has redeeming facet
58. Habit (1997, USA) Larry Fessenden - *** a must see
61. Hondo (1953, USA) John Farrow - **** Excellent
62. Les Mystères du château de Dé (1929, France) Man Ray [short] * has redeeming facet
63. Rubber Johnny (2005, UK) Chris Cunningham [short] - *** a must see - obviously great, but I need to not see this as a shitty Flash file.
64. Niagara (1953, USA) Henry Hathaway - ** worth seeing
67. Werner Herzog Eats His Shoe (1980, USA) Les Blank [short] **** Masterpiece [4th viewing?]
68. Rize (2005, USA) David LaChapelle - *** a must see
70. Rubin and Ed (1991, USA) Trent Harris - *** a must see
74. Encounter in the Thrid Dimension (1999, USA) Ben Stassen [IMAX movie] no rating
77. Combat Shock (1986, USA) Buddy Giovinazzo - ** worth seeing
79. To Sleep With Anger (1990, USA) Charles Burnett - **** Masterpiece

Films Seen in November

03. Everything is Illuminated (2005, USA) Liev Schreiber - a must see
The writing and directorial debut from actor Liev Schreiber (see the underrated Daytrippers), turns out to be a pleasant surprise. A young Jewish man (Elijah Wood) travels to the Ukraine to learn about his family’s past involving WWII and the Nazis. His guides are a disgruntled old man who pretends to be blind, his slacker/translator son, and a “seeing eye bitch.” Together they embark on a spiritual journey of sorts, and even though this is shot on digital video, the lush foreign landscapes add a beautiful and dreamlike feel to the film. It’s nothing major, but a whimsical and ultimately touching bit of filmmaking nonetheless; to me it was like a breath of fresh air.
04. Titicut Follies (1967, USA) Frederick Wiseman - Excellent
05. In Cold Blood (1967, USA) Richard Brooks - a must see
06. Kamikaze Girls (2004, Japan) Tetsuya Nakashima - has redeeming facet
I haven’t the stomach for movies like Charlie's Angels or The Spice Girls Movie, but I imagine if you took those films, added a shitload of obscure Japanese pop culture references, and magnified the over-the-top direction tenfold, it might look something like this. May work for some people, but I found it annoying as hell.
07. The Weather Man (2005, USA) Gore Verbinski - worth seeing
09. Invasions of the Body Snatchers (1978, USA) Philip Kaufman - worth seeing
10. Capote (2005, USA) Bennett Miller - a must see
13. Guerrilla: The Taking of Patty Hearst (2004, USA) Robert Stone - a must see
14. Presents (1981, Canada) Michael Snow - a must see
17. Jarhead (2005, USA) Sam Mendes - has redeeming facet
19. The Dead Next Door (1988, USA) J.R. Bookwalter - worth seeing
20. Masters of Horror: Episode 3 - "Dance of the the Dead" (2005, USA) Tobe Hooper - worthless
21. The Haunted Mouth (1974, USA) American Dental Association, dir. uncredited [short]
It took the Top 10 lists over at The Academic Hack for me to even realize I owned this (see Other Cinema’s Experiments in Terror DVD) and damn am I thankful for it. A 10-minute short commissioned by the American Dental Association featuring the voice of Cesar Romero as B. Plaque, who warns children about the evil he will unleash on their teeth should they fail to properly brush. It plays like both a time capsule to the days when teachers used to thread up 16mm films in the classroom, and as something of a cinematic treasure; a supernatural piece of surrealist found film. The haunting, ambient soundscape exaggerates the film’s straightforward structure of establishing shots and slow pans, rooting the viewer in not so much a cinematic space, but a personal space, where everything (including the hokey demonstrations on flossing) becomes decontextualized, playing out like a Lynchian nightmare.
23. Way Down East (1920, USA) D.W. Griffith - a must see
25. The Chase (1946, USA) Arthur Ripley - Masterpiece
26. Zombie Lake (1981, France) Jean Rollin - has redeeming facet
27. Dead and Breakfast (2004, USA) Matthew Leutwyler - worthless
29. Witchfinder General (1968, UK) Michael Reeves - a must see
30. Goodnight, and Good Luck (2005, USA) George Clooney - a must see
31. We (1969, Soviet Union) Artavazed Peleshyan [short]
32. Mean Creek (2004, USA) Jacob Aaron Estes - Excellent
33. Ma Mère (2004, France) Christophe Honoré - a must see
36. Saw II (2005, USA) Darren Lynn Bousman - worthless
37. Session 9 (2001, USA) Brad Anderson - Masterpiece
38. Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire (2005, USA) Mike Newell - has redeeming facet
39. The Machinist (2004, Spain) Brad Anderson - worth seeing
40. The Mothman Prophecies (2002, USA) Mark Pellington - a must see
43. Cutting Moments (1997, USA) Douglas Buck [short] Holy shit. And you thought Gaspar Noe was extreme...
44. Ravenous (1999, USA) Antonia Bird - a must see =
46. Masters of Horror: Episode 5 - "Chocolate" (2005, USA) Mick Garris - has redeeming facet
47. 9 Songs (2004, UK) Michael Winterbottom - has redeeming facet
48. Aftermath (1994, Spain) Nacho Cerdà [short] Holy shit pt. II.


December 2005
January 2006 Screening Log
February '06 Screening Log
March '06 Screening Log
April '06 Screening Log
May '06 Screening Log
June '06 Screening Log
July '06 Screening Log 
August '06 Screening Log
September '06 Screening Log
October '06 Screening Log
November '06 Screening Log
December '06 Screening Log
January '07 Screening Log
February '07 Screening Log
March '07 Screening Log

 

Offsite writing

Cafe Lumiere - DVD review found here
Danger: Diabolik - DVD review found here
Duck Season - DVD review found here
The Family Nest - DVD review found here
Fighting Elegy - DVD review found here
Forbidden Zone - DVD review found here
The Host - DVD review found here.
Keep Your Right Up! - DVD review found here
Kung Fu Hustle - DVD review found here
Prefab People - DVD review found here
Primer - DVD review found here
Princess Raccoon - DVD review found here
The Saddest Music in the World - DVD review found here
Satan's Brew - DVD review found here
The Second Civil War - DVD Review found here
The Wayward Cloud - DVD Review found here
The World - DVD review found here
Youth of the Beast - DVD review found here