1990
1. An Angel at My Table (Jane Campion)
2. Ju Dou (Zhang Yimou)
3. Goodfellas (Martin Scorsese)
4. Close-up (Abbas Kiarostami)
5. Metropolitan (Whit Stillman)
6. Life is Sweet (Mike […]
Archive for March, 2007
One of provacateur Michael Haneke’s vaguest films, but also his most hopeful. Odd, considering the film’s subject is the fallout of an apoacalypse, but then again I mean its Haneke. For those uninitiated, Michael Haneke is one of the coldest film makers working today (he makes the Dardenne Bros. look like Ron Howard) — his […]
Deserves special recognition for being the most audaciously structured Hollywood films I’ve seen in awhile; its hapahazard way of tossing away characters like old trash does wonders for its atmosphere of frustration and hopelessness. So what elevates this above a 2 1/2 hour episode of CSI? What Zodiac has to offer is one of the […]
An enjoyable Preston Sturges film, but tame and minor compared to his most delirious masterpieces — namely The Lady Eve and The Mircale of Morgan’s Creek. All of Sturges’ main themes are on display: a wariness of money and power positions, characters posing to look socialy upward. The reason Hail the Conquering Hero fizzles a […]
The Lives of Others, the foreign-language Oscar winner about the East Berlin police in the 1980s, is the best surveillance movie since The Conversation. Its hard to call any film perfect. The word “perfect” connotes uniformity, and most great films are great because of the variety they have to offer. However, after seeing the new […]
A relevant but more than a little overwrought satire on the dangers of demagoguerey. Andy Griffiths plays Lonesome Rhodes, rising from hick radio personality to a twistedly sinister version of Will Rogers. Films that ask you to swallow a character’s rise to fame based on their talents often run into some credibility problems (Tootsie with […]
Christopher Nolan’s newest mind-bender practically screams for multiple viewings. Here Nolan shows a boldness that is woefully lacking today in Hollywood formula — he treats his audiences like intellegent people. I haven’t seen an American film in some time that is so crammed with vital incidents and potential thematic depth. Its best to describe the […]
Saw it before when I was like sixteen, but I didn’t like it very much. I still can’t say I fully embrace Jim Jarmusch as a film maker, but this was much better the second time around — probably my second favorite after Down By Law. When Dead Man is good, its because Jarmusch is […]
Interesting comparing this portrayal of a man descending into mental illness to the ones Hollywood have been churning out. Let me tell you Keane does not candy-coat its main character — we don’t view him as endearing in his own cute way. I seriously warn any readers that this is by no means an easy […]
Prepare for Slow-motion! I’m not sure why I thought this might rise above most of the middling Hollywood-epic fare, but there you have it. Maybe it had to do with the admittedly enticing trailer (thanks mostly to a great Nine Inch Nails Song), but the film is basically just a two hour expansion of the […]
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