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- Almost Famous
- Sweet movie. 15 year-old kid follows the band Stillwater around in an
attempt to become a rock journalist (as opposed to a lawyer, as his mother
wants him to be.) Funny funny funny, with poignancy thrown in to make it
all dramatic and stuff. I think I mostly liked the movie because I
identified tons with the main character (uh, the fifteen-year-old geek
graduating from high school bit, the entering law bit), and I spent much
of the movie hoping that William, the kid, would escape from the grasps of
the legal profession. But that's me, overprojecting. I hope to
see Patrick Fugit, who plays the kid, again and again. Oh, and Kate
Hudson is absolutely freakishly beautiful.
- Best in Show
- Faux documentary spoof of dog shows. Hilarious. Scary funny portrait
of dog show people. My friend Louise says that conformationalists (the
dog show people that compete in terms of dogs conforming to a certain dog
type) really are that way. But she's biased, she's a veteran obediance
shower (who compete in terms of dogs being more obedient.) She says
there's a rivalry between the two groups.
- Dancer in the Dark
- You can see Lars Von Trier's manifesto at work here. Shaky camera
angles. And the generally-very-humble sets. Bjork was beautiful in the
movie, sweet and weird and great.
- The Poor and Hungry
- Saw this with Louise. Indie Memphis film, featuring the P&H bar.
Down and out people in the Mid-South stealing cars. I liked the big nice
protagonist, and his cute dyke sidekick who couldn't drive. You can tell
who I identify with. My only complaint was that my friend Louise knew a
lot of actors in the movie, and she kept making comments. Annoying, but
understandable.
- Titus
- Beheadings! Dehandings! Surreal imagery! Enough to overcome the
presumption of melodrama that I apply to most Shakespeare films. Fun.
- The Croupier
- Saw this with Justin instead of Hamlet. Wish I'd seen Hamlet, but
this was better than a lot of the summer crap that's out there. The
voice-over was a little annoying, but the soothing sounds of roulette
balls balanced that out. I completely did not predict the twist.
- Angels and Insects
- Movie set in Victorian times, with much swelling music. Ordinarily, I
would not watch this. But it's on Bravo, and the woman is twenty-seven,
and writes tributes, gifts, presents about humanized ants.
- Romeo Must Die
- Because Jet Li is a god. Or at least beautiful, fluid, lovely. Oh,
and I guess the movie itself was fun too.
- Welcome to the Dollhouse
- Ooh, my brand of humor.
- Clay Pigeons
- This was on on Showtime right after we finished watching Anatomy of a
Murder. It looked good, so I stayed and watched. Black comedy about
serial killers, more on the black side than on the comedic side. Just the
way I like it. Critics didn't. This movie is a great example of how,
while my film tastes often coincide with what the elites call "good," my
tastes aren't actually that. There are certain formulaic things that
appeal. Black comedy and serial killers are two of them. I grew to like
Vince Vaughan in this move, although I hated him in Swingers.
- Anatomy of a Murder
- Great movie, with Jimmy Schtewart and pals. Not sure the rules of
evidence were really followed, though. But ya gotta love questions like
"would you characterize her as free and easy?"
- Problem: Paul and Audrey wanted to watch it because Professor Feinberg
mentioned it, which leads me to believe that they wanted to watch it
because of its suck up value. They denied it, but one can never be sure.
- Harry's Deal
- Ohmygod my exgirlfriend made a short film and it looks GREAT! See it
at film festivals, see it if you can. It's her thesis film, and it looks
professional. The soundtrack works wonderfully. The acting is realistic,
and seems like Our Generation. Wow. Amy and I were amazed.
- Boys Don't Cry
- Good, but depressing. You spend the whole second half of the movie
saying Get out of there Brandon, get out of there Brandon! Still, well
done and well acted. Brandon is hot. Some amazing characterization in
there, with the antagonists persisting in calling Brandon "little dude"
even after. Glad this movie got made.
- The Hurricane
- Another in my series of movies watched because, well, I happen to have
gotten out of work at a certain time. Generally, one of those nicey nicey
inspirational movies, and not too tremendously cheesy. But the Canadians,
the Canadians were really weird and inscrutible. Their strangeness and
inscrutibility seem even more strange and inscrutible in light of the
"real" nature of the story.
maybe
- Schizopolis
- Weird little movie. Tries too hard. Like Soderburgh watched Repoman
and said hey I can do that, but didn't. Too many experimental forms, not
tied together well.
- The End of the Affair
- First of my series of movies that I've watched because, well, it's
showing at the nearby movie theater when I finally get off work at around
10pm. I had hoped it would be better, because it was a Neil Jordan film
(tm), but it wasn't. The twist was weird, but not in a good way. As my
friend Andy says, "Too many violins."
- Swimming with Sharks
- Pluses: Kevin Spacey, the actress that played the medical
examiner on Homicide. Minuses: semi-predictable ending, tedious
yelling and meanness (which, I suppose is the point of the movie,
being about a mean boss and all, but really got boring after
awhile.)
no
- Mars Attacks!
- Not that funny. Why oh why do they not make more film comedies that I
like? The
associated pinball game, though, is excellent.
- Return to Paradise
- Terrible movie, but I was trapped on the couch after Clay Pigeons,
hoping for better because
Return also had Vince Vaughan and Joaquin Phoenix. Sentimental claptrap
(okay, I don't
know if claptrap really applies, I just wanted to use that word) about
whether or not
you'd give three or six years of your life to go into prison for a friend.
I should have
left to go to sleep, but I was stuck.
- Something About Mary
- Everyone raved about this movie. So I stupidly listened to
"everyone," and watched when it came onto HBO. It's not that good. It's
not that funny. I didn't laugh once. What the fuck. I hate people and
their goddamn recommendations.