Celluloid #18

In Home

Black Orpheus (1959) Camus - A retelling of the myth of Orpheus set in Rio de Janeiro during Carnival. Very lively with lots of dancing and parades and bright colors. The character representing "Death" has a pretty cool geometrical one-piece. The film is a pretty liberal interpretation of the Greek myth, but well done. 4/5

F for Fake (1976) Welles - Orson Welles last film was a documentary about fakery, charlatans, and the art world. He focuses mainly on a man named Elmyr who became famous for producing fake Picassos and Matisses. However, attention is paid to Howard Hughes, Clifford Irving, and Welles himself. More of a visual essay than a documentary, a trend that Welles had hoped to continue if he had lived longer, and surprisingly a genre which hasn't really been revisited since. 4/5

Long Day's Journey Into Night (1962) Lumet - A dysfunctional family drama full of drunks, heroin users, and regrets. Unfortunately, clocking in at three hours, the dialogue just couldn't keep my attention, especially for a theme seen many times before. 3/5

Over the Edge (1979) Kaplan - Matt Dillon's debut is a film about what happens in suburban towns when the teenagers have nothing to do. Reminded me a lot of the Central Coast as told mainly through the tales of a few friends that grew up there. The teens and cops have plenty of run-ins. The parents seem to be clueless, and the only outlets for recreation are often under scrutiny. Eventually violence becomes the inevitable outcome. 4/5

Snow Angels (2007) Green - Perhaps David Gordon Green's last "serious" film (see "In News"), Snow Angels takes place in 1970s small town Pennsylvania. A teenage boy reconnects with a former babysitter as co-workers in a restaurant. Arthur's parents are in the midst of a separation, and Arthur himself just seems to try to live a normal teenage existence. Annie (the former babysitter) has a slew of her own problems, mainly centering around a suicidal estranged husband and their daughter. 4.5/5

In News

*David Gordon Green appears to be continuing down the path of comedy that he has forged by directing the debacle that was Pineapple Express. According to New York Magazine, Fox has picked up a comedy TV show by Green called Good Vibes, about surfer guys in SoCal. Disappointment.

*Italian horror aficionados will be pleased to hear that Dario Argento is finishing up a new film titled Giallo starring Adrien Brody and slated to come out sometime next year

*Last summer I read a book called Revolutionary Road, which I thought was okay, but a bit cliched, but seemed to be aiming for scandalousness. Anyway, Leo DiCaprio and Kate Winslet will be reunited to play the unlikable husband and wife character. (Thanks to Saxon for the reminder.)

*And finally, I was listening to the Mondo Movie podcast (two British dudes that talk about mainly horror and cult films) and was intrigued by the rave reviews they were giving to a new Swedish film making the festival circuit called Let the Right One In. On one level, the film involves a young girl who happens to be a vampire, and her neighbor who become friends. Supposedly more of a film about loneliness and alienation than anything else, and described at times as "touching."

Celluloid #17

In Home

After the Wedding (2007) Bier - A Celebration-like film about a family headed by a very wealthy and successful businessman, a melancholy man trying to get money to sustain an orphanage in India, and the strange ways that their lives have intersected in the past. Emotional, tense, but never cheesy. Highly recommended. 5/5

Better Luck Tomorrow (2003) Lin - Playing up a lot of stereotypes about Asians, this movie centers around a group of over-achieving, but bored high school students. Their boredom leads to petty theft, collusion, partying at first but later escalates to more violent events. 3.5/5

Face of Another (1966) Teshigahara - This film and the other film I have seen by Teshigahara (Woman in the Dunes) pretty much makes me want to watch everything this director has made. This film is about a man who has been in an accident that has scarred his face and left him in bandages, but is presented with an experimental opportunity to have a new face in the form of a realistic mask. Tons of interesting commentary on identity. 5/5

Mahanagar (1963) Ray - A Bengali family is struggling to make ends meet, so the wife decides to take a job as a saleswoman. Her decision is controversial because her family is pretty conservative and thinks she is responsible for many of the household duties. On top of that, she is really good at her job, and her husband ends up losing his job causing the traditional roles to shift somewhat. 4.5/5

Walkabout (1971) Roeg - Another weirdo film from Roeg. This time a family appears to be going on a picnic in the Australian outback when the father starts shooting at his two children and after missing them, lights himself and his car on fire. All of the sudden the kids are left alone in the middle of nowhere and have to find their way to civilization somehow. 4/5

In News

* A new Danny Boyle film should be coming out soon called Slumdog Millionaire about an Indian teenager who goes on a game show to prove his love to a girl

* Ewan McGregor is working on a shitload of stuff including Amelia (about Amelia Earhart), I Love You Phillip Morris (with Richard Gere), Ron Howard/Dan Brown vehicle Angels & Demons, Men Who Stare at Goats (with Jeff Bridges, Kevin Spacey, & Clooney), a film with Ben Kingsley called Number 13, something called The Great Pretender and I, Lucifer all of that, and he just recovered from a bout of (very treatable) cancer

Celluloid #16

In Theatres

So I finally saw a not terrible movie with Chris this week, Jiri Menzel's I Served the King of England. The basic plot revolves around a waiter who dreams of becoming a millionaire while enduring the many changes in Czechoslovakia including Nazi occupation and later communism. The film fell into a cycle of repetition during the first half of the film and switching between the old man and his younger self became somewhat tedious. However, this movie is quite beautiful and full of quirky enjoyable imagery (all though I personally was actually a little tired of exposed boobies by the end) and the story does pick up once the Nazis get into the picture. A good film, but nowhere near the greatness of Menzel's previous work (not that that was really the expectation going into this film anyway). 3.75/5

In Home

Chop Shop (2007) Bahrani - A newish independent film about a young boy and his teenage sister living in Queens. Alejandro doesn't go to school but uses his time working at an auto repair shop and selling candy bars. His sister works at a taco truck and also makes some money on the side. Together they work towards saving up to buy their own taco truck and to hopefully move out of the single room they occupy in the auto repair shop. 4/5

the Kingdom (1995) von Trier - Back in the '90s, Lars von Trier created a television miniseries about a Copenhagen hospital that experiences a variety of supernatural and just plain fucked-up occurences. The storyline itself is fine, but it's really ugly looking and seriously has the worst theme song ever. Plus, von Trier addresses the audience during the credits of each episode and he is so irritating. Anyway, X-Files lite. 3/5

Lord of the Flies (1963) Brooks - So the book that nearly everyone read as a high school freshman was made into a film in the early '60s. Black and white and feels stiff and polite towards the beginning, but as the boys' and their makeshift society start to deteriorate, the scenes and film shots get much more interesting. 4/5

the Seventh Seal (1957) Bergman - Probably the most famous and most parodied of Bergman's films. Death comes to take people away while the plague is running rampant throughout Sweden. Max von Sydow buys himself a little more time by engaging in a game of chess with Death and a circus troupe travels around. Still masterful and interesting, but nowhere near my favorites of Bergman.

In News (Scandinavian edition)

* Susanne Bier, one of the Dogme directors (#28 Open Hearts) is working on a new project supposedly featuring Hugh Grant and Anjelica Huston titled Lost for Words

* Max von Sydow (a tie-in to Seventh Seal) is currently 79 years old and has not one, but 3 films in post-production! A fantasy adventure called Solomon Kane, a french film called Un homme et son chien, and a Scorcese-directed project called Shutter Island.

* Lastly Swedish filmmaker Lukas Moodysson is nearly finished with a film called Mammoth starring Gael Garcia Bernal and Michelle Williams having something to do with a businessman and his Filipino maid...

Celluloid #15

Busy couple weeks in real life makes for very little movie-watching..

In Home

Clean Slate (Coup de tourchon) (1982) Tavernier - Based on Jim Thompson's Pop. 1280 novel but transplanted to French-colonized West Africa. Lucien seems like a bumbling idiot struggling to receive respect from anyone in the small town where he serves as sheriff. His wife openly cheats on him, his superiors literally kick him in the ass, and petty criminals do not fear him...and one day he snaps. Isabelle Huppert also portrays another scandalous lady. 4/5

Ghost Dog: The Way of the Samurai (2000) Jarmusch - This was the first Jarmusch film I ever saw many years ago and I decided to revisit it while John and I were stranded at my old apartment. Forest Whitaker plays "Ghost Dog" a gangster/a-like assassin that lives by a complicated moral code. Very black humor and while I definitely still enjoyed this film a lot the second time around, I think it falls somewhere in the middle of Jarmusch's catalog. 4/5

Scenes From a Marriage (1973) Bergman - I watched the television miniseries version (as opposed to the theatrical version) and really enjoyed this examination of a relationship, even though it is incredibly hard to watch at times. I thought the dialogue and portrayal was honest and fairly realistic. While not a lot happens plotwise (Johann cheats on Marianne, they separate, get divorced, come to some sort of understanding), it's something that pretty much everyone can relate to. Not recommended for Chris Walters, as there is pretty much nothing besides emotionally intimate moments. 5/5

Spook Who Sat by the Door (1973) Dixon - A fictional film about the first black man to enter the CIA, and then after obtaining necessary information and training, takes his skills back to southside Chicago and trains a group of young black man in preparation for a revolution. The revolution centers around freedom from white oppressors. An interesting concept in theory, but not the most entertaining film. 3.5/5

Switchblade Sisters (1975) Hill - As far as trashy, campy, culty movies go...this one is pretty great. The Dagger Debs are an all-girl gang that wields knives and generally kicks the shit out of other girls and guys if necessary. Lots of gratuitous boob shots and those shirts seem to rip open all of the time. The main rival gang is a bunch of politically charged artsy kids, and the Debs (and later christened "Jezebels") have to team up with some commie black ladies in order to gain victory. 4.5/5

In News

* The Flaming Lips long awaited film spectacle (originally slated to come out Christmas 2003) Christmas on Mars is finally opening in New York this week

* Guillermo del Toro is expected to film remakes of "Frankenstein", "Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde", and "Slaughterhouse 5"

* NY Magazine is throwing around a claim that two co-producers from "The Office" are writing a script for Ghostbusters 3...oh boy..