by ·Comments Off on Inception (2010, Christopher Nolan)

Nolan is going for auteur status, taking his mega-budget action comic Batman movies and his multi-layered reality-questioning Memento and making a mega-budget multi-layered action comic reality-questioning super-movie. Seems to have paid off for him – this is in the IMDB top ten at the moment, barely above his own The Dark Knight.

We’ll miss you, Pete Postlethwaite

I should have known Inception wouldn’t be as awesomely complex as I’ve heard it is. It’s not my love for Alain Resnais that makes me feel like a condescending art film snob, it’s breezing through a movie like this one, which the whole world thought was so confusing. I was never in doubt as to what was happening, or which level of dream/reality our heroes were haunting, and thought the ending, while somewhat emotionally satisfying, was the most obvious one possible. Does that make me an asshole?

Why does this shot look so familiar?

Anyway, it’s a fun action dream flick with bang-on performances by Leo DiCaprio and Joseph Gordon-Levitt, good support by Ellen Page and Marion Cotillard and Ken Watanabe, and some overqualified actors wasted in minor roles.

by ·Comments Off on The Small Back Room (1949, Powell & Pressburger)

I watched this shortly before Trash Humpers, and judging from my notes, I’d already had more gin than I realized at the time. In place of the usual plot points and character names, I wrote down phrases that make me laugh, like “Bob’s your uncle” and when a young soldier is called “old man.” So feel free to blame the gin when I say this wasn’t one of my favorite Powell/Pressburger joints.

Weapons testing at Stonehenge:

I remember people mentioning this one when The Hurt Locker was out, both being about a damaged bomb defuser during wartime. Jeremy Renner was more psychologically damaged than this movie’s David Farrar (also of Gone to Earth), who is physically damaged, with a humiliating false foot (never seen by the audience, unlike Capt. John’s leg in Renoir’s The River). There’s a big solo bomb-defusal scene at the end with clamps and “reaching rods” – a low-key replacement for the awesome bomb suits in Hurt Locker, not that those suits helped much when bombs exploded. But most of the movie is a quiet, simmering backstage drama behind the war effort, with the munitions people trying to sell an idiotic government minister on some shoddy weaponry until Farrar finally exposes the whole thing – shadows of the Colonel Blimp theme of doing what’s right for the war effort versus what’s traditionally expected.

Our three heroes, conveniently in the same camera shot:

Of course there’s a girl – Kathleen Byron of Black Narcissus – a coworker who likes our bomb man, as well as a kind older professor (Milton Rosmer of The Lion Has Wings), a young specialist (Cyril Cusack of The Fighting Pimpernel) and an upright captain (Michael Gough, lumpy guy in The Horror of Dracula) who enlists the research unit to solve the mystery of booby-trapped cylinders the Germans have been dropping out of planes (he gets blown up at the end before Farrar takes the stage). My favorite character was a celebratory bottle of whiskey that hovers in forced perspective, always haunting the alcoholic Farrar with temptation.

A tough year to be nominated for best British film – if Kind Hearts and Coronets doesn’t beat you, The Third Man will.

N. James for Criterion:

The Small Back Room presents the relationship between Sammy and Susan in fairly realistic terms. In the novel the two live together; this could not be shown in British cinema of the period. Kathleen Byron claims the credit for the elegant solution of having the two live across the hall from each other. … The Small Back Room grapples with the sticky, intractable problems of a live-in relationship … Its depiction of companionship and care on the brink of catastrophe conceals a deeper undertow of romantic commitment to risk.

by ·Comments Off on The Navigator (1924, Buster Keaton)

A light, clever Keaton feature – not one of my faves, but well paced and only an hour long. Buster and his not-fiancee Betsy (Kathryn McGuire of Sherlock Jr. end up stranded on an adrift ocean liner with no crew after a complicated series of events stemming from a “funny little foreign war” (ouch, not a term we’d use today). The humor doesn’t come from the spy/war/hostage plot but from the fact that Buster and Betsy are millionaire kids with no idea how to do simple daily tasks, and now they have to survive until rescue – they’ve a well-stocked kitchen but no idea how to open a can or boil an egg.

They also run into cannibals (all island natives back then were assumed to be cannibals), deal with a submarine, and Keaton shoots a hokey underwater scene (swordfighting with swordfish, etc). Appropriately on the same DVD as nautical shorts The Boat and The Love Nest. I loved the end, when after a few weeks of trial and error, the couple has rigged the boat with ropes and pulleys to automate daily tasks a la Keaton short The Scarecrow.

Reminiscent of The Private Navy of Sgt. O’Farrell:

IMDB trivia reveals that four years prior, the boat used in filming had been used by the U.S. government to deport Emma Goldman to Russia.

by ·2 Comments

To say O.K.
But you’re motoring
You’re motoring

put one oveer on audiences
arthouse fuckuos hought ths wss ab art film but i’s some jokey shit like godamn inceptioj touhgt to be some deep complex goddamn shit oh listen o the msuic to tle whaere you are in the story but the earierdst stroy try the limits of control instead
some garbarge
awesome
prank
GET THAT TRASH PUSSY

wait wait wait wait till just the right
“bring them pancakesw bitch”
right moment when people are obsessed wit h the 980
s80s 80s to jsut the right degresss degree then unleash yourcamcorder nonsense and get te cover story som shive
ome shit
some shit
“you put that in your moth, ou eat that, uyou eat that yeah
”
th e most fake movie i the most fake fake fake fake fake fae awesome hatha thehy foolest fuckin cinema scope aewomsr
azwesome
holy
git er down
gholy
hapy new yeR

by ·Comments Off on Brandon’s Favorite New Movies of 2010

A “new movie” is defined herein as any of the following:
– a movie released in 2010 (e.g. Black Swan)
– a non-2010 movie I saw in theaters in 2010 (e.g. The White Ribbon)
– a non-2010 movie I saw on video in 2010 which I couldn’t reasonably have seen sooner (e.g. The Headless Woman)

1. 35 Shots of Rum (Claire Denis)
The only movie I saw twice in theaters this year, so I am sure about this.

2. Wild Grass (Alain Resnais)
Perhaps if I understood it, I’d enjoy it less. Finally Resnais’s wild sense of mystery has returned.

3. The White Ribbon (Michael Haneke)
One of everybody’s favorite movies of last year is now one of my favorite movies of this year.

4. Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives (Apichatpong Weerasethakul)
Maybe only my second-favorite Weerasethakul movie I watched this year, but they’d sure be close. It’s the one on this list which I still think about most often.

5. The Social Network (David Fincher)
Everyone else’s favorite movie of the year is at least my favorite one in the English language.

6. Broken Embraces (Pedro Almodovar)
7. Scott Pilgrim vs. The World (Edgar Wright)
8. Mother (Bong Joon-ho)
9. Toy Story 3 (Lee Unkrich)
10. A Single Man (Tom Ford)
11. The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus (Terry Gilliam)
12. Black Swan (Darren Aronofsky)

Honorable mentions: Revanche, The Headless Woman, the weirdly awesome It Felt Like a Kiss, music doc It Might Get Loud, Miike’s Yatterman, and Shutter Island.

by ·Comments Off on Brandon’s Favorite Older Movies of 2010

Best pre-2000 movies I watched on video (and at Emory) this year. As usual, there are lots.

1. City Girl (1930, FW Murnau)
2. Robin and Marian (1976, Richard Lester)
3. The Cranes are Flying (1957, Mikheil Kalatozishvili)
4. Lucky Star (1929, Frank Borzage)
5. The Band Wagon (1953, Vincente Minnelli)

Two silents in the top five – a first.

6. La Vie est un roman (1983, Alain Resnais)
7. The Blood (1989, Pedro Costa)
8. I Walked With a Zombie (1943, Jacques Tourneur)
9. Stagecoach (1939, John Ford)
10. The Last Movie (1971, Dennis Hopper)

Only two of the top ten were watched with Katy. She liked them both, though, and I imagine she’d love the silents and Robin and Marian.

11. Small Change (1976, Francois Truffaut)
12. The Ceremony (1995, Claude Chabrol)
13. Underworld U.S.A. (1961, Samuel Fuller)
14. Branded to Kill (1967, Seijun Suzuki)
15. Force of Evil (1948, Abraham Polonsky)

I’d seen two of these before, but no matter.

16. Johnny Guitar (1954, Nicholas Ray)
17. Jean Renoir’s Elena And Her Men (1956) and Petit Theatre (1970)
18. The Criminal Life of Archibaldo de la Cruz (1955, Luis Bunuel)
19. My Darling Clementine (1946, John Ford)
20. Aparajito (1957, Satyajit Ray)

Runners-up: The Saragossa Manuscript (I can’t tell if I would’ve liked this more or less had I not just read the novel), the first three Thin Man movies, Royal Wedding (advantage: Fred Astaire’s dancing, disadvantage: Jane Powell’s singing) and The White Sheik.

by ·Comments Off on Brandon’s Favorite Shorts in 2010

Last November I held the “month of 121 shorts” and burned myself out, so I didn’t feel like watching many in 2010. Thirty made the list last year including runners-up, but I barely watched that many in total this year. Anyway, here are twelve that I loved.

1. 11’09″01 (2002)
Specifically, the two entries with children in them, by Samira Makhmalbaf and Idrissa Ouedraogo. They’re the only two that dared to treat the subject with lightness or humor, and their bravery paid off.

2. Day & Night (2010, Teddy Newton)
Remember that thing before Toy Story 3 with the visual concept that I loved but have trouble explaining? That one.

3. Cry For Bobo (2001, David Cairns)
Best clown movie ever.

4. Guy Maddin’s Night Mayor and Send Me To The ‘Lectric Chair and The Little White Cloud That Cried

5. Narcissus (1983, Norman McLaren)

6. Gauguin and Van Gogh (Alain Resnais)

7. Letter to Uncle Boonmee (2009, Apichatpong Weerasethakul)

8. Talking Heads (1980, Krzysztof Kieslowski)

Runners-up: Spike Jonze’s robot thing I’m Here, Lindsay Anderson’s diary Is That All There Is (if that counts as a short – I’m starting to reconsider) and, though I’d seen it before, Bert Haanstra’s awesome Zoo.

by ·Comments Off on Brandon’s Favorite Horror Movies in 2010

Every year SHOCKtober comes around, and many horror movies are viewed, but they never get to participate in the year-end lists because most are so very bad. This year I thought I’d give the genre its own little party with a ten-best list. They can’t hold their own against Stagecoach or The Social Network, but each was very satisfying in its own way.

1. Collapse (2009, Chris Smith)
The single movie I thought about the most this year. Unfortunately, the vegetable garden I started in preparation for the Global Economic Collapse is not going very well. I can’t find the parsley anymore, the tomatillos died, and I’m not sure how long we could live off parsley and tomatillos anyhow.

2. City of the Living Dead (1980, Lucio Fulci)
3. Kwaidan (1965, Masaki Kobayashi)

4. Trick ‘r Treat (2007, Michael Dougherty)
5. Hatchet (2006, Adam Green)
Horror movies can get such positive reviews among horror-movie fanatics then turn out to be utter crap to non-fanatics. I’m somewhat of a fanatic myself, but I found the much-loved Midnight Meat Train so disappointing that I’ve tried to avoid recent horror altogether ever since. Luckily I changed my mind long enough to watch these two gems.

6. Splice (2009, Vincenzo Natali)
7. Bucket of Blood (1959, Roger Corman)

8. The Haunted World of El Superbeasto (2009, Rob Zombie)
One of the few movies that makes me hope for sequels.

9. [Rec] (2007, Jaume Balagueró & Paco Plaza)
Despite my affinity for horror, sometimes I’m the last person to see the popular ones.

10. Body Snatchers (1993, Abel Ferrara)
Yes, the 90’s remake with the people who scream funny.

Runners-up: The Box (it was horror, right?), A Tale of Two Sisters (not the remake) and Larry Cohen’s Q: The Winged Serpent.

by ·Comments Off on Brandon’s Favorite Movies from the 2010 Decade List

At the start of the year I read an awful lot of critics’ best-of-decade lists and built my own list of must-see titles from those lists, collecting eighty of them here. But after watching thirty (more specifically, after watching Godard’s In Praise of Love) I rebelled against the list and watched no more. These are the ones I loved – so, not my faves of the decade (those are here) but my previously-unseen faves of other people’s faves of the decade. Whatever, right?

1. Inland Empire (2006, David Lynch)
Already broke a rule, since I watched this in theaters when it came out. But have you really “seen” Inland Empire until you’ve seen it twice? Who cares – I studied it closely this time, watched all the bonus material, and thought it was tops.

2. Colossal Youth (2006, Pedro Costa)
The only movie on the list (of the year?) to which I devoted more time than Inland Empire – because I figured to appreciate what critics were calling Costa’s masterpiece, I should first watch all his previous films. Can’t say I enjoyed them all, but I appreciated Colossal Youth much more for having seen them in order.

3. Va Savoir (2001, Jacques Rivette)
I limit myself to a couple Rivette films per year so he won’t take up my entire year-end list. If I only watched one this year, it’s because I wrongly assumed I’d also be able to see his latest, Around a Small Mountain, which played festivals in late 2009.

4. Syndromes and a Century (2006, Apichatpong Weerasethakul)
So fascinated was I by A.W.’s films this year, I can now spell his name without having to look up how.

5. Three Times (2005, Hou Hsiao-hsien)
Had to try watching this super-slow mood piece a few times, but it finally paid off. Completely transcendent – wish I could see it on the big screen.

6. Fat Girl (2001, Catherine Breillat)
Always assumed I’d dislike Breillat, and especially this movie, so maybe it gains extra points from being such a surprise favorite.

7. The Tracey Fragments (2007, Bruce McDonald)
McDonald’s second straight appearance on year-end lists. To think that in ’08 I’d never heard of him. Can’t wait to check out his early rock & roll road movies.

8. The Intruder (2004, Claire Denis)
It’s boring to say that I need to watch this again, since I’d love to watch all these movies again, and since the shuffled chronology and dreamlike narrative causes everyone to declare that they need to watch this again, but truly I need to watch this again. Denis is my favorite discovery of the year, even though I’d already discovered her.

9. Birth (2004, Jonathan Glazer)
Currently my favorite Nicole Kidman ghost story. She has starred in a few movies that question reality in interesting ways.

10. Frontier of Dawn (2008, Philippe Garrel)
One more ghost story to round things off. Colossal Youth is definitely one, and for all I know, Inland Empire, The Intruder and Syndromes would count too. Tracey Fragments has a haunting death, but I wouldn’t call it a ghost story.

Honorable mentions from the decade-viewing project: Kings and Queen (esp. the first half), The Bourne Trilogy (esp. part three), and Miike’s underrated Izo.