The Flower of My Secret, Waydowntown, Winter Kills, & Lackawanna Blues

The Flower of My Secret is, I think, one of the few Almodovar's I haven't seen yet. Well, at least from Dark Habits on, I only have to see High Heels, and it will be complete. This one is actually reminiscent of a lot of his other films, but it's not like he doesn't really deal with the same type of characters or plots in his movies. It's clearly in his mid-period of some crazy things, but mostly a normal movie with some very strong female characters. In that sense, it's actually less strange than most of his earlier films, so I guess it really isn't all that strange, but there were some very strange things, like the whole scene at the beginning of the organ donation, and the boots, and the bizarre family, and the oedipal ballet at the end. I mean, it's fairly normal within the scheme of Almodovar, but it's not normal. And I haven't even mentioned the NATO peacekeeper husband. Just overall enough to make me call it strange, but still, a good Almodovarian film.

Waydowntown is a little Canadian film about going insane after not going outside for around a month. Disjointed editing, dope smoking, a French version of Downtown by Petula Clark, a klepto boss, a coworker who goes crazy by stapling inspirational phrases onto his chest, and a two-liter bottle of marbles. I would say it's good, but it's definitely not for a lot of people. The editing style distracted me a lot.

Winter Kills is probably the most paranoid of the paranoid 70s thrillers. It's a not-very-well disguised theory about who killed Kennedy, based on a book by Richard Condon, writer of The Manchurian Candidate and Prizzi's Honor. Too bad this wasn't nearly as good as those two. It's not bad, but it's a mess of a movie, going from one theory to another without enough time for the audience to figure out what was going on. And it wasn't like I figured out what the end of the movie was going to be (even with the "big twist" ending) very soon after the beginning. Not to say that some things didn't surprise me (like, why did the maid-assassin have to have her shirt ripped open? I mean, I know it's the 70s and all, but huh?), but none of the big reveals did much for me. Maybe I have seen too many paranoid thrillers to be surprised by one that is mainly notable for Sterling Hayden's facial hair, but it just was a mess.

Lackawanna Blues is an HBO movie about a small kid at a boarding house in upstate New York in the 50s and 60s. It's full of a lot of fairly well-known (at least to me) black actors in small parts, like Michael K. "Omar" Williams as a knife obsessed boarder, and Jeffrey Wright as a murderous scrap-booker. The movie is basically an excuse to have S. Epatha Merkerson get an Emmy. That isn't to say it isn't enjoyable, but there are a couple of scenes, especially towards the end that are Emmy bait.

My Own Private Idaho, Jacob's Ladder, The Virgin Suicides, Piccadilly, & Long Day's Journey into Night

My Own Private Idaho has a great performance from Keanu Reeves, although it's similar to his performance in the Matrix, as in, he's supposed to have no emotions. River Phoenix on the other hand, just reminded me that Joaquin Phoenix sucks. Seriously, what an outstanding performance. I didn't care for most of the characters, and the faux-Shakespeare was distracting. So basically, it was really good, but should have been better.

Jacob's Ladder was a strange and twisted film. I'm not entirely sure what to think about it, because it's one of those movies that I generally hate because of the ending. But it was crazy with the whole thing. Very Ambrose Bierce, which I like as a short story, but seems cheap as an approach to a movie. It's the sort of thing that screwed with Stage Fright. Messing with the audience and showing something as true when it's not is just messed up. Of course, that was mainly just after watching it. With a little more time, it was clear that most of it makes sense in the sense that it's a struggle between heaven and hell for the soul of Tim Robbins. It doesn't really matter who won or who lost, because the movie was very superficial, and Adrian Lyne isn't a particularly deep director. All the deep aspects of the film are there in the script, but it loses a lot because the film is of his crappy movies. And even the script seems like an utter mess, not something that would surprise someone after finding out the guy also wrote Ghost, Deep Impact, and Stuart Little 2. Seriously, Ghost sucked and is a horrible blight on 1990 movies and the Oscars. Jacob's Ladder has some interesting things in it, not the least of which is Elizabeth Pena, someone I will always be excited to see in a movie, and was the only good thing in Tortilla Soup. Well, the only good thing that wasn't food. Well, all the girls in that were attractive.

The Virgin Suicides, which I'd seen before, and vastly enjoyed, was just about as good as I remember, and definitely captured the feel of the book perfectly. Kudos Sophia. I mainly just wanted to watch it again because I'd reread the book this summer and I am that excited about Marie Antoinette, and I would've seen it if it weren't for those meddling... job. Yeah, job really limits my ability to do what I want when I want. Damnit. And I hate that it got So Far Away stuck in my head for a day. Not as bad as the day I had This Is Our Country stuck there, though.

Piccadilly was only worth seeing for probably one of the least stereotypical portrayal of an Asian on film for a western film for, well... many many years. It was 30 years later that we still had Mickey Rooney doing "Japanese". Anna May Wong, while still being a quiet Asian woman, is, at least, a real person with feelings. There were so many crappy ways to use her talent, and, unfortunately, she suffered from the horrible racism that dominated Hollywood. She was clearly very talented (both as an actress and a very attractive woman), and that she lost out on roles because she was Asian is just wrong. Wrong wrong wrong. The film itself was nothing particularly special, except for some very impressive camera movements and stylistic effects, impressive for 1929.

Long Day's Journey into Night has good acting, but I just don't care. Sorry. Three hours of a family collapsing under drug use, alcoholism, and miserliness just was too much for me. Sorry, everyone involved.

This Film Is Not Yet Rated, The Departed, The Island, Walk the Line, & Bad Education

This Film Is Not Yet Rated continues the Great Documentary Revival of the last few years. Yay for that, and the movie was extremely satisfying for someone who has read multiple books about film censorship (some of them were even for fun) and finds the MPAA a bunch of morons. The interviews with the filmmakers were definitely worth seeing the movie for, especially if you want to see just how silly the rating system is. The private investigator scenes were sort of funny, because she was so insane, but also it was disturbing because these were vaguely illegal things being done to people, who, while perpetuating a stupid and ineffective system, are still human beings. Then again, the MPAA is full of crazy people who don't mind lying, so they deserve pretty much everything in it.

The Departed is my pick for best film of the year. And if Paul Haggis wins another frickin' Oscar I will have to come back here and complain about how stupid the academy is. Anyway, the accents were good, everyone in it was excellent, Nicholson didn't bother me, Leo again proves that he's not just a pretty face, Wahlberg had some of the funniest lines, and Baldwin was just Baldwin (who has been the best thing about 30 Rock, as well). Knowing how everything was going to pan out and most of the plot points allowed me to savor the little things, like the accents, the perfect cursing, the good musical choices (even if I did get Comfortably Numb stuck in my head for a while, and I don't even like Pink Floyd), and Walhberg making fun of his brother. Little things like that make me happy.

The Island, on the other hand, didn't make me happy. So much talent in front of the camera, why did there have to be so little behind the camera. Because Michael Bay is a no talent hack. A two hour chase scene is a great idea there, genius. No one will ever get bored by characters running from one implausible escape to another. Nope. All perfectly reasonable for Scarlett and Ewan to fall many many floors on an R and then get saved by a conveniently strung netting. Yep. Apparently, my intellect is far above what was needed not to have my intelligence insulted by the movie. At least it did allow me to play a lot of Ninja Gaiden Black, which is both insanely fun and insanely hard. I suck at it, but the opportunity to decapitate multiple people at once is... well, worth the many, many, many deaths you will suffer before you figure out how to do all the crazy moves.

Walk the Line is the white man's Ray with worse music and the least talented Phoenix. Man, why did River have to be the one to die? Couldn't it have been this one instead? Ugh. And I wanted Cash to stay with Ginnifer Goodwin instead of running off with that tramp Reese Witherspoon. And the music wasn't half as good as Ray either. And I say that as a white male semi-hipster who should enjoy outlaw country. But little in that movie was as good as Jamie Foxx doing What'd I Say.

Bad Education felt like a little bit of a retreat for Almodovar from the brilliance of All about My Mother and Talk to Her, and a move back to his crazy 80s roots, but with the artistic maturity of his more recent work, but it didn't work particularly well, in my opinion. I should have really loved the film within a film and the messing with the audience's expectations of what was real and what wasn't, but I just didn't entirely connect with anyone in the film. Was it just that I'm not gay, or a transsexual, or a pedophile priest? I'm not sure.

A Letter to Three Wives, Kwaidan, Touchez pas au grisbi, & The Scarlet Pimpernel

A Letter to Three Wives is the movie Joseph Mankiewicz made the year before All about Eve, one of the classics, and one of the few times I didn't hate Bette Davis. This one also won an Oscar, but I really don't know why. I mean, yeah, it's a movie from 1949 all about infidelity, but I think we should all have been beyond that. I mean, Kirk Douglas just gets to play an insufferable ass of a schoolteacher. Beh to the movie.

Kwaidan is a collection of four Japanese ghost stories made in 1965 and so not really scary as much as very creepy. They were all good in their own ways, but they have the moral of don't lie or cheat and be faithful and make sure your ears are covered with the holy word when you think a ghost is coming or else you won't have any ears. And really, really, don't mess with anyone who says that they'll kill you if you tell a secret, because they just might. And everything was done on a soundstage, which was obvious most of the time, which was intentional, but still somewhat distracting.

Touchez pas au grisbi felt like just another French heist film. Or at least a post-heist film. It just suffers from comparison with so many other, better French heist films. I'm sure I should have liked it more, but I just didn't.

The Scarlet Pimpernel is something I am pretty sure I had seen before, but back a long time ago, when I was watching stuff like The Fighting Prince of Donegal all the time. When I would watch anything because there were some sword fights. My taste wasn't entirely discriminating. Anyway, watching it now wasn't too bad, because it had Ian McKellan as the bad guy, who was awesome, and Jane Seymour who was hot. Even if her hair was enormous.

Thieves' Highway, Night and the City, & Attack the Gas Station

Thieves' Highway was weak. What's up with trucker movies? This and They Drive by Night were both bad. Oh, and Over the Top. Truckers just make for crappy movies. I know that there are probably good movies with trucks or truckers in them, but most are bad. I don't care about golden delicious apples, and I didn't care about anyone in the film short of Lee J. Cobb, but I just cared that he got to overact in a few scenes before he got his comeuppance, which, as this is a Hollywood film, would come soon enough.

Night and the City was a much better Dassin film, this about trying to corner the market on wrestling in London. Richard Widmark is great as the crooked guy putting everything in motion. And Gene Tierney is still very attractive.

Attack the Gas Station was insane. And bizarre. And crazy. But man, it was insanely, bizarrely, crazily awesome. Of course it was all a metaphor for the Korean society at the turn of the century. Which was obvious. I'm pretty sure it's obvious. I mean, otherwise it's just a crazy movie about four young men who knock over a gas station, and then rob it again a little while later all while making a lot of the people they were involved with have better lives. Well, except for the jerks. They got what they deserved. So many parts of this film were insanely awesome, like the backstories, the stick, the fights, the game, and head down. Really, it's just a movie that deserves to be seen by anyone with an interest in film.

Thank You for Smoking, Casque d'or, The Notorious Bettie Page, Shanghai Ghetto, & Last Man Standing: Politics Texas Style

Another long couple of weeks and half-assed reviews. I can't wait for election day.

Thank You for Smoking was pretty good, but a little weak in the satire part. I enjoyed it, but it just felt like it should have been much more pointed.

Casque d'or was not nearly as good as Le Trou. I just couldn't care about it.

The Notorious Bettie Page was a pretty good film, although with Mary Harron and Guinevere Turner behind the camera, it was expected. Well, apparently Turner wrote BloodRayne, so it's not a 100% thing, but American Psycho was great. Gretchen Mol was definitely better than I was expecting. And David Straithairn kicks ass in everything he does.

Shanghai Ghetto was a movie I'd seen trailers for when it came out. I saw movies in the same theater every week for a while, and it was before each film. Made me consider watching it in the theater, until I realized it's a Holocaust documentary. Doesn't need to be seen on the big screen. It's about something in history most people never knew about: that the Japanese allowed a large amount of Jews to get to Shanghai in the late 1930s. That they did so because they thought that the Jews controlled the world was a strange thing, but it could have been worse. They at least saved many lives. Their approach to enormous Jewish power was to try to be nice, while the Nazis clearly went in the other direction. I am continuing to see every single Holocaust documentary out there. It'll happen someday. They have to run out of interesting angles at some point.

Last Man Standing: Politics Texas Style was a really interesting look at a local legislative race in Texas, with a look at the 2002 Governor's race for Texas, which was just a big mess of a race. Seriously, why would anyone vote for Rick "I'm not a gay Governor" Perry? Is it just that he's a Republican? Because it's a shame that someone that much worse than Bush gets elected.