Big Magilla wrote:Glorious 39 (Stehen Poliakoff) 7/10
Really looking forward to Glorious 39.
Micmacs (2009) Jean-Pierre Jeunet 4/10
Promise of the Flesh (1975) Ki-young Kim 7/10
Welcome (2009) Philippe Lioret 6/10
What Every Woman Knows (1934) Gregory La Cava 4/10
Iodo (1977) Ki-young Kim 2/10
"I want cement covering every blade of grass in this nation! Don't we taxpayers have a voice anymore?" Peggy Gravel (Mink Stole) in John Waters' Desperate Living (1977)
Minor sci-fi film that goes exactly where you expect it to. Dennis Quaid pretty much sleepwalks (pun intended) through his role as a psychic who can enter other people's dreams while Max von Sydow and Christopher Plummer keep you guessing for maybe ten minutes trying to figure out if one or both of them are bad guys.
Minor revelation - I'd forgotten how lame an actress Kate Capshaw was.
Secret Beyond the Door (1948) Fritz Lang 5/10
Minor Lang with an incredible amount of voice-over work from Joan Bennett taking the place of actual story-telling. Obvious cribbing from of Suspicion, Gaslight and Rebecca make you wish you were watching one of thsoe films instead.
Michael Redgrave, Anne Revere and Barbara O'Neill co-star.
Glorious 39 (Stehen Poliakoff) 7/10
Britian's Nazi appeasers in the weeks before and after Britain declares war on Germany told from the standpoint of an up-and-coming actress much in the way Rosemary's Baby was told from the point of view of the expectant mother.
Romola Garai is the terrified young actress whose friends are being murdered one by one to keep state secrets from getting out. Garai is terrific in the role and she is ably assisted by an eclectic cast that includes Bill Nighy, Julie Christie, David Tennant, Hugh Bonneville, Charlie Cox, Eddie Redmayne, Juno Temple, Jenny Agutter, Jeremy Northam, Christopher Lee, Corin Redgrave and Muriel Pavlow.
She's Out of My League (2010) Jim Field Smith 6/10
The Last Station (2009) Michael Hoffman 4/10
Panique (1947) Julien Duvivier 8/10
The Insect Woman (1972) Ki-young Kim 8/10
Milarepa (1974) Liliana Cavani 6/10
Tiger Women Grow Wings (2005) Monika Treut 7/10
Repeat viewings
Beau Travail (1999) Claire Denis 7/10
The Witches of Eastwick (1987) George Miller 8/10
"I want cement covering every blade of grass in this nation! Don't we taxpayers have a voice anymore?" Peggy Gravel (Mink Stole) in John Waters' Desperate Living (1977)
One Sings, the Other Doesn't (1977) Agnes Varda 7/10
Cop Out (2010) Kevin Smith 4/10
Winstanley (1975) Kevin Brownlow & Andrew Mollo 7/10
Ghosted (2009) Monika Treut 6/10
The White Ribbon (2009) Michael Haneke 9/10
White Material (2009) Claire Denis 8/10
The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo (2009) Niels Arden Oplev 7/10
"I want cement covering every blade of grass in this nation! Don't we taxpayers have a voice anymore?" Peggy Gravel (Mink Stole) in John Waters' Desperate Living (1977)
I revisited this about a week ago, wasn't going to bother commenting on it but in light of the proposed remake, I have to say that this is a terrifically preserved version of the stage play. It's not really cinematic but looks like it's being performed on the world's most wonderful large stage. Filming it any other way would seem to me a very big mistake, but we shall see.
Audrey Hepburn always seemed too elegant to be cast as the lowly flower seller, but she pulls it off, and of course her transformation is lover-ly. The entire cast from Rex Harrison to Stanley Hooloway to Wilfrid Hyde-White to Jeremy Brett to Gladys Cooper to Mona Washbourne and on down the line is sheer perfection.
The real star of the show, though, aside from the score, is Cecil Beaton, whose costumes and uncredited set design set the bar for on-screen elegance.
Julie & Julia (2009) Nora Ephron 7/10
Streep is even more delightful the second time around. Had the film been all about Julia Child instead of primarily about Julie Powell she would probably have merited an Oscar, but as it stands the nomination was recognition enough for a job well done.
The Blind Side (2009) John Lee Hancock 5/10
This does not hold up to repeat viewings at all. The flaws - the overly cute kid, the real life coaches who can't act their way out of a paper bag - grate more. The enormity of the house is lost on a TV screen, even a large one. Bullock's acting, which seemed equivalent to that of a major star appearing in a TV movie the first time around, now seems equivalent to that of the no-name actresses who pop up in Lifetime movies by the dozen. It's hardly the worst performance ever to win a Best Actress Oscar, but it's a very bland, dare I say, forgettable one.
Capitalism: A Love Story (2009) Michael Moore 7/10
Moore's one-sided tirade against Wall Street lays it on rather thick, but there's a lot of truth in the arguments he makes. The irony is that the real life revolt against Wall Street has spurred activists who want to push a conservative agenda that will, if it's successful, result in the election of more cronies of the rich and powerful. Recommended as a wake-up call to every tea bagger.
"Ghost" redux from the point of view of two gay Londoners -- one, a drag queen who has recently died of AIDS and the other his hunky electrician live-in lover. The relationship between the two, even when Mark is alive, comes off as mismatched and not-so-vaguely assexual (not unsurprising, of course, as one is infected and it's presumably 1994). However, once Mark's ghost returns, the proceedings turn into a kind of gay sitcom with slapstick humor and prat falls - something cheesy and lame along the lines of Bill Cosby in Ghost Dad. The plague climate comes off as a snapshot of a very different time in AIDS history, so you'd think it worth it for that, but the humor erodes anything deep at the film's end: Muscle boy angels in gold spray paint and body armor welcoming Mark into Heaven (a la Swayze walking toward the light). They look like they had just hopped off a West Hollywood gay pride float to film the scene.
The film is worth it for the absolutely delightful use of Ruth Wallis' song "Queer Things" which Mark lipsyncs in the drag performance that opens the film. I'd never heard the song before and it is very fun, verve-y - a truly fabulous find. So, basically, watch the first ten minutes and then you can turn it off.
Edited By flipp525 on 1269447030
"The mantle of spinsterhood was definitely in her shoulders. She was twenty five and looked it."
Five Minutes to Heaven (2009) Oliver Hirschbiagel 4/10
Fifty Dead Men (2009) Kari Skogland 1/10
Mid-August Lunch (2009) Gianni Di Gregorio 6/10
The Men Who Stare at Goats (2009) Grant Heslov 4/10
The Other Man (2009) Richard Eyre 3/10
Afterschool (2009) Antonio Campos 7/10
Hachi: A Dog's Tale (2009) Lasse Hallstrom 8/10 (Never thought I'd like a Hallstrom film so much)
Repeat viewing (4th I think)
Serial Mom (1994) John Waters 8/10
"I want cement covering every blade of grass in this nation! Don't we taxpayers have a voice anymore?" Peggy Gravel (Mink Stole) in John Waters' Desperate Living (1977)
