Films Viewed (September 2009)

Teorema
Le Doulos
Sugar
The September Issue
Fists in the Pocket
Bright Star
Tetro
Notorious (2009)
Heavy Metal Parking Lot
The Decline of Western Civilization, Part II: The Metal Years
Lorna's Silence

Key
The Charles
The Senator
The Landmark Harbor East
The Rotunda
Other (Video Americain, Enoch Pratt Free Library)
Total: 10 films, 1 short film (7 in theaters)

Notes: For me, a slow month. The films I did view (save one) have already exited the big screen. This is perhaps symptomatic of the month, which is filled with summer leftovers and odd ducks. The two standouts for me were Teorema and Tetro, which I suspect are not for many viewers. Teorema channeled a deep Catholic vein in a highly theoretical and unconventional way, and Tetro was perhaps too operatic to cross over. I enjoyed both.

It was also good to catch a decent-quality digital screening of two underground classics, Decline... Part II and Heavy Metal Parking Lot, both of which are bootlegger's delights (although it is true the HMPL has received a proper DVD release in recent years). As I lived through the era and was babysat by many Heavy Metal enthusiasts, it is sometimes interesting to look back. My life and choices may have taken me far away from that world, but I will never forget where I'm from.

So, that is that. The new Dardenne brothers film was brutal but moving, Notorious was Biggie-sized, and Le Doulos was good but not "big-g" Great. Up next, film exhibition in Baltimore in general.