Films Viewed (September 2010)

Hackers was certainly not a great film, but it had its moments of great humor, mostly unintentional. I was too old in 1995 to dig on it, but I had my own encounters with this kind of youth film via Pump Up the Volume, Heathers, and other films often involving Christian Slater. They never quite get it right, but they do try. Check it off the list!

Machete was pure popcorn-munchin' fun. It was marred perhaps by being too politically ambitious, but still kept to its grindhouse pedigree with enough faithfulness to make it worth a Friday night screening. No regrets. Made good on the fake original trailer.

Ponyo was strangely disappointing. I figured I would enjoy it as much as other Studio Ghibli fare, but was left cold more often than not. Odd echoes of Hurricane Katrina reverberated around in my head while I tried to piece together the plot. The "okay this is ridiculous" trademarked Anime ending was especially so.

Summer Hours does not seem at first glance like something worth investigating. A bunch of bourgeois French people ponder their mother's legacy? Eh. But the"No. 3" ranking in Film Comment's Top Twenty Films of 2009 tipped me off that it was something worth seeing, and it truly was. The story engages because it is so artfully and humanely told. We have all been there when it comes to the themes presented, or dread the day we will be.

Easy A was some true pop relief. Emma Stone carried the film admirably. I found it to be a fun satirical romp through high school in the 2000s, familiar territory in my case. Sure it was ridiculous and campy. Not sure it was Election-level great, but definitely a contender.

L'Enfance Nue, the debut feature film from 1968 by Mauricee Pialat, is an unflinching portrait of a damaged young man stuck in a broken foster care system. Smartly executed and revolutionary, jarring and naturalistic, it bombed when first released in France. Pialat is still not a "name" director in America, but I am a fan of the films of his that I have had an opportunity to see.

Wallace and Gromit in A Matter of Loaf and Death was just a good ol' time, like a Warners cartoon. A fun "whodunit." Saw some digital work among the stop motion, but it was not terribly distracting. Does this count as film? I hope so.

L'Amour Existe was the debut short film of Maurice Pilat, included on the DVD reviewed above. Even in his first work, we see an assured filmmaker with a definite voice, ready to mix it up and get in your face.

Key
The Charles
The Rotunda
The Landmark harbor East
Other (Netflix DVD, Netfix Instant, suburban multiplex)
Total: 7 films, 1 short film (2 in theaters)