Films Viewed (December 2010)

Repo Man was, as always, a scorching punk blast. It was great to see a nice print projected on the big screen with the audio cranked. Many thanks to the Maryland Film Festival and the Gunky's Basement crew for making this happen.

The Fighter could get lost in the year-end prestige-film Oscar-bait shuffle, but I say give it a chance. Not so much a sports film as a story about one particularly dysfunctional working-class Boston clan. I had a good time, but I grew up amongst such characters.

To re-watch Mickey's Christmas Carol, an enjoyable viewing memory from my childhood, was an experiment. Has my appreciation of Dickens' A Christmas Carol been ruined forever by Robert Zemeckis? The answer: No, not really. Also, I am not eight years old anymore.

I have turned watching the first episode of Fanny and Alexander: The Television Version into a Christmas-eve tradition. The turn-of-the-century Swedes celebrate Christmas sumptously, are also dsyfunctional and sad. I always enjoy checking in.

Scott Pilgrim Vs. The World still ruled upon a second viewing. I feel that one day this film will get its due, perhaps now that the DVD is available to the young people? Of course, I am also a huge fan of Pootie Tang, so maybe I will remain in the minority on this one.

True Grit was a rough and ready adaptation of a book I have not read that stands in the shadow of a film of the same name that I have not seen. A young woman seeks revenge, hires a sozzled Dude, meets a fancy-pants guy. People get killed. The Coen Brothers continue to rule, and long may they reign. Watching and enjoying this has sparked my interest in the viewing of more Westerns, I genre I take in only sparingly.

Black Swan scared the hell out of me, leading to night wracked with nightmares filled with the images and ideas presented in the film. A young woman makes it to the top of the ballet game, at great cost. My sleepless night following my viewing is the sign of an effective psychological horror film, as well as a reminder of why I don't watch too many of them.

Home Alone capped off the year. I dismissed the film at the time of its release, watching the beginning and ending sequences on the pay channels when the film was in heavy rotations after its run as a box office juggernaut. To be in a theater surrounded by others who were clearly more impacted by the film, listening to them recite the dialogue verbatim, added to my appreciation, not to mention the realization that Home Alone is a John Hughes movie.

Key
The Charles
The Rotunda
The Senator
The Landmark Harbor East
Video Americain
Netflix Instant/ Netflix DVD
(Please note: All releases are now linked to their pages on the Netflix website)
Total: 6 features, 1 short film, 1 portion of a television program also released in truncated form as a film (5 in theaters)

Films Viewed (November 2010)

The Girl Who Kicked the Hornets Nest was the "oh, okay" last installment of the Millennium Trilogy. The narratives were seen through to the end dutifully. Not as absorbing as the first two films, but still engaging. I saw a special-edition hardcover set at the chain bookstore yesterday that makes the books look more literary. Sure, fine. But you should really buy them here.

Hereafter was a Clint Eastwood directorial effort. Sad real-deal psychic retires, but they keep pulling him back in. I feel Eastwood's films are hit or miss and will watch his avowed masterpiece one of these days. He is an old man who makes movies in the old style. Sometimes there is a comfort in this.

Hot Bubblegum is a Hebrew-language sex farce from 1981 in the style of American Graffiti and Porky's. One night, Netflix Instant was throwing some crazy suggestions my way. Who am I to say no the gods of random?

Bill Murray Life Lessons 2009 was another filmic effort from local upstart Ann Everton, who once cut my hair on the stage of the Senator theater. Watch her take on Meatballs here. Read her interview on the City Paper here.

Logorama won the 2010 Oscar for Best Animated Short and can be seen right here. Worth your time.

The Wild Parrots of Telegraph Hill has been the subject of inside jokes between my girlfriend and myself for some time. The ending truly had us soaring out of the living room. No, he doesn't eat the parrots.

Tropical Malady shows the promise of director Apichatpong Weerasethakul, but I prefer his later films. One that sends you running to the Internet for assistance. With help, I figured out what in the heck happened in the second part.

Dogtooth remains the talk of the Baltimore arthouse circuit. Perhaps better the second time around, as you can put things together more thoroughly. No matter how hard a helicopter parent will try, the outside world will eventually seep in to even the most hermetically sealed household.

The Secret in Their Eyes as just fine. The one the spoiled all the Oscar betting pools earlier this year. I am with those who feel it was essentially an episode of Law & Order, but a really good episode of Law & Order.

Possession has been the talk of the Baltimore arthouse rental circuit in recent times. A couple's relationship deteriorates due to adultery in 1980s Berlin, but hoo boy, there is more to it than that! Let us just say that Isabelle Adjani's character is having one monster of an affair. A psycho-sexual blend brought to boil. If enough people add it on Netflix, maybe someone somewhere will get the message that this needs a proper re-release.

House (1977) is me playing catch-up to the movie-going talk of the town this past spring, after a new print had a limited engagement run at the Senator. A group of young girls visit a ghost house in the country. Wonderful lunacy, highly stylized and very Japanese, ensues. Not scary, still gory.

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Part One was the first film seen at the newly re-opened Senator theater. The theater has been stripped to the bone by the prior tenant, but it is good to have it opened. I have a feeling this little film that is mostly about some teenagers camping in the woods and being angsty and sad is going to go far!

Bright Leaves chronicles documentary filmmaker Ross McElwee's family's involvement with the tobacco trade in North Carolina, but is much more than that. I am very forgiving of his films with their many side-trips and rambles. Not a good as Sherman's March, but I found it very absorbing.

Hideaway (Le Refuge) was a "one week wonder" at the Charles. A woman addicted to drugs discovers she is pregnant with her lover's child after she and her lover overdose, resulting in the death of said lover. And that is just the first ten minutes or so! Suprising throghout, there was a plot twist that had the audience reacting like they caught something I didn't. Clearly, I need to see more Ozon.

Heart of Glass is a prime Werner Herzog film that I have been meaning to give my viewing attention to for some time. The secret of making ruby glass is lost in a Bavarian village, a shepherd has visions of the future, and things slowly go horribly awry, descending into madness. Herzog hypnotized the majority of the cast before each take. You know, because he's like that.

American Grindhouse was a thorough and informative overview of the different types of films that played the grindhouse circuit in the American heyday of such movie houses. Of the "DVD supplement" school, but not terribly so. I would love a doc on the actually movie theaters and what it was like to go to them, perhaps focusing on the more infamous ones.

Key
The Charles
The Rotunda
The Senator
The Landmark Harbor East
Suburban Mulltiplex/ Video Americain/ DVD/ Online
Netflix Instant/ Netflix DVD
(Please note: All releases are now linked to their pages on the Netflix website)
Total: 14 features, 1 short film, 1 anthology collection of short films (5 in theaters)

Films Viewed (October 2010)

The Social Network was hands-down great if you are a fan of David Fincher and are as interested as I am in the new socially networked world that has emerged in recent times. Still in theaters due to great reviews and solid box office. I say see it.

The Heartbreak Kid (1972) was an odd one. I have been meaning to see more of the films of Elaine May since reading an appreciation of her early work in Film Comment a few years ago, and Netflix provided the opportunity. Why this was re-made (apparently terribly) by Ben Stiller and company is a mystery since the original barely functions plot wise. Hard to go wrong with a young Cybil Shepard, though.

My Son, My Son, What Have Ye Done? is what happens when Herzog and Lynch get together AKA Awesome + Weird. If you are a fan of either, this is highly recommended.

Plastic Bag, a short by Ramin Bahrani voiced by Wener Herzog, was an extra feature on the above DVD. Haunting, minimal, and effective.

The Jerk was a surgery-recovery choice while trolling through the Comcast On Demand at my mom's house. Early Steve Martin has its moments, but he is not in full filmic blossom quite yet.

Extract, another On Demand choice, was like Mike Judge lite. Diverting but never quite got anywhere interesting.

Jaws III: works every time. I wish I could see it in the original 3D. Perhaps James Cameron could get behind this restoration as well as his other more personal conversion projects?

I Need That Record! was an uneven love letter to the now-disappearing independent record store, my home away from home wherever a reputable one can be found still surviving. The good outweighed the bad in this, but the writing is on the wall.

The Art of the Steal was a double hit in my apartment that it was about both the art world establishment and the world of the non-profit. Delineates the art heist of the century and shows one idea of the art museum (small, for the common man, for arts education, not for critics) losing out in favor of the predominant mode (bus tours, big show, gift shops).

Trash Humpers was quite a rough ride, courtesy of Harmony Korine. A lo-fi American nightmare. I think one day all films will look and play out like this one. This is because I am a cynical person. Banned from Netflix!

John Carpenter's The Thing was a gory paranoid hoot, especially on the big screen. I can see why many old-school FX Fangoria types pledge their allegiance to this one. Screened as part of the new series Gunky's Basement (more info on future screenings here).

Blind Woman's Curse was a WTF Japanese Yazuka/Horror hybrid. Absolutely bizarre at points. An oddity in both genres. Not a bad way to spend a Friday night.

The Killer Inside Me was an eyebrow-raising look inside the mind of a psychopath. Not for the faint of heart. Memorable performances throughout from Casey Affleck, Jessica Alba, and Kate Hudson. A rom-com it was not!

Import/Export was another great film from Ulrich Seidl, a director I was introducted to by John Waters via his Maryland Flm Festival screening pick of a prior film of Seidl's in 2004. In it, a woman leaves the Ukraine to find work in Vienna. A man leaves Vienna to find work in the Ukraine. Bleak and terrible things happen, thanks to the new global economy. Hooray Capitalism!

The City of Lost Children can now be checked off the list. A big beautiful film that somehow feels empty and hollow. The way-station between Delicatessen and Amelie that makes you feel creeped-out/uncomfortable more than a few times.

Water Lilies was a French film about two young women coming of age who. Yes, there is synchronized swimming, but it was shot strikingly. Yes, there is LGBT sexual confusion and tension. Yes, you can watch it on Netflix Instant. Played DC, but never made it to Baltimore.

I Am Love did make it to the Charles, and I regret not catching it on the big screen, as it was clearly meant to be seen. Sumptuous visuals detail the downfall of a wealthy woman (Tilda Swinton) who manages to wear a different super-chic dress in every new setting in the film. She gives it away, all for love. Operatic and borderline ridiculous, I still had a good experience with it.

Key
The Charles
The Rotunda
The Senator
The Landmark Harbor East
Suburban Multiplex
Netflix/ DVD/ On Demand
(PLEASE NOTE: all DVD-available releases are now linked to their page on the Netflix website)
Total: 16 films, 1 short film (2 in theaters)

Charm City Cineaste Three Year Anniversary: 2007-2010

Well, three years have passed since I started this blog. Many things have changed.

I began during a time of great upheaval and uncertainty in the film exhibition landscape in Baltimore city. There was a lot of nervous energy in the air back then. That time has passed.

As the dust settles, there are clear winners and clear losers. As one Baltimore theater-owner sunk lower and lower into the depths, I eventually decided to turn away from reporting the details, which had become tawdry and wince-inducing. I admit I am clearly biased. I was upset that Baltimore was losing a place to see films, even temporarily, and I was losing any sense of decorum over the situation. I think turning away from it here was my acknowledgment of that bias, but I know I more than got my digs in.

In terms of film exhibition now, the Charles theater's ownership is now also in charge of the Senator theater via a deal with Baltimore City. The Rotunda soldiers on, having recently added a new third screen. The Landmark Harbor East is a place to pay an insane amount of money to see a first-run film. The demand placed upon the mid-sized theater to handle blockbuster films like Inception has lead to sold out screenings and other dilemmas, your dollars burning away as the clock ticks on your overpriced parking-metered spot. In the case of the Landmark, I feel you might as well go the 'burbs. The others remain solid options.

But I must acknowledge that while this landscape has changed, I have changed as well. I don''t make changes easily or well, and have stuck with going to the movies regularly long after most have shifted habits, if the habit was there at all. What could possibly beat seeing a film on the big screen, engaged in the communal experience, munching on popcorn, out on a Friday night?

Well, the answer is Netflix. I fought it for a long time, but this is the new model. For the price of seeing a non-matinee film at the Landmark, I got King Kong in the trunk.

Sure, I have the additional help of an up-to-date HD big screen television and an Internet connection to said television. Now, I have a Netflix Instant library bigger than I can even comprehend at my disposal. Wonderful and challenging films like Bluebeard and Import/Export, which never played on any Baltimore screen, are suddenly and instantly available to me.

It hurts to say all of this. I don't want to betray film house culture, film stock, popcorn machines, popcorn slingers. Sometimes I think this is just a new option that I will integrate into the others, but I know better. I know that I am not from movie-theater-love from childhood, and am more of a "movies on television" person historically.

In any case, to reflect this shift and to make my blog more user-friendly, I will now link to the Netflix page of any film I watch via that service when I list a film's title. This coming month that is pretty much all of them.

I know I am too orderly and willful to stop this blog now, but I foresee a day when I see no films in theaters in a given month. I already skipped seeing anything at the Charles last month for the first time in this blog's history. I had my reasons, but it was strange to realize.

So, I will continue on into year four of this blog. The next interesting/terrifying thing that may become a topic for reporting could be the end of the arthouse movie-theater experience in Baltimore entirely. I certainly hope this is not the case, but as the blue hairs shuffle off this mortal coil, the laptop generation wonders why anyone would pay for a movie at all.

The Return of the Senator Theater!

Now under new management!

Friday, October 15th.

First feature? Red

Article here.

Let the new era begin!

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)

Films Viewed (August 2010)

The Girl Who Played with Fire was a worthy sequel to The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo. I have been chided by Baby Boomer co-workers for not reading the books and have been told that I am getting a simplistic experience with the films. I respond that I am too busy on Twitter and Faceplace to read books. LOL.

Brighton Rock was the penultimate revival, British gangster noir. Was that really Richard Attenborough as the young conflicted Catholic psychopath? This Richard Attenborough? Carole Marsh was a vision of loveliness.

When You're Strange: A Film About the Doors was the definitive document on this group, if you ask me. After the impact that the Oliver Stoned Doors had on my misspent youth, I found this clarifying. I don't know if I am a true Doors Fan, as it were, but this doc gives legitimacy to their strum and drang via an evenhanded, researched approach.

Red Desert was one of those films you wait to experience correctly. I did, and was rewarded by the new Criterion disc. Beautifully shot and languidly paced, it presents confusion and desire in bleakly nuanced and sharply defined vistas. Comparable to Stalker, another big favorite of mine, which was inspired by this film.

We Live in Public was a perfect descent into the late 1990s, cash being burned as the future was foreseen. A heck of a ride, crashing around the end of the century like most ridiculous things of that era. Josh Harris saw it coming, all of it.

It Always Rains on Sunday was the last revival in the Charles theater series that stretches back to last decade, give or take the occasional brief hiatus. Another British noir, this one was more of a claustrophobic kitchen sink drama. With it, the revivals end for a year, to return when their programmer returns from Rome.

The Kids are All Right was why you go the arthouse; smart, truthful, complex, and unwilling to pull punches. Directed well, acted well, and worth the time of anyone interested in 21st century family dynamics.

Hell House was an old doc in a new DVD box, reminding me in production values of Roger and Me. We see the operation of the first big hell house of its kind, something that is now a nationwide phenomena. Scary in ways other that those intended by the operators of said house.

The Manchurian Candidate... "Wait, you've never seen that film?" "No, I haven't." But it's a classic." Yes, but for years it was unavailable to the public." "It's been available since 1988." "Oh..."

Lovely and Amazing is the second major film in the directorial career of Nicole Holofcener. It was interesting to see this film after seeing her latest, which used some of the same cast/types in different ways. I suspect her films will age well based on how this 2001 effort looked and felt today. Do I dare venture back to 1996's Walking and Talking?

The Beatniks (Mst3k version) was a terrible bore of a film only levied by the jibes of the Satellite of Love crew. Started flat and cold, but redeemed itself by the end. More proof those guys can make any film a hoot.

Bluebeard was the ZOMG highlight of the month. A fairy-tale re-told by the director of Romance? I was in from the first, and was stunned repeatedly by the cinematography and the performances evoked. Proof that film can be art. It is a crime it did not even get a week on a big screen in Baltimore.

It Happened One Night is canonical, a welcome relief on an otherwise dreary late-summer evening. Did not like the creaky sexist attitudes, still enjoyed the back and forth of the two leads and the pre-code licentiousness.

Scott Pilgrim vs. The World was like a book written for people who don't read. The gamers and fanboys stayed away from a movie custom made for them, a film which represents a possible future of the feature film. I was enjoying myself from the opening Nintendofied Universal logo and theme onward. I wish I had more company in the theater, however.

Jaws was an old friend, revisited with educated eyes. Key scenes remained from my childhood, while others escaped me at the time. Nice way to wrap up the summer, movie-wise, despite declining to stick around to watch the sequel.

The Other Guys was thoroughly "eh" but was still Will Ferrell's second biggest opening box office weekend. I felt somehow not manly enough for this film, or maybe not stupid enough? And I can be a big appreciator of stupid humor... puzzling.

Key
The Charles
The Rotunda
The Landmark Harbor East
Other (Suburban Mulitplex, Netflix! Netflix! Netflix!, Greektown rowhome)
Total: 16 (6 in theaters)