Films Viewed (October 2011)

Shoot the Piano Player remains the prime Truffaut that I don't quite get, more a playful mishmash of genre styles than his other movies from that era. A formerly famous musician in exile gets caught up in various gangland misadventures and a tangled romance. I think I just prefer when Godard did this sort of thing, which would probably really bug Truffaut considering their complicated relationship and rivalry.

Le Rayon Vert, brought to me courtesy of the Charles theater revival series, is a mid-period Rohmer, a director I have only encountered via his "Six Moral Tales" series. A difficult woman flops in and out of various encounters and situations over the course of a ruined summer vacation. I love any film that dares question the surety of summer fun in the sun, and I found the films modes of alienation to be very engaging. Just call me Mr. Sunshine!

I was really happy to see In A Better World despite having never heard of the Oscar-winning Danish film. Masculine roles are explored via the story of two troubled boys and their distant, complicated fathers. Perhaps made more resonant thanks to the nuanced perspective of a female director and my professional experience as a teacher of dudes.

Videodrome was a classic key Cronenberg I had yet to encounter, a film ahead of its time and a look towards our frightening future of image consumption. A surreal dream of a film that rides the line between horror and Neo-noir skillfully until finally giving in to gore. Another quality Gunky's Basement screening.

It is amazing I have not seen The Grapes of Wrath before now. A digitally restored VHS copy has been floating around my personal possessions for years, purchased when I began teaching and found a crate of the novel among my potential texts for my first teaching assignment. Like a lot of things that year, I never quite got to it. A great film to see now.

Take Shelter is already clearly one of my films of the year. A family man struggles with apocalyptic visions in workaday Ohio. The masterful choices make the film powerful and effective, leaving the viewer guessing until the very end. Michael Shannon has never been more perfectly cast.

Dracula (1931) was a nod to the season and a diverting choice off the Netflix Instant queue. Tod Browning's version of this classic tale appears aware of how campy it is, and the whole thing is just so creaky, ridiculous, and over-the-top that a modern viewer can't help but hear the MST3K gang riffing on it in their heads. I prefer Whale's Frankenstein from the same year for having a bit more meat on its bones in terms of subtext and atmosphere. I don't think I've ever seen the film in its entirety until now, but the text has been referenced so many times it felt entirely familiar, especially the first twenty minutes.

Key
The Charles
The Rotunda
The Senator
The Landmark Harbor East
Suburban Multiplex
Netflix Instant/ Netflix DVD
(Please note: Whenever possible, all releases are linked to their pages on the Netflix website)
Total: 7 features (5 in theaters)

Charm City Cineaste Four Year Anniversay: 2007-2011

Just a quick note to mark the beginning of a fourth year of this blog.

CCC has become a strange sort of feedback mechanism for me. Through it, I am able to quickly share my thoughts about films I've seen and have a handy reference to aid my filmic memory. Did I see Rachel Getting Married? Yes, I did. In January of 2009.

I remain happy with the current format as a writing exercise. I know sometimes I don't feel like writng these capsule reviews, but I give it my darnedest. We live in a culture of instant communication and the format is a nod to that. At the same time, the lag on my posts means a film is often out of theaters by the time you read my thoughts. But maybe I am just the tipping point to putting it on the queue for later viewing.

Speaking of the queue, how about that Netflix, huh? What seemed like the happy future of film viewing has become quite the mess, current indicators being that Netflix is going to stay the course for now. I remain a Netflix subscriber, but I know millions have left the service, and there were some involved conversations in my household over our subscriber status, especially during the Quikster fiasco.

I still believe that streaming remains the future of film watching, but I am no longer sure what form that future will take. So many things we feel comfortable with (the video store, the movie theater, the television/cable channel) just don't seem to presage what is coming. In the meantime, Video Amercain is offering membership deals for anyone who dumps their Netflix account in a movement they are cheekily hashtagging as #occupyvideoamericain. It seems there is still some fight left in this beloved Baltimore institution, and I hope my travels will take me there more often in the coming months.

So, here we begin another year of me seeing movies and briefly writing about them. My focus on film exhibition in Baltimore is gone, but my current life/work situation dictates that unless the film is delivered to my doorstep or available instantly, a short walk to the Charles theater on a Saturday morning or Friday night is about all I have time for these days.

Thank you for reading and I hope I can continue to be of service.

Films Viewed (September 2011)

Attack the Block was a rollicking good time, a perfect film to close out the summer. A rag-tag band of British public housing toughs contend with an alien invasion. Well executed and an eerie echo of what happened in England this summer.

Cluny Brown was a return to more classic Charles theater revival fare. The films remains unavailable on DVD and was Ernst Lubitsch's last completed film. In pre-World War II London, a plumber's niece falls for a Czech refugee. Smart, sophisticated, and tonally askew. Jennifer Jones gives a memorable performance, her odd energy quite modern for a film released in 1946.

Rango was an odd duck plucked from the Netflix queue. An example of the kind of film I used to see in the movie theater when I went to the movie theater more often. Johnny Depp voices a chameleon who goes on an epic journey through the desert. As the wiki page says, a "computer-animated Western comedy-drama film." A visually stunning, smartly crafted crowdpleaser.

I was warned away from Cedar Rapids during its local bow, but I still found value in it. I think you have to have spent a lot of time around Midwest corny earnestness to really enjoy this film. A small town insurance agent loses his naivete in the big bad city of Cedar Rapids, Iowa during an insurance convention. A strong ensemble keeps the film afloat. No masterpiece, but I did not find great fault with it.

Elevator to the Gallows was another classic finally checked off the list thanks to the Charles theater revival series. Moody and prone to almost improvisatory excursions, I found the film to be live up to its reputation. A contract killer gets stuck in an elevator following a job, but there is much more to the story. The Miles Davis score is also notable.

Good ol' Starship Troopers capped off the month thanks to the Gunky's Basement crew.. The debate continues over the film, but I continue to find it a dark satire on the dangers of Fascism (a good article on this is here).

Key
The Charles
The Rotunda
The Senator
The Landmark Harbor East
Suburban Multiplex
Netflix Instant/ Netflix DVD
(Please note: Whenever possible, all releases are linked to their pages on the Netflix website)
Total: 6 features (4 in theaters)

Films Viewed (August 2011)

Cowboys & Aliens employed an ampersand in its title. I saw it with my father. We both agreed it was "all right."

"Proud Flesh" was a short film made by two experimental filmmakers and musicians (Chiara Giovando and Jenny Graf Sheppard) which featured several of my friends as actors. A Western of sorts. I was happy to have an opportunity to see it so many years after its completion, as it has not been commercially released and was only screened locally a few times. A trailer can be seen here.

Beginners was a bit too precious for its own good at times, but had a compelling, (based on a true) story at its core. A man discovers his father is gay after the death of his mother, continues to have problems emotionally. It was a pleasure as always to watch Melanie Laurent and Christopher Plummer on the screen. I enjoyed director Mike Mills' art films, and have watched his progression into more mainstream fare with interest. Netflix confuses him with the bass player for REM, but that is not him.

Jaws remains a good time at the movies. Having seen it so many times as to have borderline memorized it, one is allowed to notice smaller details, especially when a 35mm restored print is on the big screen. The film also marked a welcome return to the Charles theater revival series, which will continue into the fall (for details, go here).

Tabloid was a lesser Erol Morris documentary, but still told a bizarre and compelling story comptently. A beautiful but unstable woman falls instantly in love with a young Mormon man. Things get decidedly complicated (and tabloid-worthy) from there.

Crazy, Stupid, Love. has title-punctuation problems but was otherwise a sharper variety of romantic comedy from an indie directing team. Of all the rom-coms this summer, I chose this one. Great cast and pleasingly complicated. The ending was improbable, but I must forgive it that flaw.

During a trip to Chicago, I saw The Future. Here, it is clear that is a movie. Miranda July manages to stay true to the vision and voice of her debut film, but takes things in a much darker and despairing direction. A couple in their mid-thirties realizes that they are in their mid-thirties. Let us just say, in some ways, the film was a direct hit on the creeping dread of someone born in 1976. Should be playing at the Charles theater in the coming weeks.

The Man Who Fell to Earth was another Roeg to check off the list, and was not the space fantasy I expected. Far from Ziggy Stardust: The Movie, what transpired on screen was much more realistic and cynical. A perfect snapshot of mid-seventies rock star excess and post-Watergate cynicism/paranoia.

As Hurricane Irene approached, I spent a weekend watching various Netfilx items of interest. First up, Jim Jarmusch's break-out film Stranger than Paradise, which reminded me of the attitude and interests of the art and music underground denizens I encountered in the 1980's, when I was just getting started out trying to be cool. Two NYC toughs go on the make with a newly-arrived Hungarian woman. Gritty yet mannered, cool to the touch and deadpan, the film marks the beginning of the Jarmusch style, which I have greatly admired for some time.

Pale Flower popped on and off the Netflix Instant as the storm raged outside. A tough-as-nails Japanese Noir from a director I have yet to explore. A hardened killer recently released from prison meets a highborn lady looking for excitement in the gambling dens of early 1960s Tokyo, and the two begin a run through the urban jungle. Guess how it turns out? Not too well.

Bananas is an early Woody Allen film. Things are schticky and Mad magazine anarchic as Woody's protagonist gets mixed up in the politics of a Latin American country. Fun, diverting, and about to expire on the Netflix Instant queue, so why not?

Trash was also about to expire in more ways than one. A junkie hustler wanders through the New York City of the 1970s and becomes involved in various capers and misadventures. Andy Warhol "produced", Paul Morrissey directed. So trashy and insane and non-acted it became somewhat compelling. Here is an article about other underground films that have been streaming on Netflix Instant.

Something Wild was a successful 1980s re-invention of the romantic comedy road movie from director Jonathan Demme. Three actors (Jeff Daniels, Melanie Griffith, Ray Liotta) are so on-point and in their moment it is astounding to watch. A professional man is "kidnapped" by a wild woman who asks him to pretend to be her husband. A joyride that soon spins out of control. Blink and you will miss a cameo by Baltimore's own John Waters.

Key
The Charles
The Rotunda
The Senator
The Landmark Harbor East
The Music Box Theater(Chicago)
Suburban Multiplex
Netflix Instant/ Netflix DVD
(Please note: Whenever possible, all releases are linked to their pages on the Netflix website)
Total: 12 features, 1 short film (7 in theaters)

Films Viewed (July 2011)

Transformers: Dark of the Moon was an awful film.

Frownland was a paranoid, claustrophobic low budget nightmare of the highest order. It truly achieved something very sweaty, creepy, and mean. A loser continues losing both his mind and his ability to survive as he stumbles further and further down the rungs of New York City.

I became interested in Videocracy due to the recent Rupert Murdock mess. What has happened in Italy is truly frightening, a country ruled by a television/media cult of personality. The film itself was flawed and got going slowly, but improved over the course of its run-time.

Page One: Inside the New York Times, although not revelatory, was a diverting hour and half probing the seeming end times of the newspaper business. I particularly enjoyed/despaired over the coverage of the looting of the Tribune Company by Sam Zell and his cronies, which was the last nail in the coffin of my subscription to the Baltimore Sun.

Uncles Boonmee who can Recall his Past Lives popped up suddenly on Netflix Intstant, being available for streaming before it was released on DVD. Another intriguing meander through the filmed worlds of Apichatpong Weerasethakul. This was a film I was conflicted out of seeing at this year's Maryland Film Festival.

Captain America: The First Avenger won me over for being made "correctly" to someone whose sensibilities were formed as a child in the 1980s. Managed to covey a simple story well. Like with Pokemon, you gotta see'em all when it comes to the Marvel movies.

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Part Two was the end of a saga I began following with mild interest with the release of the first film. I'm such a dilettante that I skipped one of the films and only made it to the first Quidditch match in the first book. Others were clearly much more invested in the phenomenon. I just like watchin' a a good wizard movie, I guess.

Terri had a brief a six-day run at the Charles. A film that captured the sad awkward misery of middle school/ early high school perfectly. A young misfit passively rebels as his living situation deteriorates. Notable performance by John C. Reilly as a well-intentioned lunkhead of an assistant principal.

Rabbit Hole was a dark journey of grief and loss made somehow "safe for filmic consumption. All about moments of emotional acting. A couple approaches middle age and ponders the tragic accidental death of their young son. The Netflix envelope sat there by the television for a long while before my girlfriend and I were ready to plunge in.

Key
The Charles
The Rotunda
The Senator
The Landmark Harbor East
Netflix Instant/ Netflix DVD
(Please note: Whenever possible, all releases are linked to their pages on the Netflix website)
Total: 9 features (5 in theaters)

Films Viewed (June 2011)

The Hangover, Part Two was the kind of film you watch and are saddened by due to its non-existent cast chemistry and high budget pointless seediness. Then you leave the theater and think "that was okay." I am pretty sure there was some sort of hypnotic suggestion in the last five minutes that made me think that. Of course, I bought the ticket, so I can't complain. another foray into "movies my students are going to see this summer" cinema.

X-Men: First Class was X-Men, Mad Men style! Diverting and unafraid to re-write comic book mythos to make for a better story, this prequel got in and did its job of selling popcorn well.

Who is Harry Nilsson (and why is Everybody Talkin' about him?) was a solid documentary about an artist to which I am underexposed. A bit too defensive of his obvious substance abuse issues, but otherwise engaging,

Biutiful was a huge downer, the first time I have seen Barcelona, Spain painted in such a harsh and ugly light. A man on the margins realizes he is dying, trying to finish up his life correctly. Innaritu needs to make a new sort of movie soon.

Super 8 was another slick summer popcorn-selling machine, this time humming along as a straight-up tribute to all things summer and Spielberg. Young people make a movie in 1979 as mysterious events unfold around them.Fleshed out correctly for maximum nostalgic impact with some solid performances.

Midnight in Paris is the highest grossing Woody Allen film of all time. A man falls in love with the Paris if the 1920s, gets a chance to go back in time to visit it. Found myself having many fond "English major" flashbacks as Owen Wilson's character converses with Hemingway, Fitzgerald, and the rest of the expatriate gang.

The Umbrellas of Cherbourg has been on the list for a while, and I am glad to check out Cahterine Denuve being young and falling in love, especially in Jacques Demy's jarringly realistic 1960's French musical. From that part of the early summer when I harbored the illusion of spare time and restful evenings.

Submarine was rushed into theaters before people could think too much and would just go see it. On paper, it sounded good. A British "coming of age" film written and directed by a rising British comic writer and actor. In execution, things remained tonally off and minor key, the emphasis placed in the wrong places. Maybe next time around?

The Spirit of the Beehive was a last minute "Oh... rent two get one free?" choice at Video Americain. Very difficult to encapsulate. Stunningly beautiful and hypnotic. A young girl living at the dawn of Franco's reign in Spain is powerfully moved by an encounter with James Whale's Frankenstein. Very much a film from an imaginative child's perspective, if you can remember what is was like to be eight years old.

Warrendale was a Canadian verite documentary set in a school for emotionally disturbed children. Very powerful and very close to the bone. I watched it the morning my films were due back at the video store. Maybe not the best start to my day, but powerful regardless.

Overlord was an odd duck, sitting there about to expire on the Netflix Instant queue, so I went for it. An intermixing of archival footage and new material, both focusing on the movements of a British soldier in the second world war. Came off stuck between a conventional war film and art-house fare.

Quiet City was a happy surprise, showing up off of the Netflix queue due to some shuffling around. A boy and girl meet entirely randomly and accidentally and spend a weekend together. Held in place by the brave and open performance of the leads actors Erin Fisher and Chris Lankenau, Quiet City works wonders with very little. You can watch the entire film on Google Video right now.

Green Lantern 3D was the beginning of my stumbling through the summer movie season, the promise I made myself in May getting harder and harder to keep. Ryan Reynolds becomes a galactic guardian. This is a "B" movie dressed up in "A" special effects, which makes it less fun. I was raised on the fun of the Million Dollar Movie, and this movie cost three hundred million and managed to have half as much fun as the carpet barn monster

The Virgin Suicides was fun to revisit, remaining an auspicious directorial debut for Sophia Coppola. Grown men reminisce over a fabled and doomed group of sisters that lived next door, just out of reach. I think when I first saw it I didn't get the teenage awkwardness was intentional. I guess a decade of being around it has made me fluent in it.

Bad Teacher was a good premise executed too broadly, standing in a pale shadow to Bridesmaids in terms of summer comedy fare, but still passably funny. A very talented supporting cast definitely kept Cameron Diaz afloat. An aspiring gold-digger gets sidelined into another year of teaching and becomes caught up in a "race to the top" in terms of standardized test scores, all in the hopes of using her cash bonus to purchase breast implants.

Loulou has been floating around my VHS piles for some time. A woman gives up her bourgeoisie existence to pursue a life on the run with charming thug Loulou. The role was a breakout for Gerard Depardieu. I enjoy the works of director Maurice Pialat but they remain hard to find in the US. His films were so far ahead of their time I feel like we are only now catching up with them.

Key
The Charles
The Rotunda
The Senator
The Landmark Harbor East
Suburban Multilpex/ Video Americain
Netflix Instant/ Netflix DVD
(Please note: Whenever possible, all releases are linked to their pages on the Netflix website)
Total: 16 features (7 in theaters)

Films Viewed (May 2011)

Super was a dark journey through the underside of the superhero psyche. Scuzzy and brutish, even for me. Somehow, I was won over by the end, but I hope I never spend too much time dwelling in the murky depths of sadness, vitriolic anger, and isolation this film plumbs.

The collection of Maryland Film Festival Opening Night Shorts was a nice beginning to a busy weekend of film. For more info on the four shorts, go here.

We Were Here was a wrenching documentary about life in San Francisco through the AIDS crisis. Well done work with super heavy material.

My Joy was another grim slog (you may be noticing a trend in my film-watching). A truck driver in the Ukraine travels through what America will be like shortly. Then, after an encounter with a prostitute, the story takes a decided turn, drifting into unknown territories and other, seemingly unconnected narratives. I thank the festival for bring such challenging and edgy work to the big screen in Baltimore.

I must recuse myself from reviewing Green as it was one of the films I hosted at the Festival. For more information on the film, go here.

Small Pond was the first feature from Josh Slates, a filmmaker with Baltimore ties. It chronicles the titular misadventures of a misanthrope living in a small college town, working at the pizza place and going nowhere fast.

The Oregonian was a film which derived much of its aesthetic from the later work of David Lynch. A woman attempts to piece together what is happening during a surreal journey following a car crash. A film like this is supposed to stick with you, to haunt your dreams. In my case, it did not.

I must recuse myself from reviewing the double feature of Convento and Hilvarenbeek as I hosted the screening. For more on both. go here.

Thor kicked off the summer blockbuster season correctly, the right mix of palace intrigue among the gods and "fish out of water" situations for those same gods on earth. Nothing mindblowing, but still a good time. This is surprising considering how "echh" the first stills make the film look. Pulling off a rainbow bridge on film is not the easiest task.

I had a lot of faith in Bridesmaids, going to see it by myself on opening weekend as part of a vow I have made to see all of the many 2011 summer films of note. Now that the film has caught on and found its audience, I am happy for its success. Kristen Wiig, Maya Rudolph and the rest of the cast put in stellar ensemble work in a very funny (and very raunchy) comedy.

The Illusionist was minor but very visually beautiful. An aging illusionist comes to small town, takes on a young female stowaway, and navigates the paternal/platonic relationship between them as best he can. Bittersweet and poignant.

Manos: The Hands of Fate (Mst3k version) is the perfect blend of a beyond-bad movie and the gang in top heckling form. This particular episode of the show is alchemical for me, creating something somehow greater that it's combined parts. During a month where I really needed it, I laughed so hard it hurt.

Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides was checked off the summer movie list without great fanfare. I enjoy pirates. There were pirates in the film. And also there were mermaids.

The Ten was a Netflix Instant "oh sure why not," an uneven collection of sketches in film form from David Wain and company based around the Ten Commandments. Not as bad as I heard it would be. Didn't catch it during its one week run at the Muvico (pre-Cinemark). Then, four years later...

Accattone was a gritty early Pasolini, the story of a charismatic but woefully inept pimp trying to survive in postwar Rome. Came up favorably in an article on Italian neorealism so I went for it before it disappeared from the Instant queue.

Cave of Forgotten Dreams 3D invariably takes some explaining, as I had to travel to Georgetown in Washington DC to see it. Werner Herzog is given unprecedented access to film a cave cut off from the world for aeons to capture the oldest known pictorial creations of humankind. Excellent, magical. Looks like it opens in the Baltimore area this month, so my long and expensive day-trip may have been a folly. Oh well, I've gone further for less.

"Jazzoo" was a 16 millimeter short film projected on the side of a wall in West Baltimore in honor of a friend's birthday. A trip to the zoo scored to jazz (get it? Jazz? Zoo? Jazzoo). A nice backyard time as the sun went down on a scorcher of an afternoon.

Cocaine Cowboys is an excellent marriage of an unbelievable story and well done documentary filmmaking. The men behind the "cocaine pipeline" in Southern Florida in the 1970s and 1980s (and the ensuing skyrocketing murder rate) tell their darkly enthralling tale. Hard to mess this one up.

Key
The Charles
The Rotunda
The Senator
The Landmark Harbor East
2011 Maryland Film Festival
Suburban Multilpex/ Georgetown AMC 14
Netflix Instant/ Netflix DVD
(Please note: Whenever possible, all releases are linked to their pages on the Netflix website)
Total: 15 features, 7 short films (16 in theaters)