I, Pierre Rivière, Having Butchered My Mother, My Sister, and My Brother…

I have no place reviewing this film. I fell asleep. It wasn't that it was bad. I am just a sleep-deprived mom. The part I saw was tres francais and a little bit weird. Did I mention it was long? And dark and warm in the theater? And there was no baby crying or wanting to nurse? Pure heaven.

The Wrestler

I so appreciated that this movie didn't do anything it wasn't meant to do. It was just the right amounts of funny and sweet and weird and gross. Nothing drastic or shocking happens, it doesn't wrap things in a pretty bow, but it was touching and realistic. Micky Roarke is pretty incredible, albeit pretty horrific to look at. I think the surprise here is Marisa Tomei, who delivers an amazing performance for which she is nominated for an Oscar. (I CANNOT believe she is 43!)

Synecdoche

This movie was amazing...weird and convoluted and wonderful. And I saw it 3 months ago...so I have nothing valuable to add to anything that has been written here or here or here. I don't agree with all these reviews, but they are all good ones to read.

Phillip Seymour Hoffman is an amazing actor.

I could talk about what happens in the film, but I have no idea what really happened.

This might have been the last movie we saw in 2008. I'm not sure which is more sad: the fact it might have been the last 2008 movie or the fact that I can't remember if it is...either way it is the baby's fault.

Burn After Reading

I think this is the Coen brothers' funniest since Lebowski. They are such amazing crafters of plot and dialog.

I saw this 4 months ago and am just posting about it now so I don't remember what else I was going to say

...ugh. Motherhood ate my blog.

I really liked this film and want to see it again.

Monster Camp

We watch as adults (mostly) play live-action role playing games and talk about how it is more an important part of their lives than all that reality stuff.

The filmakers appeared to be trying to capture these folks earnestly, but it amounts to the same -- they could have been trying to point their fingers and laugh.

I wished it was less of a freakshow and more of a comedy, but I guess in the end, people dressed up as butterfly warriors and cat-elfs banging each other with padded sticks and yelling out hit point losses is just not all that entertaining afterall.

Clunky as a documentary but it does have some very funny moments and it wasn't as bad as I am making it sound.

Encounters at the End of the World

Werner Herzog is becoming my new hero. (As an aside, the trivia in his bio on IMDB is fascinating!)

Grizzly Man was weird and funny and tragic. He showed up in Mister Lonely for a bizarre small role, and now this.

Herzog sets out with his camera to find out about the people who go to Antarctica to work...it turns out there is some kind of weirdo magnet down there and pretty much all he had to do was turn the camera on and let it roll, but the results are stunning and not without the wonderful Herzog charm, brought to you in long still shots, hilarious overdubs and scenes of scientists laying face-down on the ice listening to seals.

From fork-lift driving philosophers to electric guitar playing scientists to a man who keeps a backpack packed at all times with everything he would need to pick up and go - including a kayak(!), the motley crew he encounters at the end of the world is quite entertaining, but the film is much more than that. It is gorgeous and sad and good in that way that keeps coming back to you for days after you've watched it.

Man on Wire

I was sure we were watching a mockumentary for most of this movie...there were such wonderfully silly moments that I would have bet money they were staged and I watched in delighted disbelief. Later, when I realized the events in the film were real, I felt these great touches of true whimsy lightened the mood in just the right way.

This is an inspirational and shocking and silly film and utterly delightful.

Mister Lonely

Weirdo Harmony Korine is at it again and, if you can believe it, it seems like he has refined his technique. Far from the offensive, uncomfortable tales of Gummo and the troublesome morals of Kids, this is a fairy tale with 10 years on Gummo and a world apart.

Celebrity impersonators live in a commune is Scotland. Michael Jackson is asked to join the group by Marilyn Monroe (the voluptuous and amazing Samantha Morton) who is married to Charlie Chaplain. The stooges are there too along with Buckwheat and Abe Lincoln (whose foul mouth adds to the fun.) Non sequitur scenes (some named by Jackson's songs) ramble along beautifully and take you to another reality. There is a culminating scene and "plot" but it didn't really matter to me. The gorgeous colors, bizarro events and a completely unrelated (as best as I can tell) story line about nuns in South America who can fly (encouraged by none other than Father Wener Hertzog) are the stars of this show.

Du Levande (You, the Living)

Surreal and drably lit, this black comedy highlighted the ups and downs of human existence...love, dogs, tubas and the fact that there is always someone observing you.

Young at Heart

I knew we would laugh and cry, but I had no idea...this was an amazingly touching, funny and respectful look at a performing troupe of senior citizens who sing The Rolling Stones, The Ramones, and Coldplay. That's really all you need to know.

Build a Ship, Sail to Sadness

Debut feature-length movie from film school weirdo Laurin Federlein. The main character gas-huffs his way across the Scottish countryside on a scooter talking to locals about how they might support and collaborate on his "traveling disco." It is as weird as it sounds and weirder. For one thing, the locals are not actors. They are actually locals who have only been asked if they want to be in a film, and then the camera rolls. The other thing is the look of the film -- Federlein turned the contrast way up and forced us all to squint and look away about half-way through the film from the dreamy, gas-huffing, glare of lime green and burgundy landscapes.

Part of what made me enjoy this was that I wasn't quite sure what I was watching. We knew nothing going into it and some of the dialog (all improvised, so near as we could tell) and camera shots are so fantastically bizarre, you can hardly believe what you are hearing and seeing.

Be Kind Rewind

This is not the Michel Gondry we have met before. This is a new, lighter, less complicated and in some ways, less enjoyable Michel Gondry. But, we had to see this, knowing it wouldn't be Eternal Sunshine or The Science of Sleep, we had to see it, and I am glad we did.

Mos Def is left in charge of a video (actual VHS video) store while owner Danny Glover is away. Jack Black, through a completely implausible accident, ruins all the videos forcing the duo to remake all the films ('sweding' them). Black is the only person who could have played his character. In fact, I think he plays that character so much that we believe that is who Jack Black is. Loud, crazy, annoying, dim, enthusiastic. We buy it when he plays it. At least I do. So we go along with the goofy idea and find ourselves caught up in the fun.

Wonderful, whimsical cardboard cutouts on the sets, fancy camera angles to produce great visuals, a completely absurd plot and silly characters combined to carry this movie through. Mos Def was pitch perfect. It rode the line between sweet and schlocky, perfectly.

There Will Be Blood

Daniel Day Lewis gives the performance of a lifetime in what basically amounts to a one-man show -- he is in every scene and in every scene he recites what might as well be monologues. Really -- there are other characters, but they are there to support his lines, his character development and the story, which is him. But it's completely gripping. His character is so gritty and dark and single-minded that I was drawn into his drama as it unfolded. Shakespearian in its tension, bloodiness and morals -- think Hamlet or King Lear.

P.T. Anderson crafts the perfect environment for Lewis' character Plainview. The landscape is dusty and dry and the scene is desperate. Tensions between religion, family, community and money are clawed by dirty hands to the surface for us to pick through and find our fortune.

I'm finished!

No Country for Old Men

Oh, you crafty Coens! The story and characters are Cormac McCarthy's creations, but the Coens build from them a horrific, tense, scary, suspenseful and very Coen-esque landscape. Dry desert roads, amazingly cast characters who are so spot-on that you feel you have met them in person, recurring themes (coins, life-changing choices) abound, recurring camera angels and shots are, in typical Coen style, artful and heavy with reference.

I think the most successful part of the film is the horrific monster they created in Chigur (expertly played by an unbelievably fabulous Javier Bardem) with his freaky-deaky hairdo, quiet detachment and bizarre accent.

My one complaint is that there are a few moments when you have to suspend your disbelief a little too far for the story to make sense. I suspect, if reading the book, more of the loose ends would tie together and some of the weird mysteries might clear up...or maybe it just requires another viewing. Like many Coen films, this one would, no doubt, get richer, deeper and more crafty on multiple viewings.

Southland Tales

Richard Kelly, who directed Donnie Darko, one of my favorite films of all time, had some of the tools he needed to get it right with this one, but he didn't. Almost, but not quite.

He certainly had an immense depth and breadth of acting talent(?), but just because you throw Justin Timberlake, The Rock, Buffy, Curtis Armstrong (Booger from Revenge of the Nerds), the freaky, tiny old lady from Poltergeist, the "inconceivable!" guy from The Princess Bride, and tons of SNL people (new and old-school) into a pot, doesn't make it a delicious soup. In fact, it makes it a crazy soup. And one with some amazing scenes and an absurdity factor to rival, say, Bunuel, but it still missed the mark. It's too complicated, too silly and way too long.

Some other folks have panned this film and they do it better than I ever could:

"A Schwarzeneggerian actor, related to a political dynasty, has been kidnapped, replaced with a double, and -- I give up. A plot synopsis would require that the movie have a plot." -- Ebert

" You can't help but feel that the only journey Kelly is taking you on is one deep inside his own bong." -- Mudede

"Somewhere beneath all the layers of idiocy are some good ideas -- if only Kelly knew how to express them." -- Snider

Add to this that I heard it was booed at Cannes and as a result Kelly cut 20 minutes off the film to try to make it less oblique. Lets just say I went in expecting to sleep through it or walk out. I understand that my low expectations were a key to my enjoyment here. I think when you say, "Well that was not nearly as bad as I thought it would be..." it's not really a compliment.

Across the Universe

Julie Taymor's trademark of the combination of stunning visuals and highly choreographed movement (as evidenced in both of her other major films, Frida and Titus) are taken to a new level in this surreal rock musical. Thirty-three new versions of Beatles songs and countless references to they lyrics (in character names, lines and details) are blended into a love story about Lucy and Jude and their involvement in the tumultuous politics and exciting sex, drugs and rock 'n roll of the 60s in America.

I don't think Taymor felt that these were literal interpretations of the Beatles songs. I think she took liberties at every turn to use their words to her end result and she does it beautifully.

Highlights for me include Eddie Izzard's appearance as Mr. Kite and the rendition of "Let it Be" which brought me to tears.

Manhattan

For someone who watches as many movies as I do, to have not seen very many of Woody Allen's older films is a shame. I need to work on that. What Woody needs to work on is making better films nowadays, and falling in love with women (within three decades of) his own age, but I digress...

God, this movie was great. I was floored, completely knocked over by the nuanced and dead-on character studies: Woody Allen's "portrait" of a self-obsessed, neurotic writer; Muriel Hemingway as a 17 year-old going on 35, devoid of self and utterly devoted; Diane Keaton was brilliant as the elitist intelligentsia who wants, above all, to be loved; and the city of New York itself was a character, brooding in sunrise and sunset light, skyscrapers filmed in sweeping panorama to Gershwin's over-emotional score. It is obvious who Woody loves most: the city.

Through rapid and believable dialog and quirky, yet realistic situations, we are shown just the pitch perfect moments to explain who these people are and somehow, we sympathize with them, even though there is very little to like. Really, not much happens in this movie: people meet, argue, have breakfast, pick up their kids, go to the park, get rained on, fall in love, play racquetball, blame each other, hear annoying noises in the apartment, fall out of love, carry on.

Very efficient, effective movie making. It's heartbreaking, and funny and true. Bless you , Woody.

L'Iceberg

A woman becomes obsessed with icebergs. Why? I won't tell you. She drops everything and leaves on a quest to sate her insatiable desire to be near (on?) an iceberg. What does she find and how? I won't say. There is little dialog and a large amount of somewhat whimsical slapstick humor (in a style reminiscent of Jacques Tati, Marcel Marceau and others) and it is brilliantly executed, which that is why the movie works so wonderfully well. There are some outright belly-laughs and some more subtle, weird humor, but it was the physical comedy which won me over. Highlights are: Fiona under the sheets, the dad and kids with the butter, the man dancing at his party and the senior citizens with their umbrellas. Intrigued? You should be. Go see this.

Wie man sein Leben kocht (How to Cook Your Life)

If you think all Zen masters are calm, confident and wise, meet Edward Espe Brown. He is a Zen master and he is a chef. He is a little neurotic, angry, impatient and funny. We watch him cook and teach cooking and laugh at life and himself. This was a very enjoyable little film.

Morirse en domingo (Never on a Sunday)

As a fun twist to our "Movie Night with the Holubs" we let them pick out a couple film festival films and they are not telling us what they are. This was the first of the two they chose.

At turns gruesome and funny and gruesomely funny, this plot rang a little of 6 Feet Under meets Weekend at Bernie's (that's the second time that film has been mentioned in this blog) but it was smart and very Mexican, which is what you hope from a foreign film. The parts I enjoyed most were surrounding the side-plot of the daughter of the funeral parlor-owner and the nephew of the dead man.

A little inconsistent, but enjoyable and fun.