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Worlds of Fragments: February 2008

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Movie Review Query Engine. Jafar Panahi, 2007. Admirable, I guess, but the (neo)realism didn't do much for me. I enjoyed the ending in the van, but otherwise the whole scenario feels so slight that I'm not sure how I feel about it as a movie. Feeders 2: Slay Bells. John and Mark Polonia, 1998. It's kind of surprising that in comparison the original Feeders. Paul Verhoeven, 2007. Joe Wright, 2007. Scott Frank, 2007. I don't remember exactly why I passed this up in the theater. Maybe it came out at the...

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Worlds of Fragments: March 2008

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Movie Review Query Engine. David Lean, 1962. Claude Rains is the only great performance here, as in Casablanca. I didn't recall Lawrence being so utterly empty, but he seems like a man in search of himself, eventually finding nothing. At the beginning he seems eccentric, then he acquires some bloodlust, and by the end he's confused and ruined. Gus Van Sant, 2008. Which is just so far removed from, say, Mala Noche. I also just noticed/remembered that Casey Affleck, who I loved last year, is in Gerry.

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Worlds of Fragments: July 2008

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Movie Review Query Engine. Hal Ashby, 1975. Warren Beatty is awesomely vacant here. He's so completely blank and baffled all the time, even though he's essentially the leading man. Wealth is once again a factor here, since Beatty's character is eventually abandoned because he's not yet a breadwinner. Soundtrack was great. Toshio Masuda, 1967. Other than its relative obscurity. Unless you're Japanese, I guess. In Search of a Midnight Kiss. Alex Holdridge, 2008. Preview @ SIFF Cinema. Hayao Miyazaki, 1988.

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Worlds of Fragments: August 2008

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Movie Review Query Engine. Ben Stiller, 2008. Jean-Luc Godard, 1962. The full-frame clip of The Passion of Jeanne d'Arc. Has to be one of the longest insertions in cinema. Appropriate given how much time we spend looking at Anna Karina's face. And she gets killed by a bunch of men at the end more or less for trying to make her own way in the world. Peter Cattaneo, 2008. But there are probably others as well. Woody Allen, 2008. Or Crimes and Misdemeanors. Haskell Wexler, 1969. Directly and mimics Godard a...

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Worlds of Fragments: October 2007

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Movie Review Query Engine. Ben Affleck, 2007. Kips Bay is just far enough away from the subway that it's not very crowded, even though there are plenty of decent stores and restaurants and all that. It's also very close to where I work, so I can easily make a 5:15 show like this one. Edgar Wright, 2007. Because the genre he's deconstructing/memorializing there is in many ways just as outlandish as his own film. On the other hand, the best cop movies tend to maintain a certain sobriety. Maybe I've...This ...

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Worlds of Fragments: December 2007

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Movie Review Query Engine. Gregg Araki, 2007. I was reminded pleasantly of my old wish in elementary school to write a story without a central conflict (which we were informed was the basis of all stories ever written) where the characters would all just have a really nice time. Gregg Araki has basically made that film, except not quite. It slides away if you try to pin it down anywhere, yet Smiley Face. Keep in mind, though, that this is a stoner comedy. Jason Reitman, 2007. Does anybody else think it's...

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Worlds of Fragments: May 2008

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Movie Review Query Engine. Pen-ek Ratanaruang, 2008. Slow and somewhat bewildering but lovely all the same. Philippe Ramos, 2008. But there are certainly other, better ways this could happen. Eat for This Is My Body. Michelange Quaye, 2008. James Benning, 2007. Heinz Emigholz, 2008. Jen Graves in The Stranger. Continental, or A Film without Guns. Stephane Lafleur, 2008. A more wistful, slightly less fanciful, French-Canadian version of Me and You and Everyone We Know. Lance Hammer, 2008. In one of the re...

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Worlds of Fragments: April 2008

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Movie Review Query Engine. Federico Fellini, 1960. I can understand now why this is viewed on the same level as 8 1/2. But it reinforces why Fellini will never quite be one of my favorites. His dreamlike scenes are magical in their own right, but somehow fail to cohere into a thematic structure that really resonates with me. This sounds idiotic as I type, but it's at least very close to what I feel watching his films. Jean-Luc Godard, 1960. Wong Kar-wai, 2008. Gus Van Sant, 2002. It just kind of is.

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Worlds of Fragments: June 2008

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Movie Review Query Engine. Joachim Trier, 2008. Ronald Bronstein, 2007. From when I saw this last September:. See also: Official website. Alfred Hitchcock, 1958. Excellent. These relationships are all so convoluted and inappropriate that anyone involved on any end of them must be guilty of something. This struck me because so many of Hitchcock's films involve a man wrongly accused, but here even though Scottie is exploited, he exploits others just as much. Match up with many things James Stewart does here.

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Worlds of Fragments: April 2007

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Movie Review Query Engine. Johnnie To, 2007. I was reminded of how briskly Hong Kong crime films move, something I've noticed with Infernal Affairs. And As Tears Go By. Neither of these really stole my heart, but I did like the ending of the first, as Simon Yam's ascendant Triad leader ruthlessly solidifies his position, echoed to hilarious effect in the second film. Triad Election. Was certainly the more beautiful of the two, particularly the scenes on Jimmy's property in China. Woman on the Beach.