Charlie Chaplin
1947
I like it more in retrospect the more I think about it.
Its subject matter was really no darker than other Chaplin ones - he always dealt pretty frankly with poverty and the general horribleness of the world - but its attitude was different.
Even The Great Dictator had this giddy spirit of defiance. The speech at the end was a call to arms, it was stirring. The Little Tramp was all about survival. He always kept going.
The Monsieur Verdoux outlook is more like polite resignation.
It's sad.
Posted at 03:07 am
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Zach Braff
2004
I really liked it up until the last few scenes when it got so cheeseball that even I wasn't buying.
Zach Braff is a funny guy and has a lot of confidence - maybe too much - and a great sense of telling stories visually, but my movie won't get resolved by so many characters talking about their feelings.
In conclusion, I liked it.
Posted at 02:11 am
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Patty Jenkins
2003
Very human serial-killer movie. She really isn't a monster. Jenkins wants the audience to sympathize with this woman, and it's not all Hitchcock/Silence of the Lambs, ooh, serial killers are evil but still somehow appealing because they're so clever and charming.
It's a fairly real-feeling story of someone going over the edge. (Charlize Theron absolutely deserved all the praise she got for this.)
I don't know if this kind of movie would have gotten made about a male serial killer.
Posted at 01:53 am
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Todd Haynes
2002
So, this was really good.
Sad, but lovely.
In the making-of deal Tood Haynes talked about how the reference point wasn't reality, it was other movies. I love when artists take old styles and rules and make them modern.
Also, the art direction was amazing. And the costumes. I've been rocking pearlized buttons ever since I saw this.
Posted at 04:24 am
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He Loves Me, He Loves Me Not
Laetitia Colambani
2002
I really liked this, it was described to me as the anti-<i>Amélie</i>, fairly aptly.
I liked the structure, with the perspective switch halfway through.
Good times.
Posted at 03:49 am
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Morgan Spurlock
2004
Man, I've got to start eating more vegetables.
Posted at 12:38 am
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Jehane Noujaim
2004
I'm thinking documentary is the wave of the future.
Control Room is mostly about Al Jazeera's coverage of the war in Iraq. The amateur journalist in me loved getting to see behind the scenes in the media centre (in Qatar). Seeing how the news gets composed in a setting with a completely different bias - it was fascinating.
My favourite part is when the translator starts chuckling at the end of GWB's speech where he asserts how free and safe the Iraqi people are.
What a great moment.
Posted at 01:52 am
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Andre de Toth
1953
My local rep cinema is having 3-D week and I was writing a test during Dial M for Murder.
House of Wax? Worth every penny. I can't decide whether I liked the random paddle ball scene or the random cancan dancer scene better.
Posted at 01:45 am
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Samuel Fuller
1953
When I rented this, the video clerk said "That's a pretty great film."
He was right.
Posted at 03:57 am
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John Huston
1952
This is a sort of noir heist movie. It's an M-G-M thing, so it's not as gritty as the best noirs. (M-G-M had too much prestige, they could afford high-key lighting set-ups.) Buuut, it was still a pretty good heist movie. I liked Sterling Hayden's short ties, flipped up collar and down-home demeanour. He said lots of things like "Stop your crying and get me some bourbon."
Jean Hagen (Lina Lamont from Singin' in the Rain) plays this girl (who has no name but Doll) who's totally devoted to Sterling Hayden even though he's not nice to her. This is normally the kind of character I really hate, but she was really good, managed to make her seem like a person not just a plot device. It's sad she never got more famous.
Marilyn Monroe has a small part too. Both of them were still pretty early in their careers. Good casting, John Huston.
Posted at 12:20 pm
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