Scratch What Itches
June 29th – July 5th
Rescue Dawn – Werner Herzog is quickly turning into one of my favorite directors. I haven’t seen a whole lot of his stuff, but what I’ve seen has shown him to fully possess an independent spirit of filmmaking. As much as Vietnam War films have become stale, this one seemed like a fresh take. Exciting and heartbreaking with great performances from Christian Bale, Steve Zahn, and Jeremy Davies. Bale’s Dengler was goofy yet sharply competent. I’m itching now, especially since Herzog has just released his diaries about it, to see his epic Fitzcarraldo.
Barton Fink – A Coen brothers film seen for the first time. Decent and funny enough, but nothing amazing. John Goodman was great. I know there is a lot more in there to devour, but it was otherwise rather “meh” for me.
Don’t Look Back – Documentary of Bob Dylan’s 1965 tour. This early Dylan is pure genius. Beyond the songwriting and musicianship, the evolving Dylan persona of the time is absolutely fascinating. It feels like everybody else was just pawns in Dylan’s genius game (and what a priviledge to watch). It makes Todd Hayne’s I’m Not There all the more compelling. I need to revisit that one soon.
Harlan County, USA – The classic documentary about striking mine workers. Captured is the classic battle between capitalists and workers. While no such battle is ever that simple, it is easy here to take the side of the workers against the gun-toting thugs representing corporate interests. It’s fascinating, if not altogether surprising, to see how notions of racism and sexism fade away once people realize that they all share a desperate plight. The country and bluegrass music in this movie was also quite amazing. I really need to spend some time with a study of American folk music.
Ask Not, Steal a Pencil for Me – Two Independent Lens documentaries. The first was a short doc about the Don’t Ask Don’t Tell policy of the US military. The second a holocaust love story. Both were compelling based on subject matter alone, but neither of the two had any major effect on me. Good and worth watching, but not great.
The Wizard of Gore – A bloody feast from the Master of Splatter, Herschell Gordon Lewis. This is the movie that convinced Juno MacGuff that Lewis, and not Argento, was the true master of horror. I like that there’s a tinge of social commentary–something perhaps about the effect of television on our minds–but even that is haphazard because it’s truly only about blood and guts.
