The Crazies — I was disappointed with this remake of the 1973 Romero flick. I’ve not seen the original, so that wasn’t my problem. And this one wasn’t terrible. It just wasn’t very good. There were some good moments. A couple of good set pieces. But the rest was just too convoluted and boring to make the whole all that worthwhile.

Mad Men (Season 3) — In anticipation of last night’s season four premiere, I went back and watched the entirety of the third season. This is a Great Show. Great actors behind interesting and imperfect characters. Great stories to move everything along. And, perhaps my favorite aspect of the show, a great world they inhabit–a NYC ad agency in the 1960′s. It informs not only the locations, set decoration, costumes, and music, but also the commentary on how much and/or little things have changed since that time period. It’s a world that I love getting lost within.

Inception – Christopher Nolan’s latest is one in which you can’t really be brief in talking about it. A proper post would run on and on. That being said, I really loved this movie. A truly great summer blockbuster. And a true relief from all the remakes, reimaginings, and reboots. After watching it the first time without knowing too much about it, I then consumed all the reviews (both positive and negative) and interpretations that I could get a hold of before seeing it a second time. Somewhat surprisingly, I found myself liking the movie even more the second time around.

A Real Young Girl and Perfect Love — Two from Catherine Breillat. The first is a rare coming-of-age story. It’s rare in the fact that it deals with an emerging sexuality in a truly visceral way, full of fears, confusion, kink, and exploration. It’s also rare because it’s a girl’s coming-of-age story. This uniqueness makes for a sometimes shocking little film. The other tells the story of a young man’s inadequacy (which are several) in making his relationship with an older woman work. There are some really good performances in this one, and Isabelle Renauld is stunning as Frederique. After a half-dozen or so Breillat films, I can say that I’m certainly a fan. Sure, they can be disturbing at times, but those feelings are not without their purpose.

Bukowski: Born Into This — A documentary about the seedy American poet. I really like Bukowski’s work, or rather the little I’ve read of it. But the man himself…I’d just like to punch in the face. He comes off–for me anyway–as too insufferable. He seems like a cliche of the tortured artist, except one who might throw his empty beer bottle at you if you ever made such a claim in his presence. That being said, the perceived behavior of a man is not necessarily his art. I’m still curious to check out more of his stuff, particularly some of his novels.

2012 — A much, much, much stupider summer blockbuster (than Inception). But one that I still have a lot of fun with. Along with The Day After Tomorrow, Roland Emmerich delivers fun popcorn movies. They’re like high-budgeted SyFy Originals. They may not engage the brain all that much (okay, not at all), but they’re an entertaining amusement park ride.

District 9 — Wanted to see this one again. And it was on Netflix Instant Viewing. Unfortunately it wasn’t in HD. Still a good, fun movie. The movie is a little schizophrenic. It feels like it’s trying to be several different movies all at once. Thus it never seems to fully play out its various intentions. But for the most part, it manages to hold things together adequately.

Five Easy Pieces — I came to this movie mostly just with the awareness of the diner scene. I became interested in seeing it after reading Peter Biskind’s book about New Hollywood, Easy Riders, Raging Bulls. And I also go into this movie almost a little sick of Jack Nicholson. Maybe it’s his more recent acting choices, but I was beginning to think of him as highly overrated.

But with this one, Nicholson delivers a great performance as Robert Eroica Dupea. At the beginning of the film, Dupea appears as a roustabout on the oil fields. He is thoroughly blue collar. He survives in motels and bowling alleys with a dimwit waitress. He seems every bit a redneck jerk.

But then he must return to the family home on news that his father is ill. Once he arrives, we realize that he comes from a decidedly sophisticated family. He was classically trained on the piano. His family mixes with artists and intellectuals. Dupea isn’t working the oil fields because he’s blue collar. He’s just trying to avoid his family and this other part of his life.

The movie pits sophistication against provincialism. Dilettante against redneck. The soundtrack to the movie even pits Chopin, Bach, and Mozart against Tammy Wynette. Dupea struggles against both sides of his past. Eventually, he rejects them both in favor of Alaska.

Thirst and Let The Right One In — A couple of really good vampire movies from the last couple of years. These certainly aren’t your daughter’s vampire movies. And neither is American either. Thirst was a real surprise. It was not at all what I had expected. I think I was waiting to see an ultra-violent picture that was trying too hard to be badass. But what I got was a well paced, beautifully shot story that took me to some unexpected places. It explores religious guilt, morality, and the absurdity of eternal life through a vampiric perspective. I kind of can’t wait to see it again. I also really want to check out director’s Park Chan-wook’s Vengeance Trilogy.

Let the Right One I had seen at the theater. After Thirst, it made the perfect double-feature. Thankfully, the Netflix Instant Viewing version featured the theatrical subtitles. After watching them both, I’m convinced that a vampire’s life (much like a religious afterlife) would be tedious struggle of monotony.

Jaws — It’s been a long time since I’ve seen this one. And I’m not sure if I’ve ever seen it in an uninterrupted and unedited format (I may have only ever seen it on TV). I was honestly surprised with how serious the movie is. Seeing as it pretty much launched the Summer Blockbuster, I expected something a little more goofy. Big summer movies seem to be primarily about escapism. This was downright horror. The shark was impressively scary to me. Except for one particular scene, I thought the horror of the beast was quite believable.

Toy Story and Toy Story 2 — With the third installment at the theaters, it was about time that I actually saw the first two. While the toys make for delightful characters to follow around, I was left a little empty. They were okay. But I certainly prefer Ratatouille, Wall-E, and Up to either of these. I wanted to love them…but I just didn’t.

Bluebeard — I really like this movie a lot, so much so that I ended up watching it twice. Based on the Charles Perrault story, the movie recounts the original folktale as a pair of more modern sisters rediscover it while playing in the attic. Sisterly rivalry, a common theme in Catherine Breillat’s films, is certainly present all over this one. Certainly, this film is less sexually explicit than some of her other films which ought to make it more accessible.

This was a folktale “period piece” done on the cheap. But very effective. Because of that, it seemed like something Herzog might have done. The story was compelling enough to make costume and location seem adequately authentic. And Breillat captures the story with very painterly compositions. The eclipse scene is especially striking. At first, it just seems too artsy and conscious. But as we pull back and figure out what is going on, its effectiveness is apparent.

Lola Creton, Dominique Thomas, Credit: Strand Releasing

This is an art film. So it’s not all that accessible. Thank god. It means there can be nuance and complexity. Lots of swirling grays on Breillat’s canvas. I love that about this movie. It’s feminist in an unexpected way. Marie-Catherine (Lola Créton, wonderful) is no saint. She is most certainly flawed. She’s a gold-digger, for starters. But Bluebeard (Dominique Thomas) is a godlike figure with quasi-religious power over her. He may value honesty and trust. “If you tell me the truth, you’ll never anger me.” But no mortals can obey the rules of his game. It’s a rigged game he sets up. So of course she must disobey him. For that, she pays with her life.

Of course, this movie makes me not only want to see more of Breillat’s films but also to explore more un-Disneyfied folktales from Perrault and others.

The Maid — Another really good one. This one a Chilean film from Sebastian Silva. It features a remarkable lead performance by Catalina Saavedra as Raquel. The movie itself tackles what is meant by family and the power of inertia.

Family isn’t simply blood relatives. Family are those who you care about and who care about you. New friends, fleeting friends, even a pet are sometimes more genuinely family than blood relatives.

Personal inertia seems to be popping up in more and more films these days. Or else I’m just aware of it more. Certainly my mental well-being is dependent on overcoming inertia. For Raquel, inertia is literally killing her. Her life is a repetitive cycle of house-cleaning and caring for kids who are not her own. Not until she is nudged out of her numbing stasis by a rival maid does she overcome her inertia. At that point, happiness becomes a possibility once again.

The Box — After liking Donnie Darko but not Southland Tales, I wasn’t sure where this one would take me. But I ended up really liking it. Like those previous two from director Richard Kelly, this one is imaginative, weird, and mysterious. It seems to say something about free will. But then it seems to say something about determinism. It seems to describe god. Or an alien god. Or no god at all. It’s confounding, to be sure. A lot of that surely comes from Richard Matheson. The film is based on his short story “Button, Button.” But Kelly takes the movie a little farther.

A lot of people were disappointed in the aftermath of Donnie Darko. That movie sparked a lot of interesting interpretations. All of Kelly’s movies challenge viewers to try and figure things out. That investigation can be a lot of the fun in watching enigmatic movies like his, even when there is no obvious (or correct) answer. It provides motivation for multiple viewings. But things are ruined a little when the director provides too much information, as Kelly may have done with the commentary track and supplemental materials on the Darko DVD.

I don’t want a definitive answer from the director. I don’t want too much information. I want the film to exist as the strongest piece of evidence for various interpretations. A few pages from the Human Resource Exploitation Manual seen in The Box is available online. It adds a level of interactivity to the film, but I don’t think it improves anything. And any more information would diminish the nice mysterious nature of the film. Aside from broader ideas about the source material or tone or something, I kind of want the director to make the film and then step away. Leave the interpretation to us!

Pink Flamingos — A test of endurance. But one I’m glad I can cross off the list. The name of the film implies a kitschy quality. And the film itself teeters between a disgust for the freakish, a genuine respect for the freakish, and exploitation of the freakish. It’s a strange, strange movie. And one of the scariest horror movies I’ve seen in a while. That Divine reminds me of John Wayne Gacy will only amplify my impending nightmares.

Star Trek — Prior to catching J.J. Abrams reboot of the classic TV & movie series last summer, I hadn’t been much of a Star Trek fan. I’d watched Deep Space Nine for a season or so. But other than that, I’d only seen a handful of episodes and if I’d seen any of the movies, then I sure didn’t remember them. But I went into this reboot with a basic understanding of what was going on in the Star Trek world, as well as some of the most famous character behaviors and lines of dialogue. And to be honest, I wasn’t all that excited about going into this movie last summer. I had never got excited about Star Trek before, how was this going to be any different?

But I have to say after catching it again, I really like it. It’s just a wonderful movie to pop into the Blu-ray player and have fun with. One of the better blockbuster/popcorn movies we’ve seen in the last several years. I think it looks dazzling. Sure, there are just way too many lens flares. But the movie just looks really good to me. The integration of sets and special effects and make-up actually impressed the hell out of me. Sure it’s a big budget film. But I was still impressed.

The story is a bit convoluted at times. The way they get around the reboot through an alternative reality is somewhat clever. But somehow the script remains fairly strong. As far as performances, I believe I had somewhat dismissed Chris Pine the first time around. But upon this viewing, I found his performance to be quite impressive. He gives us a little bit of the original Kirk while still bringing his own stuff to it. I think the rest of the cast fills out strongly. This might just have to be one that I add to my Blu-ray collection.

The Killer Inside Me Films in OKC

Michael Winterbottom is always a bit of a surprise. He seems to fly under the radar. Perhaps it’s the variety of his projects–the way he bounces around from genre to genre, from tone to tone, from mood to mood. But he’s certainly underappreciated. Most people will know him from A Mighty Heart. But, he’s done so much more. He did Jude, Welcome to Sarajevo, 24 Hour Party People, Tristam Shandy, and now The Killer Inside Me. In addition he’s managed to make a documentary based on a Naomi Klein book and a movie that has gained some notoriety because of its unsimulated sex.

I think he does fine work once again with The Killer Inside Me. Based on the pulp crime novel by Oklahoma born Jim Thompson, the film follows the exploits of Sheriff Lou Ford (Affleck) as he navigates his own slippery grip with psychopathy. All of the ingredients of hard-boiled fiction are present. There are unflinching takes on violence and sex. There are twists and turns and double-crosses. It certainly puts the dark back into noir. And for the cherry on top, an ample dose of Freud takes a stab at explanation.

The film is brutal. With seemingly little reason for doing so, Lou turn’s the beautiful face of prostitute Joyce Lakewood (Alba) into something resembling cube steak. It’s brutal. And frustrating. Freud stutters with a reason for this behavior. But whether the Freudian explanation is for Lou or for us remains unclear. Do we even care if violence (or sexual dysfunction) has a cause? Does it matter where the root lies? Or is it enough that it exists?

The violence of the film is also brutal because it comes from Lou’s perspective. To him, the women he loves somehow want this violence inflicted on them. They don’t put their hands up to block punches. For Lou, it is their sexual desire fulfilled.

Why the film offers potential paths toward explanations (e.g. the Freud books on Lou’s bookshelf, the babysitter, the back seat of the car, etc.), it doesn’t provide definitive answers. Perhaps Lou’s past has acted as a compass, directing him down his present path, but he is still very much guiding his own ship.

Casey Affleck impresses once again, playing a psychopathic version of The Coward Robert Ford. He keeps getting better and better. Kate Hudson just makes me long for Almost Famous with the hope that she can rekindle that fire at some point in a future project. Ned Beatty is great as usual. But I’m still not convinced that Alba can really act. She’s a pretty face who delivers some clunky lines. Luckily, a doormat is what the script called for so it’s not as if it’s bad casting. I want to like her as an actor. The shark posters she plastered all over the city last year actually kind of made me like her.

Mostly, I’m just glad that a major film from a credible director was made right here in the Great State of Oklahoma. I hope there is much more that links Hollywood with Oklahoma into the future.

I spent the good part of the week at the 10th Annual deadCENTER Film Festival. Commentary on what I watched during the festival can be found in those posts. Somehow I did mange to watch something else. I don’t know how.

Shutter Island — It’s Scorsese. So it’s not bad. And I liked it better than The Departed. But I certainly didn’t love it. Part of that is certainly due to knowing in advance about the plot “twist.” In the end, it seemed Shyamalan (twist ending) meets Tarantino (cinematic pastiche) via Hitchcock (cinematically Vertigo-ish). I even liked some of the quirky touches–the rear-projection, the continuity errors, and the bombastic score. But the true test of a film like this is how well it plays upon second viewings. It’s just that it left me so unexcited that I don’t really see myself watching it again. It’s good enough that I’d recommend it, but not good enough for me to remember it.

Mystery Science Theater 3000: Ring of Terror — A typically funny Mysty, but certainly not one of the best. The subject of ridicule–Ring of Terror–was a pointless and plotless cautionary tale of college fraternity hazing. Thankfully, that film was relatively short. Unfortunately, however, that brevity meant an additional short film tacked onto the end. Except this time, both the short film and the commentary were unfunny and boring.

Teeth and Grace — This double-feature has to be one of the most effective arguments for abstinence. The first tackles female sexuality through a wicked case of vagina dentata. Ouch. The vagina becomes not only disgusting, but horrific. It also becomes quite literally emasculating, with bite marks to prove it. The second is a parable for childbirth and parenting. Again, in a quite literal manner, the newborn child sucks the very life out of its mother. Both movies aren’t as graphic as they could be. The directors of both films get a lot out of the aftermath of the horror, with adept use of copious amounts of blood and dismembered members.

Punch Drunk Love — I love Paul Thomas Anderson. Magnolia, Boogie Nights, and There Will Be Blood are among the best and my most beloved films of the past 20 years. And, Hard Eight (Sydney) isn’t too bad either. And I eagerly await his films of the future. But, I just don’t get Punch Drunk Love. I must be missing something. After watching it this second time, it fell as flat for me this time as the first. It’s quirky enough. It’s got some funny moments. The performances are good. I just don’t see what’s worth loving about it. And I know there are a lot of people who really like this film, even more than Magnolia or There Will Be Blood. I wish someone would explain to me what is so amazing about this film. Normally, I don’t care all that much why I don’t like a particular movie that other people adore. But in this case, I LOVE everything else that Anderson has done. This one seems mediocre at best. I would love for someone to defend this film such that I reconsider its value. I want to love it. I just don’t.

Black Snake Moan — This was surprisingly good. I went in to it thinking of it as that movie where Samuel L. Jackson chains up a half-naked Christina Ricci to the radiator. What I got was a relatively thoughtful meditation on personal demons and enduring love, with both the hyperbole and honesty of a good blues yarn. When a bluesman talks of shooting his old lady down or of battling with the devil, it may not be the literal truth but it is honest.

Sure, Ricci in nothing but a cut-off shirt and panties is a little distracting. And perhaps that goes on a bit too long. But any ogling one may be tempted into only makes one that more complicit in her degradation. In the end, the movie seems to be not about changing or fixing people as it is about finding someone who can share your demons and fight along side you.

The music in the film is absolutely wonderful. I want to listen to some Son House immediately. Jackson and Ricci deliver quite strong performances. Timberlake struggles a bit in early scenes and upon his return, but much of his problem is weak dialogue. At any rate, after seeing The Blind Side, this just seems like an infinitely better portrayal of black people (even if this one does feature a black man chaining a white woman to his radiator).

Gran Torino — A little too heavy-handed at times, but once again better than expected. There were a handful of overly sentimental and/or symbolic shots that I would have excised. It was as if director and star Clint Eastwood was unsure of the emotions he was putting up on the screen that he had to spell it all out by overtly tugging at our heartstrings. With some of those shots cut out and a reworking of Walt Kowalski’s initial awkward first meeting with sue (Ahney Her) would have made for a much stronger film. As it stands, however, the craggy lines in Eastwood’s face along with all of his cinematic history (from the Man With No Name to Dirty Harry Callahan) make this an interesting re-examination of violence and vengeance. So, even if this movie isn’t as solid as it could be, it seems a fitting ending to the man’s acting career.

The Blind Side — The last of the 10 Oscar Best Picture nominees for me to see. I didn’t really want to watch it. But as a matter of wholeness, I felt compelled. It was pretty much what I expected. Sandra Bullock was fine. She’s a fine actress. But I don’t think this performance was award worthy and I don’t think her career has been strong enough to merit a “body-of-work” Oscar win.

But the story is really weak here. Some people think of this as inspirational? Really!? In that it inspires ridiculously rich people to treat black people with a modicum of decency!? Too bad the filmmaker’s couldn’t bother to do even that.

Michael Oher, the football player at the center of this story, is basically a MacGuffin. He’s there to give something for the rich white lady to do so everybody can think she’s a sassy angelic figure. But the film ultimately cares very little for Oher. He is not given any sort of personality or character. He’s the poor, black guy who just needs a savior in white. Beyond that, Oher’s neighborhood and the people who live there are treated in the most stereotypical of ways.

If this movie would have been about the game of football (the opening scenes explaining the importance of a left tackle were promising) or about all the hard work Oher himself put in to get where he is today, it may have been of some interest. As it exists, however, it kind of disgusts me.

The Road — I really liked the book. I remember tearing through it on a plane ride back from Minneapolis. It was dark and hopeful but without a lot of unnecessary clarity.

I didn’t really like movie. Of course, Viggo Mortensen was excellent. He never seems to miss. And Kodi Smit-McPhee was a welcome surprise. But there was too much heavy-handedness to the film version. There were too many flashbacks of the wife. There seemed to be some too obvious Christian references. The score was way too indiscreet. And the ending seemed too clean.

Reading the book that first time, I felt like I wasn’t sure what happened to bring about the destruction, I wasn’t sure about what was really going on along the road, and I wasn’t sure what would happen on into the future. I liked that confusion. I thought there was hope in there somewhere, but I wasn’t sure. Hell, I remember not even being entirely certain if the boy and the man were actually father and son. Perhaps its obvious now, but that uncertainty added to the book’s intrigue. I might just have to read it again and see how it holds up. Maybe I just got it wrong when I read it that first time.

The Thin Blue Line — A great, great, great documentary. Beautifully shot and scored. The re-enactment scenes are beautiful. The Phillip Glass score brings in some nice tension. And while Errol Morris hadn’t yet come up with the Interrotron, many of the interviews still have a very one-on-one conversational feel to them. As the interviewees get comfortable with the director, they begin to reveal things which seem more and more disturbing. Eventually, they each begin to do their own hanging.

And that all leads to the investigation work that the film undertakes. This is a documentary that trumps not only many cop movies but even actual police work. As a result of this documentary, in which Morris demonstrated that five key witnesses committed perjury, Randall Dale Adams was released from prison. This was a man on death row. An innocent man ready to be put to death. And a movie saved his life. If there’s any stronger evidence for the power of film, I don’t know any.

Waiting for Armageddon — Another documentary about those crazy fundamental Christianists. I know not all evangelicals or even fundamentalists are as off their rockers as these, and it’s unfair to paint them all with a broad brush, but that they do exist is maddening (if not also somewhat entertaining). I just wish the damn rapture would happen already so the rest of us could have the Earth to ourselves. The truly scary part of this mindset is the possibility that it has penetrated into the upper echelons of American government. Could we ever really tacitly support terrorism, if it meant the fulfillment of some Biblical prophecy? I sure hope we’re not that insane. Oh, and of course there is a family from McAlester, Oklahoma featured in the documentary. We’re not all like that. I promise.

Paper Heart — A surprising and sweet little film. A movie starring both Charlyne Yi and Michael Cera could seem a little too cute. And it is. But after initially balking at Yi’s awkward behavior, I began to understand it. I could see where she was coming from. The same has always gone for Cera. Leading man action hero, he is not. But smart, soft-spoken, somewhat shy guys need to be represented on film too, right?

And you’ve got to give it up to the second film in a row to feature people from Oklahoma! Well, maybe not. The last one had a crazy family eagerly waiting for Armageddon while this one featured some bikers from Oklahoma City (at Charley’s Last Stand) whose ideas about love, uh, differed from mine. Keep it classy Oklahoma.

This film could have been better. There is no doubt about that. Perhaps it would’ve worked better just as a documentary, or just as a narrative feature, instead of as a mixture of the two. But it showed a lot of promise. It showed some real insight and honesty, I think.

Crazy Heart — Jeff Bridges was good. Not his strongest performance. But, unlike Sandra Bullock, I think his entire body of work is deserving of the Oscar win. I like the music. I’ve been enjoying the soundtrack for quite a while now. If they would’ve kept it about the music, the road, the booze, and the smokey clubs, it would have been a nice film. But I just couldn’t buy the Jean character at all. Maggie Gyllenhaal was fine in the role. But she was such an empty character, and her relationship with Bad Blake (Bridges) was not believable in the least. She basically just existed to be able to offer up her own son so that Bad could discover he’d finally hit rock bottom. And apparently after a lifetime of drinking and rambling, all it takes is a pretty girl to instantaneously change your ways.

Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call New Orleans — Oh, Werner Herzog. You strange and brilliant man. This movie plays like some drug-induced dream. If things don’t always seem to add up, they seem to be perfectly placed within a tripped-out alternate version of reality. Perhaps this cop story is really science fiction. Maybe the lizards brought about Hurricane Katrina as the first step in their attempt at world domination.

Nicolas Cage is brilliant. I think. I certainly don’t think I’ve ever seen drug-induced insanity look so fun. The entire cast from Eva Mendes to Brad Dourif seem to be having a blast. And I never thought I’d see Fairuza Balk as a state trooper. But there she was. At once in breeches and boots and then just boots.

I just bought a Werner Herzon-Klaus Kinski box set that I have yet to delve into. I very well might need to add this one to my collection. It was a hell of a lot of fun.

The Informant! — Matt Damon can go from action hero Jason Bourne one minute to schlubby bio-tech engineer Mark Whitacre the next minute. And he makes it look so effortless. Working with frequent collaborator Steven Soderbergh, Damon makes this compulsive liar actually teeter towards the sympathetic. Whitacre doesn’t seem so much diabolical as mentally unbalanced. I also liked all the stand-up comedians in small roles…from Joel McHale to The Smothers Brothers to Patton Oswalt. As if the farcical nature of these real-life events could be doubted. I first heard about this story from a This American Life episode, which I would recommend along with this film.