is that you, ned?

Continued from here. le bottom.

360. (17 Jun) The Oyster Princess (Ernst Lubitsch, 1919)* 68

361. (17 Jun) Carmen (Ernst Lubitsch, 1918)* 44

362. (18 Jun) Land of the Pharaohs (Howard Hawks, 1955) 71
Exchange that best sums up this powerful and rather bizarre mixture of Hawksian interplay and Shakespearian rough-edged tragedy: "Will he be remembered?" "I don't think I'll ever forget him." Hawks makes the interaction here seem so inevitable by emphasizing everyone's flaws: with spirituality comes insecurity, with fatalism comes protraction, etc. I guess if I had one quibble with it is that it's hard to look inside blind greed and lust (that of the emperor) for insight, but the way he doled out his own def.s of pleasure and punishment were interesting; the ending gave me the idea that it was all for tension's sake and maybe that's what he was trying to achieve. Everybody is heading for either death (the protagonists) or freedom (the slaves) most of the way through, and it's left up to attitude whether they make it or not. The ending just narrowly escapes being a simple criticism of shallowness because there are still those issues of sexual sacrifice and the nature of a "complete" life floating around.

363. (18 Jun) The Man I Killed (Ernst Lubitsch, 1932)* 39

364. (18 Jun) Eternal Love (Ernst Lubitsch, 1929)* 47

365. (18 Jun) A Girl in Every Port (Howard Hawks, 1928) 78

366. (19 Jun) While the City Sleeps (Fritz Lang, 1956) 80

s88. (19 Jun) Cat's Cradle (Stan Brakhage, 1959) 75

s89. (19 Jun) Window Water Baby Moving (Stan Brakhage, 1959) 53

s90. (19 Jun) Mothlight (Stan Brakhage, 1963) 64

s91. (19 Jun) Eye Myth (Stan Brakhage, 1972) 93

s92. (19 Jun) /Eye Myth/ (Stan Brakhage, 1972) 93

s93. (19 Jun) /Eye Myth/ (Stan Brakhage, 1972) 93

s94. (19 Jun) /Eye Myth/ (Stan Brakhage, 1972) 93

s95. (19 Jun) /Eye Myth/ (Stan Brakhage, 1972) 93

s96. (19 Jun) The Wold Shadow (Stan Brakhage, 1972) 58

s97. (19 Jun) The Garden of Earthly Delights (Stan Brakhage, 1981) 66

s98. (19 Jun) The Stars Are Beautiful (Stan Brakhage, 1974) 42

s99. (19 Jun) Kindering (Stan Brakhage, 1987) 61

t00. (19 Jun) I... Dreaming (Stan Brakhage, 1988) 67

367. (19 Jun) The Mountain Cat (Ernst Lubitsch, 1921)* 32

368. (19 Jun) Madame Dubarry (Ernst Lubitsch, 1919)* 6

369. (20 Jun) Hulk (Ang Lee, 2003)* 53

t01. (20 Jun) Deus Ex (Stan Brakhage, 1971)* 69

t02. (20 Jun) Sirius Remembered (Stan Brakhage, 1959)* 72

370. (20 Jun) The Loom (Stan Brakhage, 1986)* 84

371. (20 Jun) The Rite of Spring (Manoel de Oliveira, 1963)* 45
Um, baffling. Goes from modern-day discussion of the Passion of Christ to the seemingly actual Passion of Christ which is incredibly stagy to... nuclear war? At first it almost seems like a comedy, what with all the satirical yelping "Come see Jesus!" and his I-don't-give-a-fuck-cuz-I'm-Jesus attitude, but it's not funny because it seems to take religion so formally seriously, and then later on I kept searching for something to enjoy other than de Oliveira's compositional craft as the loud reciting of empty (to me, the Atheist) turgid biblical crap, and couldn't really, but he is really a great compositional dude isn't he. You see, the thing about The Last Temptation of Christ is that Scorsese was trying as hard as he could to find the human elements in Jesus and bring them out in a conflicted way. Of Olive doesn't. And then anyway there's this "modern" coda that is very very interesting and lifted the rating a few notches -- still not sure it's "coherent" though.

372. (20 Jun) /Clueless/ (Amy Heckerling, 1995) 74

373. (20 Jun) Big Trouble (John Cassavetes, 1986) 48

374. (20 Jun) God Told Me To (Larry Cohen, 1976) 57

375. (21 Jun) Cluny Brown (Ernst Lubitsch, 1946)* 54

376. (21 Jun) Ninotchka (Ernst Lubitsch, 1939)* 52

377. (21 Jun) The Uncertainty Principle (Manoel de Oliveira, 2002)* 66

378. (22 Jun) Heaven Can Wait (Ernst Lubitsch, 1943)* 43

379. (22 Jun) If I Had a Million (James Cruze, H. Bruce Humberstone, Ernst Lubitsch, Norman Z. McLeod, Stephen Roberts, William A. Seiter, Norman Taurog & Lothar Mendes, 1932)* 58

380. (22 Jun) Oporto of My Childhood (Manoel de Oliveira, 2001)* 59
Cute enough, but I'm kind of offended that one of the world's greatest cinema artists is only praised in projects like this and I'm Going Home which essentially amount to "I'm old, I'm cold, get used to it," while rejecting an insane, perverse, heartlessly formal brilliance like The Uncertainty Principle, whose ways of playing with edges and centers and whose utterly off-putting tone seemed to me much more revealing and compelling than "this is my childhood, this is an awesome psychologically abstract driving sequence, here is a reference to the Past skillfully intertwined with a reference to the Future in order to give Hope." etc.

381. (23 Jun) Strange Days (Kathryn Bigelow, 1995) 63
Lots of interesting, thrilling things here that just almost add up; or, they would if it weren't for the didactic crap about Evil corrupt cops and sleaze for the most part being this thing that you are surrounded by but are still compelled to vomit and go "ew, gross" at. No thanks bud.

t03. (23 Jun) god@heaven (Joseph Neulight, 1998) 7

382. (23 Jun) /Punch-Drunk Love/ (Paul Thomas Anderson, 2002)* 94

t04. (24 Jun) I Don't Want to Be a Man (Ernst Lubitsch, 1919)* 46

383. (24 Jun) Kohlhiesel's Daughter (Ernst Lubitsch, 1920)* 25

t05. (24 Jun) When I Was Dead (Ernst Lubitsch, 1916)* 38
Oh boy, more bouts of giddy, convoluted early 20th century crap. Although Lubitsch has a nice screen presence himself; he's the only element here that's winking.

384. (24 Jun) Loves of Pharaoh (Ernst Lubitsch, 1922)* 60 [horribly mutilated version]
Tough to say why I liked this, as I suppose it may be as conventionally melodramatic as Madame DuBoringass. What interests me about Lubitsch is his anti-moralism, an underlying dissatisfaction (and sadness) with easy labels in his best work. Here he uses a genre known for its moralism to confront his own need to fight against it, in my opinion. As simple as the story is in comparison to the wonderful Hawks movie I saw recently (yer basic unrelenting-greed/vanity vs. da needs of da populus conflict), it is delivered with a penchant for cloudiness, and a systematic kind of lack of glee. Glee sucks, in my opinion, by the way. All of these unbearable movies have had characters giggling and just having a hell of a time and I must say I feel left out of that. I think the pharaoh does too.

385. (25 Jun) The Smiling Lieutenant (Ernst Lubitsch, 1931)* 73

386. (25 Jun) One Hour With You (Ernst Lubitsch, 1932)* 57

387. (26 Jun) Friday Night (Claire Denis, 2002)* 55

t06. (27 Jun) Uppers (Andy McCoy, 2003) 54

388. (28 Jun) The Shooting (Monte Hellman, 1967) 68

389. (28 Jun) Secrets of Women (Ingmar Bergman, 1952) 33

t07. (28 Jun) The Dante Quartet (Stan Brakhage, 1987) 77

t08. (28 Jun) Night Music (Stan Brakhage, 1986) 71

t09. (28 Jun) Rage Net (Stan Brakhage, 1988) 65

t10. (28 Jun) Glaze of Cathexis (Stan Brakhage, 1990) 70

t11. (28 Jun) /Eye Myth/ (Stan Brakhage, 1972) 93

t12. (28 Jun) /Eye Myth/ (Stan Brakhage, 1972) 93

t13. (28 Jun) /Eye Myth/ (Stan Brakhage, 1972) 93

t14. (28 Jun) /Eye Myth/ (Stan Brakhage, 1972) 93

t15. (28 Jun) /Eye Myth/ (Stan Brakhage, 1972) 93

390. (28 Jun) Chungking Express (Wong Kar-Wai, 1994) 76

t16. (28 Jun) /Uppers/ (Andy McCoy, 2003)* 56

t17. (28 Jun) Puce Moon Rising (Sky Hirschkron, 2003)*

t18. (28 Jun) It Could Happen (Laura Solow, 2003)* 34

t19. (28 Jun) Max and Cam (Jay Galbraith, 2003)* 40

t20. (28 Jun) Special Delivery (Chris Ultimo, 2003)* 36

t21. (28 Jun) Interrogator (Zach ????????, 2003)* 30

t22. (28 Jun) Thou Shalt Not (Dahlie Leslie, 2003)* 28

391. (28 Jun) Charlie's Angels: Full Throttle (McG, 2003)* 69

392. (29 Jun) The Clock (Vincente Minnelli, 1945) 61
These characters are stupid and thin when compared to Ethan and Julie, in my opinion.

393. (29 Jun) /The Last Days of Disco/ (Whit Stillman, 1998) 75
Pretty wonderful, and on top of that seems to refute the complaints I've heard about Stillman (that his work isn't nearly aware enough of class). Um, no, sorry, how many more filmmakers can you think of with characters so socioneconomically self-conscious. It's not like the self-absorbed rich people here are exactly exalted; when Kate B. gets in arguments with departmental Dan both are made fools of in their own way, etc. I don't think any other filmmaker also can capture the subtle changes of atmosphere and loyalty in a community, with the possible exception of Altman. Please make another movie Whit, etc. Lone quibble: do people really talk like this.

394. (29 Jun) Meet Me in St. Louis (Vincente Minnelli, 1944) 82

395. (29 Jun) I Like It Like That (Darnell Martin, 1994) 52

396. (30 Jun) White Hunter, Black Heart (Clint Eastwood, 1990) 65

397. (30 Jun) Angel (Ernst Lubitsch, 1937) 77

398. (30 Jun) The Student Prince in Old Heidelberg (Ernst Lubitsch & John M. Stahl, 1927)* 56

399. (30 Jun) The Merry Widow (Ernst Lubitsch, 1934)* 50

t23. (30 Jun) Romeo and Juliet in the Snow (Ernst Lubitsch, 1920)* 53

400. (30 Jun) Anna Boleyn (Ernst Lubitsch, 1920)* 1

401. (30 Jun) Showgirls (Paul Verhoeven, 1995) 85

402. (01 Jul) The Disorderly Orderly (Frank Tashlin, 1964) 79

403. (01 Jul) The African Queen (John Huston, 1951) 42

404. (01 Jul) Footlight Parade (Lloyd Bacon, 1933) 67

405. (01 Jul) The Love Parade (Ernst Lubitsch, 1929)* 83

406. (01 Jul) Monte Carlo (Ernst Lubitsch, 1930)* 70

407. (02 Jul) Th?r?se (Alain Cavalier, 1986) 64
Bresson meets Desplechin in this very self-conscious film that seems to measure the performance aspect of martyrdom. Visual style maybe a bit too clean and tidy but ultimately affecting. Also not humorless; unlike w/ those damned Dreyer/Bergman religious odyssies, I felt like I at least had the option of laughing at the protagonist/her superiors.

408. (02 Jul) Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines (Jonathan Mostow, 2003)* 65

409. (03 Jul) Design for Living (Ernst Lubitsch, 1933)* 72

410. (03 Jul) Bluebeard's Eighth Wife (Ernst Lubitsch, 1938)* 66

411. (03 Jul) Rosita (Ernst Lubitsch, 1923)* 29

412. (03 Jul) The Marriage Circle (Ernst Lubitsch, 1924)* 65

413. (03 Jul) Lancelot of the Lake (Robert Bresson, 1974) 84

414. (04 Jul) Swimming Pool (Francois Ozon, 2003)* 39

415. (04 Jul) Memories of Underdevelopment (Tom?s Guti?rrez Alea, 1968) 46

416. (04 Jul) Through the Olive Trees (Abbas Kiarostami, 1994) 73

t24. (04 Jul) One Froggy Evening (Chuck Jones, 1955)* 60

417. (04 Jul) The Band Wagon (Vincente Minnelli, 1953)* 71

t25. (04 Jul) Blossoms & Blood (Paul Thomas Anderson, 2003) 62

418. (05 Jul) A Sunday in the Country (Bernard Tavernier, 1984) 49

419. (05 Jul) Jour de f?te (Jacques Tati, 1948) 74

420. (05 Jul) Christmas in July (Preston Sturges, 1940) 91

t26. (05 Jul) /Puce Moment/ (Kenneth Anger, 1949) 100

t27. (05 Jul) /Puce Moment/ (Kenneth Anger, 1949) 100

t28. (05 Jul) /Rabbit's Moon/ (Kenneth Anger, 1950) 95

t29. (05 Jul) /Kustom Kar Kommandos/ (Kenneth Anger, 1965) 87

421. (05 Jul) The Family Jewels (Jerry Lewis, 1965) 75
This had the familiar mix of pride and self-deprecation of the other Lewis movies I've seen so far, but I began to notice that they were stemming not from pre-calculated logistics but from perspectives, visual circumstances. He seems to see a parallel between our reaction to a joke we can't entirely visualize and the mistakes people can make (i.e. the jokes with the "main Jerry" screwing up near the photographer and with the car) by not recognizing multiple dimensions and sections of space and people. The little girl is a fascinating figure, a presexual object of beloved femininity -- and she's a terrible actress, but Jerry uses that to his benefit, her simple reactions interacting with his infinitely complex and frustrated ones. Yes, the "main Jerry" wins out, but he's still implicating himself in a not-so-aggrandizing way here.

422. (05 Jul) Will It Snow For Christmas? (Sandrine Veysset, 1996) 43

423. (06 Jul) /Smiles of a Summer Night/ (Ingmar Bergman, 1955)* 70

t30. (06 Jul) /Puce Moment/ (Kenneth Anger, 1949) 100

t31. (06 Jul) /Eye Myth/ (Stan Brakhage, 1972) 93

t32. (06 Jul) /Cat's Cradle/ (Stan Brakhage, 1959) 75

t33. (06 Jul) /Puce Moon Rising/ (Sky Hirschkron, 2003)

t34. (06 Jul) /Kustom Kar Kommandos/ (Kenneth Anger, 1965) 87

424. (06 Jul) Malice (Harold Becker, 1993) 53

425. (07 Jul) Sanshiro Sugata (Akira Kurosawa, 1943) 58

426. (07 Jul) Letter From an Unknown Woman (Max Oph?ls, 1948) 76
Gosh these Oph?ls romantic tragedies are wonderful (in this case it actually is conventionally heartbreaking as opposed to the intellectually anguished push-and-pull of something like La Ronde); I guess if I have a quibble it's that they're occasionally too obvious, and that some tragedies just aren't that tragic. Note the fourth word in the title, etc.

427. (07 Jul) The Palm Beach Story (Preston Sturges, 1942) 86
Probably an even more advanced movie than Christmas in July as far as complicating the whole giving into one type of financial success for consistency's sake thing, but it drags a little more too. Still hilarious, gripping, loved the initial idea of the fucked up old man giving money just so they would be happy together (because of course senility leads us all the way back to this nostalgic ideal of wanting people to stay together), the ridiculous ending was suitable, etc. Also Claudette Colbert is as she was in Bluebeard's Eighth Wife really really hot, goddamnit, etc.

428. (07 Jul) Human Weapon (Ilan Ziv, 2002)* 32

429. (07 Jul) My Terrorist (Yulie Gerstel, 2002)* 17
I am a great filmmaker! I am a great mother! But on top of all that of course I am a great person! Reconciliation and dialogue are vital! Listen to me! My political ambivalence and hope for restitution is Profound! Etc.!

430. (07 Jul) Sisters of the Gion (Kenji Mizoguchi, 1936) 69

431. (08 Jul) The Story of a Cheat (Sacha Guitry, 1936)* 82

432. (08 Jul) Two or Three Things I Know About Her (Jean-Luc Godard, 1967) 72

433. (08 Jul) Record of a Tenement Gentleman (Yasujiro Ozu, 1947) 34

434. (09 Jul) The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari (Robert Wiene, 1920) 40

435. (10 Jul) 7 Women (John Ford, 1966) 92

t35. (10 Jul) Two Men and a Wardrobe (Roman Polanski, 1958) 51

t36. (10 Jul) The Fat and the Lean (Roman Polanski, 1961) 44

t37. (10 Jul) Mammals (Roman Polanski, 1962) 76

436. (10 Jul) Our Hospitality (John G. Blystone & Buster Keaton, 1923) 55

437. (10 Jul) Sherlock, Jr. (Roscoe Arbuckle & Buster Keaton, 1924) 48

438. (10 Jul) M (Fritz Lang, 1931) 89

439. (10 Jul) A Touch of Zen (King Hu, 1969) 73

440. (10 Jul) Quai des Orf?vres (Henri-Georges Clouzot, 1947) 95

441. (10 Jul) The Lizzie McGuire Movie (Jim Fall, 2003) 58

442. (11 Jul) The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance (John Ford, 1962) 81

443. (11 Jul) I Shot Jesse James (Samuel Fuller, 1949) 96

444. (11 Jul) Kiss Me Kate (George Sidney, 1953)* 47
Better than Anchors Aweigh!, but there's no excusing the fact that both feel too show-offy to be affecting, accentuated here by the 3D spectacle of (gasp!) people throwing stuff close to the screen. I don't feel like this Sidney guy is capable of making a coherent film; he's too concerned with having this and that and this etc. without letting us go in any interesting directions. Like yesterday's Lizzie McGuirefest this is really about the parallels between life and art, but it's a lot less dazzling than that movie because it tries so damn hard. They're there, dude, don't point them out for us.

445. (11 Jul) Hail the Conquering Hero (Preston Sturges, 1944) 45
Oh wow, that media just won't let up, will it?

446. (12 Jul) My Hustler (Andy Warhol, 1965)* 77 At first I was comparing this in my head to Fassbinder?s takes on gender and power, in particular The Bitter Tears of Petra Von Kant which this is sort of a gender reversal of in that there are three men, a ?slave,? (Marlene, Paul) a ?master,? (Petra, Ed) and a socially up-and-coming companion who is somewhere in between (Karin, Joe). The major diff is that film is actually kind of lyrical, purposefully finding ways to eloquently express the plight of its characters; this is decidedly not so celebratory. Out of the two sequences revolving around Paul, the first voyeuristic (we never hear him, only about him) and the second a conversation between him and Joe about his prospects, the former seemed much more stimulating to me at the time since it involved our speculation on his degree of involvement with all the bullshit everyone is throwing around about who he is and who he?s with; in the second, he just reveals himself to be a younger version of Joe with the same set of ?aspirations,? if only because that?s who he?s talking with. I liked a lot of Warhol?s camerawork, the swaying first beach sequence giving a sense of a giant playground with its own set of limitations (Paul playing in the water with the girl gives off a bisexual vibe, until the camera backs up and imprisons them both and creates more space between them, mirrored in the anxiously catty background dialogue) and the static bathroom shot, a compact space at first appearing to be a haven (or outlet) for Paul?s banter/grooming and then gradually being covered up in a hilarious finale. Also, these are not Fassbinder characters, I have realized. I (thanks to this dude) read this incredibly awesome article that everyone in the world should read in full which has this following incredibly valuable quote by Jean-Pierre Gorin: ?each of Rainer Werner Fassbinder?s screen characters was ?a flat encephalogram. Each line, each life is drawn straight and shallow, and it doesn?t take very long before it falls in on itself?.? True, true, about Marlene and Petra, though I can?t be positive about Karin. However, no one in My Hustler fits this definition; the entirety of the film seems to be spent undermining the notion that Paul has simple needs, and I wasn?t even certain about this until the few final moments, when assumptions about what he?ll go for sexually, academically, financially, etc., seem hopeless and ironic. Phew, etc.

447. (12 Jul) Caught (Max Oph?ls, 1949) 56
Didn?t do that much for me, because Oph?ls? usual struggle with the conflict between the ideal and reality seems used basically just to illustrate the fact that awarded upper-class reality is a torturous thing and that you know that James Mason is a pretty nice guy despite the fact that I am infiltrating his office with marry-well propaganda. In other words, I?m not sure I want to directly associate ideal vs. reality with cultured vs. uncultured; I realize the two are related, but there?s so much more to it?

448. (13 Jul) Unfaithfully Yours (Preston Sturges, 1948) 66

t38. (13 Jul) The Two Mouseketeers (Joseph Barbera & William Hanna, 1951)* 43

449. (13 Jul) An American in Paris (Vincente Minnelli, 1951)* 75

450. (14 Jul) The Horse of Pride (Claude Chabrol, 1980) 41

451. (14 Jul) Try and Get Me (Cy Endfield, 1950) 78
Two days in a row supporting performances have really sealed a movie for me, despite any other problems I might have been having with it. The first was Oscar Levant in An American in Paris, and now Katherine Locke in this film. Her character here is very ambiguous already but her carefully tuned mix of romantic desperation and anxious conservatism fucking blew my mind, so to speak.

452. (14 Jul) Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl (Gore Verbinski, 2003)* 44

453. (14 Jul) Le Beau Serge (Claude Chabrol, 1958) 59

454. (14 Jul) Yolanda and the Thief (Vincente Minnelli, 1945)* 51

455. (14 Jul) The Pirate (Vincente Minnelli, 1948)* 68

456. (15 Jul) /Matinee/ (Joe Dante, 1993) 87

457. (15 Jul) The Girl Can't Help It (Frank Tashlin, 1956) 49

458. (15 Jul) Will Success Spoil Rock Hunter? (Frank Tashlin, 1957) 62

459. (15 Jul) The Barkleys of Broadway (Charles Walters, 1949)* 36

460. (15 Jul) Easter Parade (Charles Walters, 1948)* 32

461. (16 Jul) Pistol Opera (Seijun Suzuki, 2001) 67

462. (16 Jul) /The Lizzie McGuire Movie/ (Jim Fall, 2003) 84

463. (17 Jul) I Only Want You to Love Me (Rainer Werner Fassbinder, 1976) 42

t39. (17 Jul) A New Year (Sadie Benning, 1989) 52

t40. (17 Jul) Living Inside (Sadie Benning, 1989) 57

t41. (17 Jul) Me and Rubyfruit (Sadie Benning, 1990) 48

t42. (17 Jul) If Every Girl Had a Diary (Sadie Benning, 1990) 45

t43. (17 Jul) Jollies (Sadie Benning, 1990) 61

t44. (17 Jul) /Eye Myth/ (Stan Brakhage, 1972) 93

t45. (17 Jul) /Mothlight/ (Stan Brakhage, 1963) 64

t46. (17 Jul) Black Ice (Stan Brakhage, 1994) 83

t47. (17 Jul) The Act of Seeing with One's Own Eyes (Stan Brakhage, 1971) 65

464. (17 Jul) Laughter (Harry d'Abbadie d'Arrast, 1930)* 75

465. (17 Jul) Nouvelle Vague (Jean-Luc Godard, 1990)* 80

t48. (17 Jul) Dogville of My Childhood (Jeremy Heilman, 2003) 81

t49. (17 Jul) Trent (Jared Sapolin, 2002) 56

t50. (17 Jul) /Puce Moon Rising/ (Sky Hirschkron, 2003) [~]

466. (18 Jul) How to Deal (Clare Kilner, 2003)* 48

467. (18 Jul) /The Lizzie McGuire Movie/ (Jim Fall, 2003) 84

468. (19 Jul) Shanghai Knights (David Dobkin, 2003) 35

469. (19 Jul) Poolhall Junkies (Mars Callahan, 2002) 21

470. (19 Jul) How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days (Donald Petrie, 2003) 13

471. (20 Jul) Only the Strong Survive (Chris Hegedus & D.A. Pennebaker, 2002)* 37

472. (20 Jul) He Who Gets Slapped (Victor Sj?str?m, 1924)* 63

473. (20 Jul) The Unknown (Tod Browning, 1927)* 71

474. (20 Jul) /Charlie's Angels: Full Throttle/ (McG, 2003)* 69

475. (20 Jul) Is the Crown at War with Us? (Alanis Obomsawin, 2002)* 3

t51. (20 Jul) Blow (Marie Craven, 2002)* 24

476. (20 Jul) Suddenly (Diego Lerman, 2002)* 47

t52. (21 Jul) Re Creation (Robert Breer, 1957)* 62

t53. (21 Jul) A Man and His Dog Out for Air (Robert Breer, 1957)* 64

t54. (21 Jul) Blazes (Robert Breer, 1961)* 67

t55. (21 Jul) 69 (Robert Breer, 1968)* 57

t56. (21 Jul) Fuji (Robert Breer, 1974)* 50

t57. (21 Jul) LMNO (Robert Breer, 1978)* 58

t58. (21 Jul) Swiss Army Knife with Rats and Pigeons (Robert Breer, 1980)* 69

t59. (21 Jul) Bang! (Robert Breer, 1986)* 55

t60. (21 Jul) Time Flies (Robert Breer, 1997)* 60

t61. (21 Jul) ATOZ (Robert Breer, 2000)* 72
It is not a good idea to see this many films this aesthetically overwhelming in a row, in my opinion, although some of them are pretty great, especially the last, which gives formlessness to form and becomes a sort of summation of all the earlier stuff. Oh and by the way, Fred Camper, 7 down and 3 to go. Arabic Series, India, and Schewater. Can't wait, etc.

477. (21 Jul) /Blissfully Yours/ (Apichatpong Weerasethakul, 2001)* 80

478. (21 Jul) /All or Nothing/ (Mike Leigh, 2002)* 49
Downgraded from about a 58. Still lots of fun stuff here, a likeable rhythm, a tendency to not easily sort out what to do with people and needs -- but also rather maudlin, and finally doesn't amount to a whole lot; like How to Deal, a film that a big "range of emotion" has obviously gone into, but shame that in itself isn't too cathartic for me. Timothy Spall is great though. Wow. What an actor. How amazing. Etc.

479. (21 Jul) /Unknown Pleasures (Jia Zhang-ke, 2002)* 56
Upgraded from a 40. Better than I thought it was; I guess I was just begging for some kind of cultural change to happen after seeing Get on da Platform, and it's true, these are monotonous people whose lives are going straight down. But despite the occasional glibness of it all (the ending in particular), the repititions got to me, the confusion of perseverance with mindlessness. Jia really doesn't know what to do about his country, does he; Platform mourned for cultural despondency, this mourns for the "national spirit" that emerged.

480. (22 Jul) /Together/ (Chen Kaige, 2002)* 43
Expected to like this more the second time because it has its defenders, probably with reason, who say it's about music as a pure expression of feeling; fair enough, but does that mean apart from those dazzling moments when the sound of the violin transcends the burden of reality -- thematically I guess this handles the pressure of connection on the spirit, the collision of the artistic and human, and fair enough -- we have to swallow cute, pat cliche after cliche? Don't think so, though remember that last scene with the violin. That was awesome. Lizzie uses music as a "pure expression of feeling" too, but at least there are variables affecting the degree of her expression, I mean jesus.

t62. (22 Jul) Consolation Service (Eija-Liisa Ahtila, 2000)* 28

481. (22 Jul) Love is a Treasure (Eija-Liisa Ahtila, 2002)* 41
I'm probably overrating this to be honest. At the time some of it seemed to work on a, hey, reality is breaking down in an abstract way sort of. But I really can't sympathize with films that are about questioning reality yet only view the absence of with unconflicted timidity.

482. (22 Jul) Distant Lights (Hans-Christian Schmid, 2003)* 52
Good enough, I guess; kind of heavy-handed and whatnot in the scenes where we're just supposed to root for our heroes the Well-Intentioned Refugees, but it handles their fates and its own title metaphor with a fair amount of poignance, fairness (dug the hyper-uncynical last scene), etc.

483. (22 Jul) /Singing in the Rain/ (Stanley Donen & Gene Kelly, 1952)* 97

484. (22 Jul) El Bonaerense (Pablo Trapero, 2002)* 59
If Malick made a movie about police corruption, etc., though that isn't necessarily that much of a good thing; it's just one of those genres where the more you "say," the bigger an impression you give, and in terms of structure it feels pretty familiar and not necessarily convincing. Still, the ending can't exactly be called simple, however ironic it is.

485. (23 Jul) Marie-Jo and Her Two Loves (Robert Gu?diguian, 2002)* 61

486. (23 Jul) Mon Oncle (Jacques Tati, 1958)* 58

487. (23 Jul) /All the Real Girls/ (David Gordon Green, 2003)* 83

488. (23 Jul) Springtime in a Small Town (Tian Zhuangzhuang, 2002)* 46

489. (23 Jul) In This World (Michael Winterbottom, 2003)* 27

490. (24 Jul) The Mother (Roger Michell, 2003)* 54

491. (24 Jul) From the Other Side (Chantal Akerman, 2002)* 55

492. (24 Jul) /In a Lonely Place/ (Nicholas Ray, 1950)* 94

t63. (24 Jul) a film 00:05:05 (Julainne Sumich, 2003)* 67

493. (24 Jul) The Decay of Fiction (Pat O'Neill, 2002)* 53

t64. (24 Jul) Fish Never Die (??????????, ????)* 60

494. (24 Jul) Seafood (Zhu Wen, 2001)* 45

t65. (25 Jul) Rockpool (Zandra Palmer, 2002)* 50

495. (25 Jul) /Respiro/ (Emanuele Crialese, 2002)* 48

496. (25 Jul) /Playtime/ (Jacques Tati, 1967)* 76

497. (25 Jul) Pleasant Days (Korn?l Mundrucz?, 2002)* 15

498. (25 Jul) /Personal Velocity/ (Rebecca Miller, 2002)* 64

499. (25 Jul) /Jap?n/ (Carlos Reygadas, 2002)* 60

500. (26 Jul) Wavelength (Michael Snow, 1967) 65

501. (26 Jul) Since Otar Left (Julie Bertucelli, 2003)* 33

502. (26 Jul) Chihwaseon (Im Kwon-taek, 2002)* 31

503. (26 Jul) Good Times (Terry Walshe, 2002)* 36

504. (26 Jul) /American Splendor/ (Shari Springer Berman & Robert Pulcini, 2003)* 50

505. (27 Jul) /The Lizzie McGuire Movie/ (Jim Fall, 2003)* 84

506. (27 Jul) Osama (Siddiq Barmak, 2003)* 19

507. (27 Jul) /Ten/ (Abbas Kiarostami, 2002)* 55

508. (27 Jul) A Tale of a Naughty Girl (Buddhadev Dasgupta, 2002)* 44

509. (27 Jul) The Phantom of the Opera (Robert Julian, 1925)* 38

510. (27 Jul) Uzak (Nuri Bilge Ceylan, 2002)* 62
Ceylan is great at showing people thinking, but thinking about what, exactly? Wish I could love this, because it's absorbing and never really overplays anything (and probably demands a second viewing), but the ennui feels too conventional: the visitor horny and looking for a job, the visitee bound in place while his social life goes to shit and his bad habits resurface. I guess it wants to address how lives going in the opposite direction can revolve around the same things, but it ends up vaguely seeming like another "responsibility movie," although thankfully it goes for a less romantic (sit)comedy type approach, focused on personality as an orbiting planet, almost spiraling towards unity of life and needs and never quite getting there; at least there are no lessons learned here. Still not sure if Ceylan has much of a "voice," he seems to rip off Tsai quite a bit here among others (Uzak:Tarkovsky::What Time Is It There?:Truffaut), but I'm willing to give this another shot.

511. (29 Jul) Gentlemen Prefer Blondes (Howard Hawks, 1953) 57

512. (29 Jul) News From Home (Chantal Akerman, 1977) 70

513. (29 Jul) King Lear (Jean-Luc Godard, 1987) 74

514. (31 Jul) The Core (Jon Amiel, 2003) 63
I guess by the end I really wasn't surprised where it all ended up, but this might be the most good-natured movie of the year -- there's something supernaturally honest about the dialogue, something that embraces the group dynamic by the end of the film without didactically rallying the importance of participation or dismissing cowardice. Thought it might fare better on a second viewing, seeing as it's one of those journey > destination deals, but I did start watching it again on the next flight and couldn't really bring myself to finish. Still well worth seeing...

515. (31 Jul) Just Married (Shawn Levy, 2003) 32

516. (31 Jul) Daredevil (Mark Steven Johnson, 2003) 52

517. (31 Jul) Bringing Down the House (Adam Shankman, 2003) 20

518. (01 Aug) /The Lizzie McGuire Movie/ (Jim Fall, 2003) 84

519. (01 Aug) The Hot Chick (Tom Brady, 2002) 61

520. (01 Aug) Dark Blue (Ron Shelton, 2002) 58

521. (01 Aug) /The Secret Lives of Dentists/ (Alan Rudolph, 2002)* 79

522. (01 Aug) /Dumb & Dumber/ (Peter & Bobby Farrelly, 1994) 59

523. (02 Aug) A Couch in New York (Chantal Akerman, 1996) 51

524. (02 Aug) My Life (Bruce Joel Rubin, 1993) 18
A movie celebrating dignity, sensitivity, and being remembered. In other words about as fun as being raped by a bulldog. It is also especially not good when you equate feelings of joy and transcendence with clowns and roller coasters in my opinion. Jesus fucking christ, etc.

525. (02 Aug) /The Lizzie McGuire Movie/ (Jim Fall, 2003) 84

t66. (02 Aug) Delicacies of Molten Horror Synapse (Stan Brakhage, 1991) 57

t67. (02 Aug) Untitled (For Marilyn) (Stan Brakhage, 1992) 67

t68. (02 Aug) Study in Color and Black and White (Stan Brakhage, 1993) 46

526. (03 Aug) Bad Boys II (Michael Bay, 2003)* 47

527. (03 Aug) The Trouble with Harry (Alfred Hitchcock, 1955) 64

528. (04 Aug) The Fog (John Carpenter, 1980) 43
I dunno, were the other Carpenters this... cynical? The basic gist of this is the Past coming back to destroy the Present, hammering home the idea over and over again that history is an oppressive force (and if an analysis of the relationship between nature and people was here, I missed it; if "nature" is essential to the fog's being why does the only element of nature involved seem to be um the titular you know fog and that relationship never expressed in any other context throughout the picture). There are some nice compositions here and there, and smart folk will differ, but I just wasn't convinced.

529. (04 Aug) Drugstore Cowboy (Gus Van Sant, 1989) 54

530. (05 Aug) /Fallen Angels/ (Wong Kar-Wai, 1995) 66

531. (05 Aug) Seabiscuit (Gary Ross, 2003)* 0

532. (06 Aug) La Promesse (Jean-Pierre & Luc Dardenne, 1996) 82

533. (06 Aug) Gigli (Martin Brest, 2003)* 74

534. (06 Aug) Freaky Friday (Mark S. Waters, 2003)* 42

535. (06 Aug) /The Lizzie McGuire Movie/ (Jim Fall, 2003) 84

536. (07 Aug) /Charlie's Angels: Full Throttle/ (McG, 2003)* 68

537. (07 Aug) /Pistol Opera/ (Seijun Suzuki, 2001)* 67

538. (07 Aug) What a Girl Wants (Dennie Gordon, 2003) 22
Thought I had some kind of responsibility to see this, as it's often referred to as something along the lines of Lizzie's cousin. What I didn't know of course is this is for the most part rancid shit, full of simplistic characterizations and easy answers where the latter is utterly open-minded. Basically, Daphne's biggest conflict seems to be that she is surrounded by people who are different than her, and most of those people are bad and oppressive. Like, how ethnocentric, ya know. {Noticed later that two comments in a row have me complaining about "oppressiveness". Does this mean something...?}

539. (08 Aug) S.W.A.T. (Clark Johnson, 2003)* 45

540. (08 Aug) /Camp/ (Todd Graff, 2003)* 70
Strange that this movie, complained about as clumsy and schizophrenic, felt much more spontaneous and genuine on a second viewing than the Sundance movie that everyone loves, the one that has the balls to actually use "reality is pretty complex stuff" as a tagline when it really comes off awkwardly nasty and sitcommy. This really transcended for me because of the unbalanced, genuinely inconsistent quality of the characters, that spontaneity ironically being the charge for the directness of their performances -- and yes, it's all kind of jumbled and a little rushed, but it's nice to see a movie that cares about its people and doesn't pretend they have simple problems or easy ways to sort them out. And unlike that other movie, their art doesn't just feel like a complaint.

541. (08 Aug) Agent Cody Banks (Harald Zwart, 2003) 46
Generally pretty lame, but it's refreshing to see a kiddie movie so outwardly sexual for all kinds of reasons (the scene where Cody's CIA superiors ogle at screens displaying x-rayed girls borders on pedophilia).

542. (09 Aug) American Wedding (Jesse Dylan, 2003)* 57

543. (09 Aug) The Cuckoo (Aleksandr Rogozhkin, 2002)* 40

544. (10 Aug) Spy Kids 3-D: Game Over (Robert Rodriguez, 2003)* 48

545. (10 Aug) Lara Croft Tomb Raider: The Cradle of Life (Jan de Bont, 2003)* 25
I've been mild on these obligatory sequels lately for the most part but this was just so lame. Why spend your whole movie proving how confident, able, and (eventually) altruistic your protagonist is (because she's not an actual character, she's a model based on fascist positive role model principles) when any attempt at intellectual catharsis (i.e. the ending w/ the "big decision") comes off as blatantly false and embarrassing. Also if I have to endure another one of those blandass look how pretty everything looks around Lara from this here helicopter shots I will die. Jesus etc.

546. (12 Aug) /Camp/ (Todd Graff, 2003)* 70

547. (13 Aug) /The Hunted/ (William Friedkin, 2003) 66
Most of this film is hardly exciting or entertaining at all due to Friedkin's efforts to frustrate the expectations and understanding of his characters and audience; shots that could have been designed purely to further the scene force us to endure inexorable frustration. It's like the Japon of chase films. This is hardly a bad thing though, since both of them have some truly gut-wrenching moments when willing (the final showdown in the forest here, the last shot through the train tracks there) that take that inability to understand to its fullest potential energy.

548. (14 Aug) /The Lizzie McGuire Movie/ (Jim Fall, 2003) 84

549. (15 Aug) Holiday (George Cukor, 1938) 49

550. (15 Aug) /The Lizzie McGuire Movie/ (Jim Fall, 2003) 89
Realize that this isn't everyone's cup of tea -- some of the relationships, which for me seem abstracted to the point of lyricism, could just come off as underdeveloped; lines and shots that could come off as strictly affirmative get all kinds of complicated responses from me every time; Fall's control of the camera and ability (for me) to express contradictory states of mind by approaching a shot from various angles (i.e. the incredible rehearsal hall sequence, levelling Lizzie off w/ the background in various ways before cutting boundless empty seats and open doors against a misty haze of light) could simply revolve around music videoish fantasizing, for some people. I dunno. All I know iz: this is as transcendent as cinema gets, for me. A movie about question-asking really, but also asking us to question the sincerity of every emotion depicted here, and what that sincerity means to us.

551. (16 Aug) Open Range (Kevin Costner, 2003)* 38
Kevin you're a sissy, bud. Stop trying to prove otherwise. It's embarrassing, etc.

552. (18 Aug) /Trick/ (Jim Fall, 1999) 71
This Jim Fall person is kind of an underappreciated genius in my opinion. Couldn't be any more internally similar to Lizzie, really; protagonist Gabriel always in some kind of transition of self-judgment (whether he's being too passive, nervous, open, inexpressive, etc.: there's always a degree of indecision), as are we, and like the other film it revolves around the relationship between theatrical (public) displays of joy as opposed to real (or private) ones. In both films an honest-to-goodness orgasm (or in Lizzie, her "true fantasy") is unattainable, though I've hardly gotten the impression that Fall is sexophobic; he just wants to dive into the potential and come out with whatever's there (In Lizzie, one love proves another wrong; here, the fantasy object is dismissed as a jerk-off and the blame turns out to be a half-truth, which is sort of equivalent, in its way...). Biggest "mistakes" occur when the film borders on heteroguilt, via the Tori character's anxiety about lesbianism; but Fall is just too liberating a director to go along with such an agenda, as displayed in the shot of her walking away, being groped by the woman who had been coming onto her and then another. Ending verges on Vendredi Soir-type slight sentimentality, but so many feelings (and responses; i.e. "Enter you" automatically invites an "Exit you," etc.) are present by then that it just lingers on...

553. (19 Aug) Charlotte Sometimes (Eric Byler, 2002)* 43

554. (19 Aug) Le Divorce (James Ivory, 2003)* 59

555. (20 Aug) The Flowers of St. Francis (Roberto Rossellini, 1950) 67

556. (20 Aug) Era Notte e Roma (Roberto Rossellini, 1960) 72

557. (21 Aug) Blaise Pascal (Roberto Rossellini, 1971) 44
Some intense moments (witch trial, last shot, etc.) don't quite compensate for endless speechifying/discourse on the subject of one's relationship to God, technology, etc., which is pretty labored and tiresome, and the Flowers of Shanghai-esque looping drone of a score certainly doesn't help either -- it's the sort of film where you're just waiting for the protagonist to die, really...

558. (21 Aug) /Beau Travail/ (Claire Denis, 1999) 68

559. (21 Aug) /Johnny Guitar/ (Nicholas Ray, 1954)* 99
Even in the film forum, it's hard not to get lost in these compositions; can't imagine this ever falling below Seven Brides/Rear Window even though they are great films, etc. Crawford's eyes deserve some kind of award for coordinated darting.

560. (21 Aug) The Geisha Boy (Frank Tashlin, 1958) 86

561. (22 Aug) Bigger Than Life (Nicholas Ray, 1956) 83

562. (22 Aug) Seventh Heaven (Frank Borzage, 1927) 69

563. (22 Aug) Paper Moon (Peter Bogdanovich, 1973) 73

564. (22 Aug) The Errand Boy (Jerry Lewis, 1961) 65

565. (23 Aug) Head of State (Chris Rock, 2003) 54

t69. (23 Aug) some arty b&w short I forget the name of (????, 2000)* 52

t70. (23 Aug) A Brief History of Surrealism (Michael Almereyda, 2003)* 58

566. (23 Aug) Happy Here and Now (Michael Almereyda, 2002)* 66

t71. (23 Aug) /Rabbit Hood/ (Chuck Jones, 1949)* 64

567. (23 Aug) The Adventures of Robin Hood (Michael Curtiz & William Keighley, 1938)* 36

568. (23 Aug) /The Lizzie McGuire Movie/ (Jim Fall, 2003) 91

569. (24 Aug) /The Thin Red Line/ (Terrence Malick, 1998)* 39
Problem here could've been the narration, which pretty much sucks all the intellectual detail out of it; if Malick's point to prove is that "war don't enoble men; turns 'em into dogs, poisons the soul," etc., then fine, maybe, but he could at least let us come to a conclusion like that for ourselves (also what are we supposed to get out of emphatically naive babble like "love, where does it come from," in my opinion.) I dunno; it's a beautifully shot film, but what it's going after is too obvious; everyone's in Great Agony over the Tragic Paradox of the coexistence of peace and war, etc., with easy symbols for the former like um, how could they not have begun and concluded this film with a tranquil little village and their tribal chant representing all that is beautiful, and unified, etc., and what about those cliched wife flashback things? Are those "poetic" too...?

570. (24 Aug) /Lost Highway/ (David Lynch, 1997) 77

571. (25 Aug) /Phone Booth/ (Joel Schumacher, 2002) 67

572. (25 Aug) Ball of Fire (Howard Hawks, 1941) 81

573. (25 Aug) /Aliens/ (James Cameron, 1986)* 56

574. (25 Aug) /Carlito's Way/ (Brian De Palma, 1993)* 85

575. (25 Aug) Once Upon a Time in the West (Sergio Leone, 1968)* 82

576. (27 Aug) Underworld (Len Wiseman, 2003)* 42

577. (30 Aug) Black Narcissus (Michael Powell & Emeric Pressburger, 1947) 78

578. (30 Aug) /The Lizzie McGuire Movie/ (Jim Fall, 2003) 94
Gah!

579. (31 Aug) /The Bicycle Thief/ (Vittorio de Sica, 1947) 31

580. (31 Aug) Odd Man Out (Carol Reed, 1947) 74

581. (01 Sep) /The Lizzie McGuire Movie/ (Jim Fall, 2003) 96

582. (02 Sep) Demonlover (Oliver Assayas, 2002)* 51

583. (03 Sep) Anger Management (Peter Segal, 2003) 18
Not funny, and not that I really expected it to be, but UGH, what a worldview! Everyone is stupid, hypocritical, and incompetent (if the world or just the social systems the film is pseudosatirically portraying were really like this, how would people, like, survive?), and it's supposed to be 'funny,'; though it's not quite as offensive as that film, the contempt borders on How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days level. Also knocked down a few points for some singularly obnoxious celebrity cameos.

584. (03 Sep) Dreamcatcher (Lawrence Kasdan, 2003) 64

585. (04 Sep) Legally Blonde 2: Red, White & Blonde (Charles Herman-Wurmfeld, 2003) 36

586. (04 Sep) Alexandra's Project (Rolf de Heer, 2003)* 68
Unbearably intense; I have a feeling I'm either overrating or underrating it, because while I was watching it I was actively afraid of biting my tongue off, and yet afterwards all the cruelty felt a little sour -- it all reminded me of Bigger Than Life in a way, with the successful male forced to deal instead of his irrational masculinity with the hollow sexual proclivity his relationship with his wife has become. Creepy as shit, and I don't scare easily, but de Heer doesn't evoke fear so much from the threat of loss as the threat of empty space, an out-of-touch feeling that was already there, the way he films the house in early scenes both obsessively organizational and deeply chaotic. What I'm really wondering is, is this ultimately a feminist film. I won't say any more.

587. (05 Sep) Dickie Roberts: Former Child Star (Sam Weisman, 2003)* 60
Wasn't gonna talk about this, as it's not part of the fest, but it's pretty shockingly good. Theme of course is the irretrievability of childhood, but there's more to it than that; we aren't sure (until a certain point) whether to mourn for it or celebrate it, whether to sexualize or demythify it; the pivotal scene (and one of the most invigorating of the year) being the dance audition, where regression and maturation are literally pitted against each other. Unfortunately, the movie gives in too much to the necessity of the experiment towards the end (and dropped 10 points or so as a result), but I wouldn't mind giving it another try.

t72. (05 Sep) Begone Dull Care (Norman McClaren, 1949) 56

t73. (05 Sep) Pas de Deux (Norman McClaren, 1968) 42

t74. (05 Sep) Animated Motion: Part 4 (Norman McClaren, 1977) 30

t75. (05 Sep) Blinkity Blank (Norman McClaren, 1952) 28

t76. (05 Sep) How Wings Are Attached to Angels (Craig Welch, 1996) 47

t77. (05 Sep) Boogie Doodle (Norman McClaren, 1948) 44

t78. (05 Sep) Hoppity Pop (Norman McClaren, 1946) 59
Not particularly good; the rating is as high as it is because I was sorting out my feelings about why McClaren shorts suck, and this short fit so squarely and unsurprisingly into them that it was really kind of interesting.

t79. (05 Sep) Pen Point Percussion (Norman McClaren, 1951) 35

t80. (05 Sep) Loops/Boucles (Norman McClaren, 1952) 40

588. (05 Sep) Memories of Murder (Joon-ho Bong, 2003)* 41
Has its moments, but abides by too many cop-movie cliches to care; sympathy is pretty much focused most of the way through wholly on Finishing the Investigation, some subtext would be pretty nice, etc. Tonal shifts galore, but I felt everything from the "laughs" (derived from how perverted the outside world is) to the "poignant moments" (derived from a screenwriting class entitled Loss and Meaning 101) was pretty oversold.

589. (05 Sep) In the City (Cesc Gay, 2003)* 47
Um, whatever. Nothing really happens in this movie. Ingratiating and perceptive atmosphere of Nico & Dani remains; tight focus on theme/character doesn't, so we have a whole lot of understated interrelated subplots going practically nowhere. Some interesting camera/dialogue choices keep it watchable, however.

590. (05 Sep) Cypher (Vincenzo Natali, 2003)* 31
LAME ASS one note sci-fi satire that hopefully won't set the tone for the rest of these fucking midnighters. Yes, we know the government is bad, Will Control Us, We Should Fight For Our Humanity (when in truth the character relationships here are more wooden than many robots I can think of), Etc.

591. (06 Sep) Matchstick Men (Ridley Scott, 2003)* 67
Scott's claustrophobic compositions and abrupt transitions are actually used in a way here that can be called psychologically expressive here (gasp)! And the three leads are wonderful, the father-daughter bonding is a bit of a bore but the movie really addresses that problem anyway. Protracted ending sucks; fun, nonetheless...

592. (06 Sep) The Tulse Luper Suitcases: Antwerp (Peter Greenaway, 2003)* 58
Whole lotta shit going in here; feels like Greenaway is getting a lot of mileage off comparing the power of the director to various political states, and in doing so addresses the fascistic state of modern cinema, etc. It's very funny sometimes, in a wacky representationally abstract sort of way, but I'm not sure I ever got the hang of what was going on...

593. (06 Sep) Zatoichi (Takeshi Kitano, 2003)* 49
Pretty blah Kitano; he is the Man of course, but his aphorisms and godlike demeanor get too self-righteous here for my taste. This is how you stay honorable, mothafucka. Good to know. Rating is as high as it is because there are still liberating aspects of his personality, a tendency to kind of piss off when other characters simply want to be like him. He's the Man, you know... an Individual...

594. (06 Sep) Les Mains Vides (Marc Recha, 2003)* 87
Uh um FUCKING WOW. A movie so unexpectedly rich and multi-faceted and... exhausting... one of the most complete cinematic visions of humanity I've ever seen. It's about modernity in its way, but unlike something like Tulse Luper or Demonlover, it doesn't really attack modernity (or arbitrate specific correlations between the way we perceive culture); it just calls attention to the self-referentiality and self-awareness of modern times, in a really sublime way. Don't want to give any examples because that would involve spoilers and this is a film that does not deserve them, but I'll be able to write a full-length thing on it soon I hope... The "dog scene," though, is what transcendent cinema IS. Jesus.

595. (06 Sep) Spring, Summer, Fall, Winter... and Spring (Kim Ki-duk, 2003)* 57
Never seen any of this guy's movie before, but for me it was really a duke-out between the triteness and self-hatred inherent here and the devotion to and tightness of the structure, and ultimately the latter won out. Kim doesn't really form a philosophy of life, but he makes life a very whole series of actions and consequences, which is impressive I guess. Still a little lifeless and too-polished... a little...

596. (07 Sep) Zhou Yu's Train (Sun Zhou, 2002)* 16
Cutesy, soppy pap with lines like "You completely fill me. You completely fill me," etc. Boring as ass, but it is awfully romantic...

597. (07 Sep) Bright Young Things (Stephen Fry, 2003)* 52
In retrospect, this seems a high rating for a film that hardly dents the memory at all. Snappy dialogue, and the depiction of up-and-coming early 20th century misfits is never oversentimentalized; still, Fry could've had a stronger visual sense (just kidding, he couldn't have, but still)...

598. (07 Sep) Les Triplettes de Belleville (Sylvain Chomet, 2003)* 62
Opening is spectacularly bouncy, and a lot of the rest of it sustains a subdued, naturalistic feel that's obviously rare for animated features. Ends way too conventionally though.

599. (07 Sep) Alila (Amos Gitai, 2003)* 65
Fine, balanced portrayal of modern Israel that only suffers from perhaps being too balanced. Plenty of clunky dialogue, and the ending too patly embraces individualism, but Gitai's camerawork is consistently bravura, and you get the sense this is a world that could keep on changing.

600. (07 Sep) The Saddest Music in the World (Guy Maddin, 2003)* 59
Definite artistic struggle going on here, wherein desired catharsis becomes unattainable -- but it's hard to get worked up over a Maddin film as drama for me, and the struggle is multi-faceted in a not-so-great way. At best, wild fun; at worst, slick, thick irony at its least affecting.

601. (07 Sep) Haute Tension (Alexandre Aja, 2003)* 50
Very stupid; also pretty exciting. Even the dumbass final twist is irrelevant if you're only watching the film (as I was) in terms of its refreshingly relentless brutality.

602. (09 Sep) /The Lizzie McGuire Movie/ (Jim Fall, 2003) 96

603. (10 Sep) Come and Go (Jo?o C?sar Monteiro, 2003)* 47
Monteiro seems a sure fellow, confident of how to work his way through every situation except death. At least he's unafraid of coming across as a dirty old rascal; some of my favorite moments include the gradual chase of the bike girl, and the ritualistic dildo dance. But a lot of the time I was just confused by the plethora of cultural references; it's the kind of movie comprised of many similarly-paced scenes that come off as alternately fascinating and incomprehensible. Ultimately gives in too often to "celebration of living," too, though at least it's not Autumn Spring.

604. (10 Sep) Intermission (John Crowley, 2003)* 23
Low point is montage of various "ooh, interrelated" characters' dysfunctional sex lives streaming along with some peppy alt-rock number, "What Passes for Love These Days," or something like that. With these ensemble-packed mega-odyssies, I want to feel like I need to reach out, I suppose, i.e. Magnolia, and join in the desperation, ala Wise Up, rather than condescend to it. It's just one shitty moment, but it sets up the attitude of the film pretty completely.

605. (11 Sep) Code 46 (Michael Winterbottom, 2003)* 34

606. (11 Sep) A Talking Picture (Manoel de Oliveira, 2003)* 53

607. (11 Sep) At Five in the Afternoon (Samira Makhmalbaf, 2003)* 21

608. (11 Sep) Pupendo (Jan Hrebejk, 2003)* 63
Maybe I shouldn't have gone too high; clearly isn't doing anything especially big or new, but it's just so darn pleasant. Hrebejk is the Czech Cameron Crowe I guess.

W/O. (11 Sep) Le Silence de la For?t (Bassek Ba Kobhio & Didier Ouenangare, 2003)*
Line I walked out on was something along the lines of "I need to leave and teach the pygmies to fight against their oppressors!" But then again I did find out later on the pygmies didn't want to fight and that was the conflict and whatnot, so, you know, regrets...

609. (11 Sep) The Five Obstructions (Lars Von Trier & Jorgen Leth, 2003)* 46
Was really sad this didn't much work at all for me, given the obvious inherent this-premise-is-amusingness of it. It's amusing, but it refuses to go anywhere, because Lars makes it oh-so-clear that his primary goal here is, well, torture, moreso than driving at deriving anything new out of the short. *sigh*...

610. (11 Sep) Gozu (Takashi Miike, 2003)* 66
In sharp contrast, this thing is all over the map, and really too awesome to be true. Like all Miike films it's brimming with violent weirdness but packs a lot of explosive and (somewhat importantly, because if there's one problem with Audition it's that it feels too much like a straight celebration of feminist vigilantism and male fear) enticingly vague sexual subtext to go along.

611. (12 Sep) Des Plumes dans la Tete (Thomas de Thier, 2003)* 43

612. (12 Sep) Nathalie... (Anne Fontaine, 2003)* 48

613. (12 Sep) L'Histoire de Marie et Julien (Jacques Rivette, 2003)* 71

614. (12 Sep) The Agronomist (Jonathan Demme, 2003)* 40
ZZZ to this political commentator dude and his ideals in my opinion.

615. (12 Sep) Le Temps du Loup (Michael Haneke, 2003)* 52

616. (13 Sep) Dallas 362 (Scott Caan, 2003)* 42
Apparently this "subverts cliches" or something; I wouldn't notice, since it all leads up to the Drugstore Cowboy cum Boogie Nights cum etc. realization that criminal life is unhealthy or dumb or something like that (Who would've thought? What a profound, compelling, relatable idea! Etc.!) w/ embarrassingly weak philosophical observations, Smashing Pumpkins, etc.

617. (13 Sep) Loving Glances (Srdjan Karanovic, 2003)* 45
Silly movie about a serious subject /= offensive to me. Pretty inane, pretty pleasant.

W/O. (13 Sep) The Gospel of John (Philip Saville, 2003)*
Most unbelievably bad movie I've seen even part of since The Gift (AIDS doc, not the Raimi pic); you'd think modern religious sagas would at least strive for a little tiny bit of ambiguity/artfulness, but no (read: NO).

618. (13 Sep) The Return (Andrei Zvyagintsev, 2003)* 75
More Alexandra's Project -- all about the process of measuring the necessity of cruelty; and more Spring and Some Other Seasons, viewing multi-generational learning as futile and cyclical. Thing is, those films pale next to this one, which feels arhythmic, disconcerting and structurally daunting; life repeats itself in some ways, but there are bumps in the road, etc. Hardly felt pushed to feel one way or the other about it, the patriarch is easily the most wrenchingly ambiguous of his kind since Arnie Friedman; and bonus points for those beautiful Mizoguchiesque tracking shots.

619. (13 Sep) The Brown Bunny (Vincent Gallo, 2003)* 77
Hearing Vincent Gallo being called a whiny narcissistic constructor of vapid whores is about as useful for me as hearing Jim Fall is just into becoming a pop star and getting laid -- Gallo is so obviously deconstructing and exploring his own personality here at a really intense, beautiful level. Bud's encounters with women are so fascinating because they're never portrayed as inferiors when he rejects them; he just has to come to terms with the internal lives of others.

620. (13 Sep) Undead (Michael & Peter Spierig, 2003)* 18
Excruciating, inept zombiefest that makes Cabin Fever seem like the pantheon of subtextually relevant horror film. The ugliest film in the festival; Matchstick Men used filters to, but not to approximate vomit. Yuck.

621. (17 Sep) Gigi (Vincente Minnelli, 1958) 79

622. (18 Sep) Zero Day (Ben Coccio, 2003)* 36

623. (19 Sep) Gentleman's Agreement (Elia Kazan, 1947) 43

624. (19 Sep) Winter's Child (Oliver Assayas, 1989)* 63

625. (19 Sep) A New Life (Oliver Assayas, 1993)* 58

626. (20 Sep) He Loves Me, He Loves Me Not (Laetitia Colombani, 2002) 28

627. (20 Sep) HHH: A Portrait of Hou Hsiao-Hsien (Oliver Assayas, 1997)* 41

628. (20 Sep) Anything Else (Woody Allen, 2003)* 65

629. (21 Sep) Cold Water (Oliver Assayas, 1994)* 72

630. (23 Sep) The Same River Twice (Robb Moss, 2003)* 56
Sharply observed, but, sorry to say, thematically undernourished. Yes, the mundanity is really rather refreshing, and you could hardly call it forceful -- the only traces left of these peoples' past lives is a striving for health and political change lurking underneath the general complacency. But 'complacency' can also be sensed earlier when they're-a youngins with all of their clothes off, not really struggling, just trying to give in. Line that made me realize I didn't really connect was something like "The way he pet the dogs, I knew he 'fit'," [a woman referring to falling for her husband] because, well, who cares. I know the cyclical anxiety of something like Secret Lives of Dentists could feel forced to some, but there's so little to hold onto here.

631. (23 Sep) Under the Tuscan Sun (Audrey Wells, 2003)* 41

632. (24 Sep) Show Boat (George Sidney, 1951) 61

633. (24 Sep) Pioneers in Ingolstadt (Rainer Werner Fassbinder, 1971) 73

t81. (26 Sep) /Puce Moment/ (Kenneth Anger, 1949) 100

634. (27 Sep) /Run Ronnie Run/ (Troy Miller, 2002) 37

635. (27 Sep) The School of Rock (Richard Linklater, 2003)* 69

636. (27 Sep) Duplex (Danny DeVito, 2003)* 58

637. (27 Sep) Lost in Translation (Sofia Coppola, 2003)* 38
Hey Sofia bud, check out this movie called Turning Gate, in which there is the brief romantic encounter type event(s) but doesn't expect us to drool over the (gasp) contrast between Disconnection and Connection, wherein Japanese folks are either amusing or just plain irritatin', what with their whole other language and whatnot, and actually expects us to meditate on our connection to the protagonist and his memories and decisions and whatnot as if the outside world as something we interact with is the least bit significant. "I didn't feel anything" = I don't care, sit down and think about it a bit Scarlett, etc.

638. (30 Sep) Shattered Glass (Billy Ray, 2003)* 28
Hey Billy Ray bud, or Billy bud Ray, whatever you want to be called, check out this movie called Time Out in which this occupational dude fabricates lies and the director type person doesn't spend the whole movie setting him up to have false ideals and to lose out to Truth and whatnot, because, like, the director type person cares about and is torn by and finds meaning in his struggle and stuff.

639. (01 Oct) The Life of Jesus (Bruno Dumont, 1997) 60

t82. (01 Oct) Knock It Down (Zach Ralston, 1998) 59

640. (04 Oct) Three on a Couch (Jerry Lewis, 1966) 62

641. (04 Oct) Katzelmacher (Rainer Werner Fassbinder, 1969) 66

642. (04 Oct) A Thousand Months (Faouzi Bensa?di, 2003)* 55

643. (04 Oct) Dogville (Lars von Trier, 2003)* 45

644. (05 Oct) Out of Time (Carl Franklin, 2003)* 51

t83. (06 Oct) Kagamijishi (Yasujiro Ozu, 1936)* 26

645. (06 Oct) What Did the Lady Forget? (Yasujiro Ozu, 1937)* 53

646. (06 Oct) The Only Son (Yasujiro Ozu, 1936)* 47

647. (06 Oct) Pornography (Jan Jakub Kolski, 2003)* 30

648. (07 Oct) I Flunked, But... (Yasujiro Ozu, 1930)* 49

649. (07 Oct) Cold Mountain (Anthony Minghella, 2003)* 39

650. (08 Oct) Brothers and Sisters of the Toda Family (Yasujiro Ozu, 1941)* 58

651. (08 Oct) Walk Cheerfully (Yasujiro Ozu, 1930)* 46

t84. (08 Oct) Little Clumps of Hair (Jim Hosking, 2003)* 10

652. (08 Oct) The Flower of Evil (Claude Chabrol, 2003)* 61

t85. (09 Oct) I Sprout (Esther Rots, 2003)* 78

653. (09 Oct) Young Adam (David Mackenzie, 2003)* 51

654. (09 Oct) Mystic River (Clint Eastwood, 2003)* 91
First off: this movie is contrived, but not enough to make me care. Its contrivedness does not even remotely damage what it is doing. I wouldn?t be so passionate about this film if my reaction was ?well, it was flawed, but it was so well made.? No, truth is, I staggered out of the theater whimpering like a wounded puppy. Like a lot of crappy movies, Mystic River is about the universality of anguish. Unlike those movies, it doesn?t let the anguish translate comfortably. From the opening scene, Eastwood pulls a lot of feelings together about making your (literal) mark in the world vs. becoming a part of it. To get the message that ultimately he?s saying ?pedophilia is damaging, pedophiles are evil etc.? is absurd to me, since out of the three protagonists, all who have very different ways of dealing with pain (and forming pain), there is no one conclusion to be reached from it, and there is no sole identifier ? in fact, there?s hardly an identifier at all, since the pattern of their lives has formed from the frustration of the conflict between keeping in flow with their community and friends and going their separate way in life, yet they?re all so different. It?s hard to crack, but jesus. The last scene is so shattering because it has no pay-off, and simply contrasts the ways that people communicate the problems in their lives in order to be stable, and doesn?t offer escape from the fact that one way can negate another.

t86. (11 Oct) Like Twenty Impossibles (Annemarie Jacir, 2003)* 56

655. (11 Oct) Elephant (Gus Van Sant, 2003)* 86

t87. (11 Oct) The Shadows Company (Christophe Perrier, 2002)* 14

656. (11 Oct) Good Morning, Night (Marco Bellocchio, 2003)* 57

657. (11 Oct) Kill Bill, Vol. 1 (Quentin Tarantino, 2003)* 74

658. (11 Oct) Free Radicals (Barbara Albert, 2003)* 53

659. (11 Oct) Intolerable Cruelty (Joel Coen, 2003)* 72

660. (12 Oct) The Fog of War (Errol Morris, 2003)* 62

661. (12 Oct) /Kill Bill, Vol. 1/ (Quentin Tarantino, 2003)* 80

t89. (12 Oct) The Rest of the World (Frazer Bradshaw, 2003)* 69

662. (12 Oct) Bright Leaves (Ross McElwee, 2003)* 60

663. (13 Oct) /Mystic River/ (Clint Eastwood, 2003)* 91

t90. (13 Oct) Bus 44 (Dayyan Eng, 2003)* 73

664. (13 Oct) Crimson Gold (Jafar Panahi, 2003)* 48

t91. (15 Oct) The Most Beautiful Man in the World (Alicia Duffy, 2003)* 65

665. (15 Oct) Goodbye, Dragon Inn (Tsai Ming-Liang, 2003)* 40

666. (18 Oct) The Italian Job (F. Gary Gray, 2003) 46

t92. (18 Oct) Destino (Dominique Monterey, 2003)* 76

667. (18 Oct) The Barbarian Invasions (Denys Arcand, 2003)* 26

t93. (18 Oct) From Head to Toe (Pascal Lahmani, 2003)* 14

668. (18 Oct) PTU (Johnnie To, 2003)* 63

t94. (18 Oct) Twins (Martin Bell, 2003)* 2

669. (18 Oct) Mayor of Sunset Strip (George Hickenlooper, 2003)* 0

t95. (18 Oct) Andaluz (Karen Aqua & Joanna Priestley, 2003)* 54

670. (18 Oct) Raja (Jacques Doillon, 2003)* 64

671. (18 Oct) Veronica Guerin (Joel Schumacher, 2003)* 68

672. (19 Oct) /Au Hasard Balthazar/ (Robert Bresson, 1966)* 98

673. (19 Oct) 21 Grams (Alejandro Gonz?lez I??rritu, 2003)* 43

674. (22 Oct) In the Cut (Jane Campion, 2003)* 73
I agree with Manohla Dargis' sentiment that this "may be the most maddening and imperfect great movie of the year." Campion's worldview revolves around the awareness of sexual generalizations and I would surely feel dismissive if I felt she was more misanthropic here than she is distinctively meditative and inconclusive -- read: the final shot, summing up the film's insistently challenging power struggle, pitting the possibilities of hyperbolic notions of sexuality against each other and collapsing from all the frustration. I'll definitely write some more on this soon. {Note: this was a blatant lie.}

675. (24 Oct) /Elephant/ (Gus Van Sant, 2003)* 98

676. (24 Oct) La Petite Lili (Claude Miller, 2003)* 48

677. (24 Oct) /Elephant/ (Gus Van Sant, 2003)* 95

678. (25 Oct) /Trick/ (Jim Fall, 1999) 71

679. (25 Oct) The Texas Chainsaw Massacre (Marcus Nispel, 2003)* 42

680. (25 Oct) In My Skin (Marina de Van, 2002)* 68

681. (26 Oct) Effi Briest (Rainer Werner Fassbinder, 1974) 80

682. (26 Oct) /The Lizzie McGuire Movie/ (Jim Fall, 2003) 96

683. (27 Oct) Love Actually (Richard Curtis, 2003)* 19

DNF. (28 Oct) The Cheerleaders (Paul Glickler, 1973)
DNF standing for "Did Not Finish," this is a movie I tried to watch but is clearly not for my tastes and whatnot. In fact it repulsed the living shit out of me; thinks rape is pretty hilarious (which isn't inherently bad, but it makes everyone's motivations particularly crude and easy to condescend to), expects us to both criticize and indulge in horniness, etc. Nevertheless, one or two moments near the beginning when it felt like it might go somewhere...

684. (29 Oct) Lola (Rainer Werner Fassbinder, 1981) 67

685. (30 Oct) /Blue Car/ (Karen Moncrieff, 2002) 57
Came close to still liking this one, because the scenes near the end ARE ambiguous, but along with the pretty trite 'poetic' ending they form an overall gestalt of unbuyable anguished dismissal. Also final motherly embraces as resolutions in these indie drama things = bad idea also. Also the two leads are still superb, etc.; too bad they can't save the thing.

686. (01 Nov) /28 Days Later/ (Danny Boyle, 2002) 75

687. (01 Nov) Wrong Turn (Rob Schmidt, 2003) 47

688. (01 Nov) /The Shape of Things/ (Neil LaBute, 2003) 50

689. (02 Nov) The Texas Chainsaw Massacre (Tobe Hooper, 1974) 83

690. (02 Nov) Why Does Herr R. Run Amok? (Rainer Werner Fassbinder, 1970) 54
Can't remember the last time I felt so mixed on a film. On one hand, this movie is really boring; on the other, its mundanity ends up feeling very incisive and effective. You could say the same about a lot of Fassbinders, but none have the psychological structure/outcome of this one. Hrmm...

691. (03 Nov) Mouchette (Robert Bresson, 1967) 76

692. (04 Nov) /American Psycho/ (Mary Harron, 2000) 74

693. (05 Nov) /Miami Blues/ (George Armitage, 1990) 84

694. (06 Nov) /Goodfellas/ (Martin Scorsese, 1990) 48

695. (06 Nov) /Igby Goes Down/ (Burr Steers, 2002) 69

696. (07 Nov) Twenty Days Without War (Alexei Guerman, 1976)* 59

697. (07 Nov) Elf (Jon Favreau, 2003)* 49

698. (07 Nov) The Human Stain (Robert Benton, 2003)* 45

699. (07 Nov) Father and Son (Alexander Sokurov, 2003)* 67

t96. (08 Nov) Cosmic Ray (Bruce Conner, 1962)* 68

700. (08 Nov) Killer of Sheep (Charles Burnett, 1977)* 65

701. (11 Nov) Perfect Love (Catherine Breillat, 1996) 70

702. (11 Nov) Martha (Rainer Werner Fassbinder, 1974) 47
Two films about relationships in turmoil in a row, and I guess the ending of the latter is more 'daring,' really just emotionally weird and half-plausible in its way, and the ending of the former is just taking its course (though the last shot is AWESOME. anyone who doesn't think so is insane). But Breillat has a way of flattening out her characters' feelings and implications before/after they come into the foreground, and it makes a jealous rampage or plea for sexual satisfaction feel really disconcerting. Fassbinder's melodrama feels smug and overblown in comparison, though I wouldn't quite call him a smug filmmaker (see: Effi Briest, etc.)...

703. (12 Nov) Eyes Without a Face (Georges Franju, 1959)* 63

704. (12 Nov) /Laurel Canyon/ (Lisa Cholodenko, 2002) 54

705. (13 Nov) Praise (John Curran, 1998) 72
A member of the hedonism + coming clean = drama genre I don't like, but it avoids all the mistakes something like Drugstore Cowboy is prone to, ala approaching sex and drugs in a multifaceted way (nymphomania vs. 'commitment' and how the two protags are affected by their time w/ each other; the occasional post-Trainspotting montage, but an awareness of how it got to be that way and where it's going). 'Anti-climactic' ending is really pretty beautiful; thank god no one Pays the Price, etc.

706. (14 Nov) The Taking of Pelham 123 (Joseph Sargent, 1974) 66

707. (14 Nov) Body and Soul (Robert Rossen, 1947) 40

708. (15 Nov) Millennium Actress (Satoshi Kon, 2001) 59

709. (15 Nov) Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World (Peter Weir, 2003)* 37

710. (15 Nov) Looney Tunes: Back in Action (Joe Dante, 2003)* 61

711. (15 Nov) /The Second Circle/ (Alexander Sokurov, 1990)* 43

712. (15 Nov) The Matrix: Revolutions (Andy & Larry Wachowski, 2003)* 58

713. (16 Nov) Biker Boyz (Reggie Rock Bythewood, 2003) 62
I have some very mixed feelings about this, mostly on the order of, "Are we being told Fishburne does the 'right' fatherly thing in that last race?" Unfortunately I think the wacko conversations-projected-on-field-in-his-mind thing sort of gives that impression, but in retrospect there are lots of complicated feelings there, dealing w/ humility, 'doing your own thing,' not necessarily as tritely exalted character-builders (coughmasterandcommandercough) but as decisions that need to be dealt with and characteristics that can't simply be spread out for the 'better good'; at least some of the earlier scenes (ex. the bar fight) have a loose, organic feel to them, never quite simplifying motivations. But I dunno...

714. (16 Nov) /The Dancer Upstairs/ (John Malkovich, 2002) 81

715. (17 Nov) Rio das Mortes (Rainer Werner Fassbinder, 1971) 65

t97. (18 Nov) Film/Speaks/Many/Languages (Gustav Deutsch, 1995)* 73

t98. (18 Nov) Passages (Lisl Ponger, 1996)* 80

t99. (18 Nov) Alone (Martin Arnold, 1998)* 79

u00. (18 Nov) Egypt (Kathrin Resetarits, 1997)* 48

u01. (18 Nov) Arret? (Bernhard Schreiner, 2001)* 44

u02. (18 Nov) /Mountain Trip/ (Siegfried A. Fruhauf, 1999)* 64

u03. (18 Nov) Rolled Eyes (Dietmar Brehm, 2002)* 39

u04. (18 Nov) Thousand Years Cinema (Kurt Kren, 1995)* 51

u05. (18 Nov) /Copy Shop/ (Virgil Widrich, 2001)* 41

u06. (18 Nov) Outer Space (Peter Tscherkassky, 1999)* 70

716. (19 Nov) I Vitelloni (Federico Fellini, 1953)* 56

717. (19 Nov) Good News (Charles Walters, 1947) 88
What the fuck was I smoking on July 15th, etc.

718. (20 Nov) The Backyard (Paul Hough, 2002) 60

719. (20 Nov) Fat City (John Huston, 1972) 77

720. (21 Nov) Raw Meat (Gary Sherman, 1972) 67

721. (21 Nov) Chloe in the Afternoon (Eric Rohmer, 1972) 69

722. (22 Nov) Blue Gate Crossing (Chin-yen Yee, 2002)* 53

723. (22 Nov) The Beginning (Gleb Panfilov, 1970)* 50

724. (22 Nov) Khrustalyov, My Car! (Alexei Guerman, 1998)* 29

725. (22 Nov) The Cat in the Hat (Bo Welch, 2003)* 55

726. (22 Nov) Old School (Todd Phillips, 2003) 63

727. (23 Nov) Escape from New York (John Carpenter, 1981) 68

728. (24 Nov) Antoine and Antoinette (Jacques Becker, 1947) 71

729. (25 Nov) Boat Trip (Mort Nathan, 2003) 46

730. (25 Nov) Day of Wrath (Carl Theodor Dreyer, 1943) 70
Basically great, and the emotional distance is compensated for by Dreyer's camerawork, akin to a mime, creating boxes of space around characters so that a lake or a field of grass could feel more cramped than a small shack. Which is appropriate, since the theme is emotional/spiritual alienation, not knowing how to connect, or how much one can rely on love, or whatever one has learned etc. The ending is mad crazy though. I'm not sure these Diary-of-a-Country-Priest-esque Christian orgasms do much for me...

731. (25 Nov) View from the Top (Bruno Barreto, 2003) 61

732. (26 Nov) What's Up, Doc? (Peter Bogdanovich, 1972) 52

733. (26 Nov) Basic (John McTiernan, 2003) 54

734. (27 Nov) Amen. (Costa-Gavras, 2002) 35

735. (27 Nov) Dog Day Afternoon (Sidney Lumet, 1975) 75

736. (27 Nov) Bad Santa (Terry Zwigoff, 2003)* 51

737. (27 Nov) Avanti! (Billy Wilder, 1972) 84

738. (28 Nov) /Irreversible/ (Gaspar Noe, 2002) 80

739. (28 Nov) /All the Real Girls/ (David Gordon Green, 2003) 83

740. (28 Nov) /Gerry/ (Gus Van Sant, 2002) 88

741. (28 Nov) /The Lizzie McGuire Movie/ (Jim Fall, 2003) 96
No big changes here, except to note that Irreversible is now placed above Kill Bill; they're both anti-chronological revenge films that use their structures to create a context in which their violence becomes "boring" or at least stimulating in ways that contradict the usual getting-a-kick-out-of feel. But something about the way Noe defines Marcus' social interactions feels more pointed (and more narrow) than the Bride's. The distance that Noe's technique creates between Marcus and his friends feels a little sharper to me than Tarantino's involvement with his heroine's attitude.

742. (29 Nov) The Lady with the Dog (Iosif Khejfits, 1960)* 49
Well-made, elegant, very gooey celebration of romantic longing that ultimately felt to me like inert, second-rate Ophuls. The style here is just disappointingly indistinct (which could unfortunately be said for The Beginning too; Sokurov and Guermain are clearer "voices" but I have a harder time with their films, esp. Khroustaliov and Second Circle, in some respects), but it still has its minor pleasures, I guess (the titular lady is hot, etc.)...

743. (29 Nov) The Missing (Ron Howard, 2003)* 23
Ugh!

744. (29 Nov) /To Be and To Have/ (Nicholas Philibert, 2002)* 74

745. (29 Nov) /The Cooler/ (Wayne Kramer, 2003)* 52

746. (01 Dec) My Flesh and Blood (Jonathan Karsh, 2003)* 71
As filmmaking, on some truly shaky ground. As visceral and valuable document, pretty wrenching. Probably wouldn't work without Joe admittedly, who supplies both a feeling of 'danger' and the ultimate emotional center of the thing. Full of almost-reprehensible moments, with enough complexity shining through (ie the way Anthony's performance is presented, making us equally aware of him trying to get past his misery and how strange 'friendly' voyeurism can feel; Susan's rocky emotional past and how that led her to be the psycho-slash-saint she is) to be unforgettable.

747. (03 Dec) The Housekeeper (Claude Berri, 2002) 64

748. (03 Dec) Bruce Almighty (Tom Shadyac, 2003) 47

749. (03 Dec) Bulletproof Monk (Paul Hunter, 2003) 50

750. (03 Dec) Chaos (Hideo Nakata, 1999) 44

751. (04 Dec) Sylvia (Christine Jeffs, 2003)* 45

752. (04 Dec) Valley of Tears (Hart Perry, 2003)* 14

753. (04 Dec) Acts of Worship (Rosemary Rodriguez, 2001)* 41

754. (05 Dec) Darkness Falls (Jonathan Liebesman, 2003) 43

755. (05 Dec) Daddy Day Care (Steve Carr, 2003) 33

756. (06 Dec) Cradle 2 the Grave (Andrzej Bartkowiak, 2003) 42

757. (06 Dec) The Last Samurai (Edward Zwick, 2003)* 40

758. (06 Dec) Malibu's Most Wanted (John Whitesell, 2003) 45

759. (07 Dec) From Justin to Kelly (Robert Iscove, 2003) 39

760. (07 Dec) Guys and Dolls (Joseph L. Mankiewicz, 1955) 76

761. (08 Dec) The Hard Word (Scott Roberts, 2002) 49

762. (09 Dec) Identity (James Mangold, 2003) 46

763. (10 Dec) Big Fish (Tim Burton, 2003)* 66

764. (12 Dec) Jesus, You Know (Ulrich Seidl, 2003)* 76

765. (12 Dec) Stuck on You (Peter Farrelly & Bobby Farrelly, 2003)* 65

766. (12 Dec) Something's Gotta Give (Nancy Meyers, 2003)* 34

767. (13 Dec) A Guy Thing (Chris Koch, 2003) 48

768. (13 Dec) Gasoline (Monica Stambrini, 2001) 32

769. (14 Dec) Piglet's Big Movie (Francis Glebas, 2003) 42

770. (14 Dec) Gaudi Afternoon (Susan Seidelman, 2001) 52

771. (14 Dec) War and Peace (Anand Patwardhan, 2001) 19

772. (14 Dec) The Guru (Daisy von Scherler Mayer, 2002) 38

773. (14 Dec) Cheaper by the Dozen (Shawn Levy, 2003)* 43

774. (14 Dec) Timeline (Richard Donner, 2003)* 53

775. (14 Dec) Girl with a Pearl Earring (Peter Webber, 2003)* 66

776. (14 Dec) Down and Out with the Dolls (Kurt Voss, 2001) 30

777. (15 Dec) /Hollywood Homicide/ (Ron Shelton, 2003) 69

778. (17 Dec) The Guys (Jim Simpson, 2002) 25
Horrible, horrible stuff, probably one of the worst of the year; but there's a what-were-they-thinking wounded puppy fascination about it too, I guess, and it's certainly a must for grieving fetishists. Most pathetic thing here probably the astonishingly feeble stabs at humor, most of which surprisingly revolve around how 'bad' something is (coffee, food, firemen names [wtf?]), but the film isn't aware of this cynicism, and treats it fundamentally as levity. All about 'humanization,' its standards for human being (in addition to heroics, of course) a cute little behavioral tic, a tendency to get worked up, transient fantasizing -- basically, laziness and/or long-term problems are not an issue, because when it comes to like saving lives and crap we are all together, one nation and whatnot. Juh...?

779. (18 Dec) The Docks of New York (Josef von Sternberg, 1928)* 74

780. (18 Dec) Morocco (Josef von Sternberg, 1930)* 94
Glad I saw the former first, which gradually curved from a more laid-back, amiable tone to one of intense emotional trauma. In contrast Morocco (and especially Dietrich's performance) is all over the map. It is also incredibly awesome. Fuck me for missing 8 movies already.

781. (19 Dec) /Marion Bridge/ (Wiebke von Carolsfeld, 2002) 66
Still a likeably low-key melodrama, occasionally glib script overcome by strong cast and general lack of triteness; all about the collision of grace and grunge, right down to the soundtrack of jazz riffs and folk songs. Molly Parker = god, obviously.

782. (20 Dec) Jeepers Creepers 2 (Victor Salva, 2003) 45
Most interesting thing about this is obviously where do the kids go when the thing flies up with them into the air. Seriously, I'm wondering. Does it eat them, or throw them into space, or what. Otherwise cheap and stupid, though Salva's visual sensibility isn't half bad.

783. (20 Dec) I Capture the Castle (Tim Fywell, 2003) 53
Passably resonant love triangle, engaging portrait of sisterly bonding/separation, though it really gets so goddamn cutesy as it goes along.

784. (20 Dec) House of Sand and Fog (Vadim Perelman, 2003)* 41
I actually don't think Perelman is problem numero uno here (I'd certainly favor him over a Billy Ray, Whore Verbinski, Rob Marshall etc.); the script felt just as flat and schematic as his direction to me (the last exchange of dialogue is a particular groaner). Definitely a fair amount of ambiguity going on here, and I admired what it was trying to do, but some times intentions are too darn obvious, and if any premise inherently needs a firm grip on taking its concepts into truly unexpected territory, this is it.

785. (21 Dec) Hell's Highway: The True Story of Highway Safety Films (Bret Wood, 2003) 47
Doesn't amount to much, but it's certainly aware of some intriguing representational paradoxes concerning the films, ie stimulation pointed towards both abstinence and hunger, which makes it feel reasonably thematically sustained when it throws in filler material (ooh the same companies filmed pornography, stuff about child molestation, etc.)

786. (21 Dec) The Carpenter's Pencil (Ant?n Reixa, 2003)* 24

787. (21 Dec) /Les Mains Vides/ (Marc Recha, 2003)* 87

788. (21 Dec) The Hours of the Day (Jaime Rosales, 2003)* 57

789. (21 Dec) Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King (Peter Jackson, 2003)* 2

790. (22 Dec) Crime and Punishment (Josef von Sternberg, 1935)* 68

791. (22 Dec) An American Tragedy (Josef von Sternberg, 1931)* 83

792. (23 Dec) Alex & Emma (Rob Reiner, 2003) 35

793. (23 Dec) Naked (Mike Leigh, 1993) 84

794. (23 Dec) Ichi the Killer (Takashi Miike, 2001) 54

795. (24 Dec) Monster (Patty Jenkins, 2003)* 56

796. (24 Dec) Brigadoon (Vincente Minnelli, 1954) 61

797. (25 Dec) Secret Things (Jean-Claude Brisseau, 2002) 68