Comments on Nick's Flick Picks: The Blog: Backwards and Forwards: 2005

Of the films you haven't seen uCarmen h...

2009-12-21T03:46:15.393-06:00

Of the films you haven't seen uCarmen has a vibrancy that really reverberates once you've seen the final few scenes. The film can feel like a chore at times, but it feels worth it by the end.

Sympathy for Lady Vengeance is very good, actually. And I say that as a definite non-fan of Oldboy.

I just saw Mysterious Skin. The only thing I knew ...

2009-12-20T21:37:19.790-06:00

I just saw Mysterious Skin. The only thing I knew about the movie was that, according to Guy Lodge, Joseph Gordon-Levitt was great in it.

It was a wasted opportunity! It could have been great. I visited Rotten Tomatoes and I was surprised to find out that most critics liked it! So, I'm posting here because you get me. I don't know if we didn't like it for the same reasons but for me it was a mix of awkward lines, some questionable performances (Gordon-Levitt was good) and things that made no sense.

I'm so behind! @Brook: You can read a few of ...

2009-12-17T23:40:36.505-06:00

I'm so behind!

@Brook: You can read a few of my retrospective thoughts on 2046 here.

@Nathaniel: I liked it more the second time, but perhaps still not as much as you did. I don't really get Gong Li anymore, that's for sure, and I tried this one, Eros, Geisha, and Zhou Yu's Train all in the same season.

@Joe: I'll look forward to that trip back into Brick. But can I admit that I have a hard time associating the phrase "light touch" with The Brothers Bloom? It felt like Johnson wanted to nail me to my seat with all of his STYLE. Which sometimes was fine, and sometimes... jeepers. And Adrien Brody was just insufferable in it.

@Ed: The Wild Blue Yonder is a great recommendation. As for Black Sun: I agree in spirit, and often in point of fact... but sometimes, didn't the image-sound match seem a little odd? Why so much of that Mayan masking ritual, for example? (For a mordantly comic spin on a loosely comparable experience, I recommend Jim Knipfel's memoir Slackjaw.)

@Bill: Exactly the kind of pitch for The King that's liable to goad me into renting it. Thanks!

@Tim: I loved I Don't Want to Sleep Alone and had a great time at Face, even though it felt a little too long and self-repeating, even for someone who'd seen so little of the repertoire. I thought Winstone and especially Watson were terrific in The Proposition, but Danny Huston was only a little less overbearing than usual, and Guy Pearce just seems kind of stranded in so many of his roles: mealier than a matin&#233e idol, but not quite technical enough to work as a character actor. Which is pretty much what I thought about him here.

What didja dislike about Last Days?

@Catherine: I've definitely heard those critiques from many quarters, but given what I study and the superficial proximity to Velvet Goldmine, it feels like a real mistake to keep ignoring the film outright. Thanks for the fair warning, though!

I wouldn't bother with Breakfast on Pluto
2009-12-17T18:02:54.626-06:00
I wouldn't bother with Breakfast on Pluto, if I were you. Cillian Murphy is capable, but a little one-note, the film as a whole is annoyingly episodic and bitty, and it's all exasperatingly light-hearted about IRA bombings and other weighty topics. There's not just a whole lot there to chew on.

"this would be a favorite of mine" to cl...

2009-12-17T13:17:05.851-06:00
"this would be a favorite of mine" to close out the second paragraph. No idea what happened there.

So... have you not seen any Tsai Ming-Liang...

2009-12-17T13:16:17.152-06:00
So... have you not seen any Tsai Ming-Liang films? Don't start with The Wayward Cloud, is my only piece of advice.

Joe exactly sums up my feelings on Brick, saving me from having to defend it, but I do want to put some love out their for The Proposition, which I think has a pretty damn strong cast all told, and I'd love to know who specifically you're thinking of when you say "uneven". But even if just for the music and the imagery, t

Last Days is easily my least favorite entry in the Death Trilogy, while I love Gerry more than anything else Van Sant has ever done. Go figure.

I gotta tip my hat to THE KING. It is a deeply sil...

2009-12-17T11:18:43.116-06:00
I gotta tip my hat to THE KING. It is a deeply silly movie, one that you're mentally MST3K'ing as you watch it, and yet it is terrifically resonant in ways I cannot quite articulate. Because almost every artistic decision they made was precisely the wrong one, from the casting of Bernal as William Hurt's biological son to Laura Harring as a prim, wholesome minister's wife (she's actually terrific), it has the uniquely exploitative pull of a sideshow. I have a feeling a second visit would really convert me to whatever it's doing, which seems to be trying to tell a story that formally mimics the sociopathy of its main character.

Great stuff as usual. I love Caché as well,...

2009-12-17T11:00:53.591-06:00
Great stuff as usual. I love Caché as well, Haneke's best film thus far. Also, I'm so glad to hear someone else mention Black Sun, a very sadly overlooked film that's absolutely stunning in its effect. The core story is obviously interesting enough on its own, but what really makes the film so thrilling is how inventive Gary Tarn is in exploring different types of imagery and different ways of exploring this story.

I'll put in a random recommendation, if you haven't seen it already, for The Wild Blue Yonder, which finds Werner Herzog in weird documentary/sci-fi hybrid mode, and it's a bizarre and not entirely successful film but undoubtedly a fascinating one anyway. The underwater imagery in particular is stunning, and it boasts one of the best soundtracks I've ever heard, with cellist Ernst Reijseger in collaboration with a Sardinian choir and a Sengelese vocalist. Gorgeous, haunting music, unlike anything else.

Sorry, there was supposed to be a "but" ...

2009-12-17T08:08:17.790-06:00
Sorry, there was supposed to be a "but" there:

There's a strong muscle to the filmmaking, BUT I'm not surprised people felt worn out...or put off by how often it flexed.

(Let no one say I don't use every part of the metaphor.)

I'm an enthusiastic fan of Brick, which...

2009-12-17T08:05:20.641-06:00
I'm an enthusiastic fan of Brick, which will be apparent once I finally (finally!) get my own year-end project off the ground. But it's definitely one where I can see why people wouldn't like it. For me, there's such a strong commitment to the gimmickry -- no apologies, no winking -- that I'm swept up in Johnson's utter confidence. There's a strong muscle to his filmmaking there (and one which makes me even more impressed at the light touch I found in The Brothers Bloom; he's a filmmaker with quite a few clubs at his disposal).

If I recall you don't like 2046, right, Nick? ...

2009-12-17T07:32:16.822-06:00
If I recall you don't like 2046, right, Nick?

I've never seen MRS. HARRIS which is insane given my feelings about The Bening.

I can't get around Brick's affectations though I have no trouble at all warming up to Gordon-Levitt in just about anything.

and I still weep that you don't love A HISTORY OF VIOLENCE which is the only film that year that got to me as much as Brokeback Mountain did. I wonder how you'd feel about it if you didn't have such a thing for Cronenberg? None of us watch movies in a vacuum but I can't help thinking about the "what if"s because it's so very distinctive when lined up with anything in its year (and book end years too) and the acting is unimproveable i think, spot on for the movies style, issues, and operating layers.

I'm consistently surprised by the wide range o...

2009-12-17T03:07:49.437-06:00
I'm consistently surprised by the wide range of films that you've seen! I DVRed Mrs. Harris based on the presence of Annette Bening, and also out of genuine curiosity for Ellen Burstyn's Emmy nomination. I found myself enjoying it, and also loving Bening's performance in it; but also finding myself in complete awe of Cloris Leachman in it. Her reading of: "People let you know they're human when they show you their flaws.", which is, admittedly a clunky line, has stayed with me since I watched it.

As a disciple of Wong Kar-Wai, I have to ask how you respond to 2046, if at all? It's my favourite of his films, albeit barely, and I find myself revisiting it often and getting more from it (and different things from it) every time. A trio of brilliant performances by actresses also helps for me.

Comments on Nick's Flick Picks: The Blog: Backwards and Forwards: 2005

Of the films you haven't seen uCarmen h...

I just saw Mysterious Skin. The only thing I knew ...

I'm so behind! @Brook: You can read a few of ...

"this would be a favorite of mine" to cl...

So... have you not seen any Tsai Ming-Liang...

I gotta tip my hat to THE KING. It is a deeply sil...

Great stuff as usual. I love Caché as well,...

Sorry, there was supposed to be a "but" ...

I'm an enthusiastic fan of Brick, which...

If I recall you don't like 2046, right, Nick? ...

I'm consistently surprised by the wide range o...