The Fire Within

A day in the life of a suicidal man, directed by Louis Malle (1963). For a person of a certain age, painfully real and clear. I'd like to see this as a double feature with Old Joy.

Drunken Angel

Kurosawa crime flick set in the slums of post-war Tokyo. Volcanic performance by Toshiro Mifune as a doomed gangster. Fucking great.

Ponyo

A lot of people couldn't stomach the saccharine cuteness and I get that. Also off-putting are the anime cliches, the incoherent plot, and the painfully pollyanna-ish ending. But along the way are moments as beautiful as anything you will ever see in any movie ever made. If Miyazaki is drunk on his own art, who can blame him?

Idiocracy

About thirty people told me, "It's not that great but you should see it." And that turned out to be exactly right. For all its silliness, the future world it depicts feels unexpectedly real. Would have been so much better without a stale, stupid recurring joke about a vengeful pimp.

Vodka Lemon

"Fellini in Armenia" is the back-of-the-box summary. Whimsical and bleak--who knew that combination was even possible?

Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince

Loved it. The best Harry Potter so far. The problem with any Harry Potter movie is that there's too much plot and too many CGI set pieces. This one has a warm ease with the characters (which is why we all love this ridiculous story to begin with), and handles its expository duties with ingenious, fast-moving transitions.

The Triple Agent

Pre-WWII intrigue in Paris. It might be a little boring, but it's the most interesting boring film I've ever seen. Evasive as its protagonist. Terrific clothes. A painless way to finally understand the difference between White Russians and Red Russians.

Pan's Labyrinth

Ugh. Jesus Fuck, what a convoluted, overwrought pile of garbage. Did a 14-year old write this script? All the moral seriousness of a Nu Metal video, and about as dated, what with all its "freaky" imagery. Fuck this movie.

Enchanted

Other than the heinously cute little CGI mouse and tediously spectacular climax, there's not a damn thing wrong with this movie. So many great, witty little details. Amy Adams is a genius. The scene where she imposes her cartoon reality on Central Park is a masterpiece. Patrick Dempsey is adequate.

Juno

This fucking movie—with its absurd, paper-thin characters and simpering, pandering indie cutesiness smothered from one asshole to the other in the worst fucking precious toddler music that ever induced self-inflicted gunshot wounds—actually got me to watch right up to its just-follow-your-adorable-little-heart climax, when the DVD crapped out on me and I had to go online to read a synopsis because I still wanted to know what would happen to the baby.

The Bank Job

Good-not-great heist flick with great 70s British fashions.

Lake City

Why go to the trouble of making an indie film if you're going to fill it with nothing but clichés? They even do the thing where the bad guy is about to shoot the good guy and then there's a shot and the bad guy slumps over dead to reveal the sheriff standing there with his barrel still smoking because he's arrived unseen just in time. Sissy Spacek is in it though. Weirdly, Dave Matthews is, too. He's not bad as a junior bad guy.

Whale Rider

The third time we watched it I cried at all the same parts.

The Dead Sleep Well

I wish Kurosawa had made more crime flicks. Love this shit. I get sick of samurais. Wait, I got the title wrong. I think it's actually called "The Bad Sleep Well." Anyway, it's brutal and told with fantastic gusto.

A Series of Unfortunate Events

Great art direction (if a little too CGIish) but too many set pieces for Jim Carrey and the other adult egomaniacs in this thing. The poor kids are supposed to be the goddamn stars. "The books are funnier," says Kaia, who would know.

Chun King Express

Two quirky, interlocking love stories tales that wander through a sensuous wonderland of Hong Kong textures. Gorgeous, confidently loopy cinematography.

My Architect

Everyone was telling me to see this for the longest time and I was like, "Some guy never knew his dad, who was an architect, boo fucking hoo. Then he made a film, big fucking deal." Then I saw it, and after I was done crying and being amazed, I was like, "Oh. OK. Shutting up now."

Joan of Arc (1928)

Pretty mind blowing. In the first half, the titles (taken from real historical transcripts of the trial) tell one story while the faces tell another. The second half is almost purely visual, with wild crowd scenes, upside-down camera angles, and billowing smoke. And yet it never wavers from its austerely economical style of storytelling.

This Mug

Could I love this mug any more? Only if it were even stupider and made even less sense, which is obviously not possible. My favorite features are the lines of raised doo-dads and the gold pin stripe, denoting fanciness and prestige.

Hiroshima Mon Amour

What a movie. Shit, no wonder it's a classic. It would almost be worth having another WWII if only we could have more glamorous existential romance like this. I used to live in Hiroshima and it was a kick to recognize some of the street scenes.

City of No Limits (En la ciudad sin límites)

A family melodrama. Or is it a thriller? It holds back from tipping its hand until the the end when it shows that it's been its own kind of story from the beginning. Featuring a cast of ridiculously good-looking Spanish people.

Take My Eyes

What could make your desire to see what the New York Times would probably call "a nuanced study of the dynamics of an abusive relationship" even more non-existent? How about if it was in Spanish? I know, I agree. Yet I've watched it twice, and might watch it again. Pictured above are the main character and her sister, whose relationship is as intense and vivid as the abusive marriage that's depicted from all angles. The redemptive power of art is a theme, but amazingly, it's not dopey at all.

Millk

In which I discover that it's possible to be deeply moved while simultaneously thinking, "Yet another bit of awkward exposition!"

Twenty Nine Palms

We humans are ruled by animal desires. If you don't believe that, just watch this couple roam the desert in a Hummer for no apparent reason. Various horrible things happen to them, culminating in the most horrible thing of all. The brutal purity of French director Whatshisname's vision does have an undeniable hypnotic power, even if this isn't exactly the kind of thing you'd want to see every day. Unless there's something wrong with you.

L'age D'or

Hilarious and shocking mixture of playfulness, absurdity, and cruelty from original-generation Surrealist and noted eyeball slicer Luis Buñuel. So much of what I thought originated with Fellini, Bergman, and/or Monty Python is seen here, way back in 1930.

Thesis

The best part of this would-be deconstruction of the slasher genre is the guy who plays the movie nerd/unlikely hero. He's terrific. Otherwise, what we've got here is a heavy-handed effort to "implicate the viewer." We hypocritically condemn what titillates us, etc. The plot involves snuff films and Spanish grad students who seem to have never heard of a "phone" or "calling the police."

A Snake of June

Exploration of the erotic inner lives of a Japanese couple, with pointlessly arty cinematography and an absurd, slow-motion plot. The breathless "secrets" it exposes (wow, the woman secretly likes to wear a short skirt) are not worth all the panting effort.

Kokkuri

I guess Japanese horror isn't my thing to begin with. Especially not ponderous, portentous Japanese horror.

Comedy of Power

Another French one. Apparently the director, Claude Chabrol, is sort of a big deal, though I'd never heard of him. Clinical detachment seems to be the aim here, but it's just too tastefully restrained to hold my attention. There also seems to be no actual comedy. Maybe that's what's funny? Color me confused. But the heroine, a crusading judge played by Isabelle Huppert, is an aging-but-sexy little chain-smoking dominatrix who has her way with the camera.

Kings and Queens (Rois et reine)

A mix of melodrama and black comedy that's too disjointed to add up to anything.

Ace in the Hole

So full of bile, it's amazing it even got made. Billy Wilder was a complete badass. Decades before his time, he evokes Robert Altman's "Network" and the Simpsons "Sending Our Love Down the Well" episode. Kirk Douglas is ferocious as an asshole big city reporter. The spectacular southwest setting is perfect for the theme of moral aridity. Favorite line: "I've lied to men wearing suspenders and I've lied to men wearing belts, but I know better than to lie to a man wearing suspenders and a belt."

Night and the City

Supposed to be a classic. Vivid seediness gives it a jolt, but too much talky talky blah blah blah for me.

Call Northside 777

Jimmy Stewart's performance is the sturdy tent pole holding up this generic but fast-moving tale of an innocent man in jail. The swooping noir cinematography also keeps things moving with an edgy urban vibe.

Kaspar Hauser

This Peter Greenawayish German flick, about aristocrats plotting against each other and abusing an innocent man-child in various ways, might have delivered on its promise of wicked fun if it weren't so goddamn slow. Or maybe I'm just too goddamn impatient.

Dead End

With a fantastically intricate indoor set of a New York slum, mesmerizing noir cinematography, and Bogart as a flashy gangster, how could it miss? With an impossibly talky and pedantic script, that's how.

The first three episodes of The Wire

The greatest TV show ever, according to everyone. Which makes me feel like a failure, because I just can't make the commitment to watch all 60 hours of it. A drug dealer pontificating in the second episode about how life in the 'hood in is just like chess and "we the pawns" made it easier for me to make a clean break with the Wire phenomenon.

Dirty Money (Un Flic)

I give the heist scene that opens this 1970s French crime film a million stars, with a million magical boners dancing inside each star.

Consenting Adults

A great first half when Kevins Kline and Spacey claw at each other in a most vicious and entertaining manner. Kline is a highly successful, highly irritable commercial jingle writer with visions of what his life could have been. Spacey is the fun but (uh-oh) kind of edgy new neighbor given to harsh little sermons about Kline's lack of authenticity. If they'd taken that relationship somewhere instead into formulaic thriller territory, this coulda been really something.

The Page Turner

A gem. Everything in this film is so precise, deliberate, and elegant, yet never fussy. Given how little actually happens, it's amazing how tense and absorbing it is. Every shot tells a story. Fucking great.