It was a pleasnt surprise to see that this film was NOT a documentary about what Aileen Wuornos did (I GREATLY enjoyed that dramatic account in the film, MONSTER) but rather a documentary about how her newly adoptive mother and lawyer seemingly pimped out her story to the highest bidder, all the while preaching forgiveness, innocence, and love.  Of course, what Wuornos did was worse, but to see the british documentarians given the runaround because they haven't paid sufficiently for the Aileen Wuornos story, its pretty damn disturbing.  If nothing else, the film shows how brilliant Charlize Theron was in portraying Wuornos in 2004.  Solid Documentary!!

 

A terribly simple movie, but manages to be very interesting and ultimately pretty sorrowful.  The movie follows a man who has to explain to the adption agency investigator why he was found in another's house taking care of an infant son.  It is a story of boredom, longing, and necessity for companionship.  I didn't quite think Harry would be able to squeeze any sympathy out of me (since at the outset we KNOW he is a Bigamist), but he manages to.  Nothing too groundbreaking, but you will want to see how things turn out.  

 

I can't help but feel disappointed after TAXI DRIVER.  I am a huge admirer and lover of Martin Scorsese's movies, and I found yet another gem of his with this project by seeing RAGING BULL, but this movie left so much to be desired.  DeNiro's performace was more reserved than I expected, even during the violent climax,  and Scorsese's direction was much less dynamic.  I assume the story is about isolation and feeling alone in a massive, grotesque city and one man's attempt to make a connection, no matter how violent or extreme.  But it never quite kicked into the gear I would have expected.  That all being said...come on now...its DeNiro and Scorsese.  Even their worst movie is better than most other good movies.

 

You know you have a great movie when one of your only complaints is that it is far too short.  PATHS OF GLORY is early Kubrick, and it is equal parts DR. STRANGELOVE and FULL METAL JACKET.  It involves a French regiment  in WWI who are sent on a suicidal mission.  When many soldiers fall back because of its obvious futility, 3 are arrested and charged with "Cowardice in the face of the enemy".  Their Colonel (Kirk Douglas) defends them at their court martial.  This movie made me verbally angry, and Kubrick's classic cynicism at humanity's possibilities really shines through.  This is a wonderful movie, but at under 90 minutes long, I felt like I got shortchanged.  The battle seemed truncated and the court martial seemed rushed, but overall...it is fantastic stuff.

 

If TERMINATOR 2: JUDGEMENT day hadn't been a modern, Sci-Fi Masterpiece and TERMINATOR 3: RISE OF THE MACHINES hadn't been such a whiz-bang barrel of fun, the original film may have been a great movie.  But the original is totally outdone, in every way, by its successors (even TERMINATOR: SLAVATION).  I enjoyed Michael Biehn as Kyle Reese, but the whole film doesn't have the 80s charm...it has the 80s cheesiness.  Arnold perfected the robot personna in the second movie...here....he just comes across as an Austrian with a mouth full of marbles.  Action is ok, story is ok, but things get so much better later on...and not just technically.

 

The films of David Lynch are infuriating.  If you took 10 film experts and asked them to summarize any of his films, you'd most likely get 10 different expplanations.  MULHOLLAND DRIVE was an odd bad dream...ERASERHEAD is a surrealistic nightmare.  What do you say about a movie where a man carves miniature chickens that dance on the plate and bleed and the same man fathers a premature child that looks like a calf fetus and lives on top of a dresser and squeals all the time.  After all this is done, he daydreams about a plaster-cheeked woman who tapdances atop wormlike creatures inside his radiator.  THEN things start to get weird.  If David Lynch is ever anywhere near me...I will run away screaming.

 

I thought I was in for a naive, 2 hour long, milquetoast love story to Democracy when I sat down to watch this film.  It has been parodied all over the place and I never actually thought I could take it seriously...but his film is anything but naive.  There is an acceptance of corruption inherent in the story, but Frank Capra's and Jimmy Stewart's enthusiasm with the material, and swelling, patriotic script, is inspiring to say the least.  I couldn't believe how excited I was for the filibuster finale, but I was actually on the edge of my seat.  It certainly isn't a love story to Democracy...it is a an exhibition of passionate, democratic idealsand a plea for how to preserve them and allow them to prevail.  Wonderful!!!

 

On par with Bela Lugosi's DRACULA, and infinitely better than Boris Karloff's FRANKENSTEIN, Lon Chaney's Phantom is a truly frightening character.  This silent film never fails to entertain, and the locations of the Paris opera house and the dungeons beneath, are superb.  I was astonished during the masquerade ball when everything turned to technicolor...I thought it was unheard of back when this movie was made.  We all know the story, and it is almost impossible to watch without expecting to hear some Andrew Lloyd Weber music...but this is a classic monster movie.

 

I love British drama, and I think it has to do with the British culture where no matter how damaged or depressed a person is, they are always trying to be pleasant and make others feel comfortable...and that is very pitiful for broken people.  This movie left me emotionally drained, and it is absolutely brilliant, with perfect performances all around.  Timothy Spall and Brenda Blethyn shine as a brother and sister whose lives are just in turmoil...and the appearance of an illegitamate black daughter makes it get even more chaotic.  I was mesmerized by the acting in this film...and even though it is very high concept with so many characters with such emotional baggage, it felt 100% realistic.  Simply "bloody" wonderful.

 

This film can perfectly be decribed as a combination of Ang Lee's CROUCHING TIGER, HIDDEN DRAGON and Sam Raimi's THE EVIL DEAD.  That may seem like a ridiculously odd comparison, but this is a ridiculously odd film.  It is imaginative and fun, for sure, but just as I felt with Raimi's film...the charm of its amateurish feel is simultaneously a huge drawback.   The music is beautiful, and the direction is quite masterful in order to keep things looking otherworldy, without special effects...but the whole thing is just so weird.  hahaha.  I did enjoy it though.

 

My second Fellini film is much more surreal and strange than the first, but it is also oddly compelling as well.  The film is about a filmmaker who just doesn't know how to make his 9th film, and as he juggles his workers, his actors, and the women in his life, he often has to retreat to fantasy and dreams to keep his sanity.  Often times, I found it hard pressed to know whether or not what I was seeing was real.  Charlie Kaufman must have loved Federico Fellini, because when a director doesn't know what to make his movie about (Fellini) decides to make a movie about a director not knowing what to make his next movie about (8 1/2)...it is mind-bending.  Fun, and I had to sleep on it to really appreciate it...but Fellini was quite a unique filmmaker.

 

This movie was just all over the place.  Not only does it just seem to be an exhibition of Ava Gardner, but the director does not seem to have the handle on Technicolor cinema yet.  There are many continuity errors with the lighting and hues and it makes it seem really makeshift.  The story is all sorts of random, with Pandora having no less than 4 different men after her.  One kills himself.  One kills someone else.  One destroys his life's work.  One is the cursed captain of the Flying Dutchman.  There is n attempt to break the land speed record and elaborate bullfighting...all in the same movie.  hahahaha

 

It is amazing to me that with such a lifelong love for baseball, I have never seen THE NATURAL.  I recognize the theme, I knew the name "Wonderboy"...I just never got around to seeing it.  This is truly a love letter to the sport, and if you are a huge baseball fan, it plays like a wonderful, heroic tale...even if it all that is achieved is that a middle-aged rookie plants his flag in baseball history.  Great acting all around, by Redford, Close, Basinger, Brimley, and Farnsworth.  I really want to go break out my mitt and bat right about now.  Is there anything more glorious in sports film history than that last home run and the fireworks that ensue?

The world depicted in STRICTLY BALLROOM is incredibly ridiculous.  Ballroom dancing is everything.  It is life.  Nothing else...and I mean NOTHING else matters.  With Baz Luhrmann at the helm, the film is infectiously fun...filled with comedy, absurdity, and of course, wonderful dancing.  Just as the characters in MOULIN ROUGE are larger than life...everything in this film is over the top.  It is as if winning a seemingly local dancing comeptition defines the universe.  I have to say though, as you are invited to witness the dancing microcosm of this film, you can't help but be thrilled.  Such a fun, unique experience...and I laughed a lot in spite of myself. 

 

My problem with this short film is that I wouldn't really consider it a film at all.  It is a slideshow with narration.  Sure, its somber sci-fi story is what inspired Terry Gilliam to make 12 MONKEYS...but if you can't comment on acting, directing, photography, or anything else....you can only comment on pictures.  That isn't a movie...and it was a bit frustrating for me.  The story?  Neat enough....but there was no reason this short film couldn't have been filmed properly instead of just posting chronologically significant pictures.

 

I will tell you exactly what this Salvador Dali collaborative effort reminded me of.  It reminded me of the tape in THE RING that will kill you in seven days after you watch it.  This is a surrealist hodgepodge of visuals that only produces a "What the F**K?" emotion.  There is that slit eyeball scene (which the film is most famous for), a man pulling 2 pianos into the living room with pilgrims in tow, breasts morphing from covered, to bare, to under overalls, to butt cheeks etc..  It is so weird.  I think this short film is famous because it reminds us that there were werid, abstract filmmakers even back in the 20s.  I still don't really enjoy it though.

 

Unlike other silent films I have seen, this film wasn't filled with hokey acting and unimpressive, jerky camerawork, and it gets a bunch of props for that.  The Odessa Massacre that occurs in this film is quite suprisingly bloody and exciting, and has been homaged many times in later cinematic history.  It still has that major hump to get over of making my enjoy a silent film from the 20s, but it gets further over the hump than most...even if the film does come across as incredible communist propaganda.  But then again, I guess that is why it is famous.

 

This is my first Federico Fellini film, and it is very impressive.  I couldn't quite get into the early scenes, but the film got better and better as it progressed and finished quite extraordinarily.  It plays like a greek tragedy, with Anthony Quinn playing the violent, grumpy Zampano and Giulietta Masina playing Gelsomina as a naive, childlike woman...both as broad archetypes with seemingly unavoidable fates.  Apparently Fellini has a lot of circus stuff in his films, and this is no exception.  LA STRADA impressed me, especially because of the superb performances by the leads.  I can't wait to knock off some other Fellini films on this list like LA DOLCE VITA, 8 1/2, and SATYRICON.

 

I was first introduced to SOLARIS with the 2002 George Clooney version, and I hated it.  Now I have seen the original Tarkovsky version, and I'm still not crazy about it.  I realize that there are some deep, humanistic themes going on here about the nature of love and what you love...a person or your own idea of that person...but the whole endeavor still comes across as pretentious to me.  At 165 minutes, this film is a bit stenuous to get through...but it is oddly beautiful in some respects, and you have to give it credit to the film for its audacious aspirations, even if the film's reach is much farther than its grasp.  I am told Tarkovsy's films are legendary.  I hope they improve on SOLARIS, which was a chore.

 

What a unique, wonderful film.  The subject matter is as depressing and sorrowful as anyone can come up with, but Pedro Almodovar films it in a vibrant, almost creepy way.  The film follows two men.  One is in love with a champion bullfighting woman who is gored and put into a vegetative state.  The other is infatuated, but hardly knows, a bellerina who dances across from his window...and she is put it a vegetative state from a car accident.  The one who loves his woman can't touch, look, or speak to her lifeless body.  The one who only yearns for his woman talks to her like they are a seasoned married couple.  The emotions run high, confused, and a little bit unnaturally.  I love when my emotions are pulled in so many ways at one time.