Flipside Movie Emporium

[Danny Baldwin]

1/4 - 1/10

Hotel Rwanda (George, 2004)

A Series of Unfortunate Events (Silberling, 2004)

The Saddest Music in the World (Maddin, 2004)

White Noise (Sax, 2004)

I've listed them preferentially. One great, one good, one okay, one awful.
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Danny Baldwin

View My Reviews

[the night watchman]

[mfritschel]

Sideways (Payne, 2004)

Before Sunset (Linklater, 2004)

A week focused more on quality then quantity I would say, Sideways was very enjoyable and humorous however there just seemed to be something missing from it. A void that was never really filled it you will. I admit its a good, solid movie but I don't know if it consitutes the type of rave reviews and showers of awards it seems to be receiving. Also, I agree with you completely Beltman on Before Sunset, I don't think it has the power to dethrone Eternal Sunshine though.

[Fred C. Dobbs]

Here's what I've seen in '04 so far...

1/1 - Twitch of the Death Nerve (1971) ***?

1/2 - The Bourne Supremacy (2004) ***?

1/3 - Videodrome (1983) ****

1/4 - Paths of Glory (1957) ****

1/6 - Garden State (2004) ****

1/8 - Taxi Driver (Film Forum) (1976) *****

1/9 - Willie Dynamite (1974) **?

1/10 - Meet The Fockers (2004) ***

1/10 - The Big Combo (1954) ****

1/12 - The Dreamers (2003) ****?
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"Pino, fuck you, fuck your fuckin' pizza, and fuck Frank Sinatra."

[the night watchman]

[the night watchman]

1/10/05-1/16/05

Fear of the Dark (Bascomb, 2002) - Okay low-impact spooker that distinguishes itself from most straight-to-video releases by concentrating on characterization and character interaction, and by exhibiting a fairly sure hand at storytelling. It?s at its best when it?s suggesting what?s lurking in the shadows, but gets a bit over-eager during the jump scares. Worse, when the bogeys finally do show up, well, meh. While it?s most likely targeted at younger audiences -- based on its paucity of swearing and real violence -- it?s never dull, and sometimes genuinely, if mildly, suspenseful. You could do worse, like, for instance...

Dolls (Gordon, 1987) - I remembered this one as the only Stuart Gordon movie I actively disliked. My opinion remains unchanged today. While it achieves a short stretch of the macabre around the middle, the story is pedestrian, nonsensical, and populated by characters who would be wholly unlikable if they weren?t utterly unconvincing. Gordon lends competence and some inventiveness behind the camera here, and while he?s usually able to find wit and enthusiasm in even the silliest of movie conceits, he had no hand in the script for this one, and the movie suffers for it. Bleh.

Friday Night Lights (Berg, 2004) - Watchable high school football flick with good performances and some nice, if underdeveloped, drama. I liked the fact that Thornton?s last-minute inspirational speech was actually inspiring. This movie may also mark the only time in Tim McGraw?s career when he doesn?t suck.

Ghost in the Shell 2: Innocence (Oshii, 2004) - Good, thought-provoking sequel whose plot could have been a tad clearer, but nonetheless raises some interesting philosphical notions to ponder, as good science fiction should.

Punch Drunk Love (Anderson, 2002) - Adam Sandler?s performance in Spanglish prompted me to revisit my favorite from Paul Thomas Anderson. I thought Boogie Nights was an excellent movie, and Magnolia well-crafted with great moments, but neither resonated with me. I?ve returned to Punch Drunk three times now and it?s still fresh. Sandler?s performance here is controlled and acute, yet Barry Egan never seems less than spontaneous. There are some movies that feel like they were made just for you. This is one was made just for me.
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"If you're talking about censorship, and what things should be shown and what things shouldn't be shown, I've said that as an artist you have no social responsibility whatsoever."

-David Cronenberg

[Jim Harper]

08/01/05

Hideki: Evil Dead Trap 2 (dir. Izo Hashimoto, 1992)

Intolerable Cruelty (dir. Joel & Ethan Coen, 2003)*

Dellamorte dellamore (dir. Michele Soavi, 1994)

09/01/05

Yu-Gi-Oh: The Movie (Hatsuki Tsuji, 2004)*

Ted Bundy (dir. Matthew Bright, 2002)

10/01/05

Boogiepop and Others (dir. Ryu Kaneda, 2000)

11/01/05

The Crimson Rivers (dir. Matthieu Kassovitz, 2000)

Shadow of the Vampire (dir. E Elias Merhige, 2000)

12/01/05

Alive (dir. Ryuhei Kitamura, 2002)*

The Others (dir. Alejandro Amenabar, 2001)

13/01/05

Cure (dir. Kiyoshi Kurosawa, 1997)

Kichiku Dai Enkai (dir. Kazuyoshi Kumakiri, 1997)*

14/01/05

Bruce Almighty (dir. Tom Shadyac, 2003)*

The Trollenberg Terror (dir. Quentin Lawrence, 1958)*

Dug out a lot of old favourites this week. Thoroughly enjoyed The Trollenberg Terror (a.k.a. The Crawling Eye), even if it's not quite as stunning as the Quatermass films. Still quality entertainment though.

Disappointed by both Alive and Kichiku Dai Enkai, although I'm hoping Azumi (soon to arrive, fingers crossed) evens things up for Kitamura.

Bruce Almighty is an absolute pile of crap. Outside of The Truman Show and possibly The Majestic, Carrey's career is one abortion after another. I didn't mind seeing him get killed in the last Dirty Harry movie, it must be said.

[the night watchman]

[beltmann]

1/10 ? 1/16/05

In preferential order:

The Lumiere Brothers' First Films (Tavernier, France 1996)

The Fall of the House of Usher (Epstein, France 1928)

In July (Akin, Germany 2000)

L'Age d'Or (The Golden Age) (Bunuel, France 1930)

House of Flying Daggers (Zhang, China 2004)

The Front (Ritt, USA 1976)

Master of the House (Dreyer, Denmark 1925)

Cobb (Shelton, USA 1994)

The Erlking (Zelkowicz, USA 2003)

The Holy Land (Gorlin, Israel 2001)

Ju-On: The Grudge (Shimizu, Japan 2003)

Tavernier?s not actually credited with directing The Lumiere Brothers? First Films, but he functions as our guide. The documentary is a collection of their short actualities?most are familiar, but there are some rare ones I had never seen before?ordered sometimes by chronology but usually by theme (such as ?France at Work?). Tavernier supplies an ongoing narration throughout, making perceptive observations about what we?re seeing on screen, consistently drawing attention to the unnoticed corners, the impeccable composition, and the inescapable presence of a directorial hand; he capably debunks the idea that these ?actualities? were anything but staged entertainments. Best of all, Tavernier?s enthusiastic conversation is filled with an infectious sense of play. (His giddiness is punctuated with squeals of ?Here?s the best part!? At one point we see French soldiers ineptly practice leaping onto a horse while others goof around in the foreground, and Tavernier dryly says, ?By just watching this film, you can see why we lost so many wars.?)

I finally got around to seeing the original Grudge, and I continue to be unimpressed with Japanese horror. In my opinion, Audition, Cure and especially Ringu are some of the most overrated horror films I?ve ever seen, and while The Grudge is definitely okay?it earns some of its more disquieting moments?it still doesn?t amount to much. (As far as this sort of thing goes, I?m a big fan of South Korea?s Memento Mori. In that one, the school environment takes center stage?really, it?s a horror picture about the horror of being a teenage girl?and the evocation is totally convincing. Best of all, the movie uses its horror premise as a metaphor for how the end of a relationship can sometimes feel like a form of death. Maybe I?m missing something?and I concede that I?m not as well-versed in the genre as I should be?but I just haven?t discovered the same resonance in most of the ?masterpieces? of current Japanese horror.)

L?Age d?Or is every bit deserving of its reputation as a surrealist masterpiece, but I have reservations that are directly related to that status?what, exactly, is the surrealists? answer to hypocrisy and repressive social conventions? Chaos and obnoxious provocations do not make a revolution; willful affronts to decorum say more about the offender than the offended. That said, I laughed an awful lot throughout the entire thing. I especially loved how the two lovebirds throw caution to the wind merely upon sight, leading to the most hilarious reaction shot I saw all week: Left alone with her lust, the girl takes to sucking the toe of a marble statue, and Bunuel cuts to the statue?s stone face.

House of Flying Daggers is beautiful and terrific fun, but it lacks the political and philosophical heft of Hero.

Dreyer?s Master of the House has not dated well. A Danish businessman treats his wife with contempt and arrogance, so her mother and nanny conspire to teach him a lesson: They whisk the wife away and hide her under the pretense of curing an illness in "the country," and then turn his home upside down. (Even his kids are in on the scheme.) The idea is two-fold: To get him to see himself through the eyes of others (not pretty), and to get him to understand just how hard his wife works to keep him happy. It's all expertly directed (and takes place almost entirely within a tiny apartment), but it's also all rather mean-spirited and didactic; this kind of superficial gender warfare just doesn't play well today, especially since it?s intended as comedy.

On the strength of Head-On, I checked out Fatih Akin?s earlier In July and am now convinced that he might be one of the most passionate, accomplished filmmakers alive. Flipsiders, see this movie! Consider it homework.

Eric
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"When I was in Barcelona they showed pornography on regular television. I'm assuming it's the same way in Mexico since they also speak Spanish." - IMDb user comment

[beltmann]

[the night watchman]

An even greater mystery.

Thanks for bringing that out into the open, Eric. I will finally be able to sleep at night.

[beltmann]

[Jim Harper]

[beltmann]

[Jim Harper]