Flipside Movie Emporium

[Jim Harper]

[beltmann]

[the night watchman]

[beltmann]

1/31 ? 2/6/05

The Chronicles of Riddick (Twohy, USA 2004)

The Pink Panther (Edwards, USA 1964)

Sweet Sweetback's Baad Asssss Song (Van Peebles, USA 1971)

3 Godfathers (Ford, USA 1948)

Sexual Dependency (Bellott, Bolivia 2003)

plus a bunch of shorts:

Olympic Events (McCarey, USA 1932)

Opening Day (Rowland, USA 1938)

The Greener Hills (Lee, USA 1939)

The Screen Director (None credited, USA 1951)

The Two Barks Brothers (Myers and White, USA 1931)

Pitcairn Island Today (Roth, USA 1935)

Important Business (Jason, USA 1944)

The Divine Woman [fragment only] (Sjostrom, USA 1928)

Sexual Dependency employs a fascinating split screen technique that constantly questions how we emphasize details in narrative fiction, but ultimately it has nothing insightful to say about teenagers and their sexual awakenings/confusion/identity. I most enjoyed Ford?s 3 Godfathers, an unconventional desert Western that is about the importance of water at least as much as John Wayne playing a hapless caregiver. It seamlessly shifts between tones, and includes a sincere view of death that tempers some of the more aw-shucks Western action.

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

[the night watchman]

1/31/05-2/6/05

Got my Twilight Zone ?85-?86 box set, and?ve been watching the hell out of that this week instead of movies. I?ll do my damnedest to try and see Million Dollar Baby next week, not only because I want to see it, but because I want to read about the ?controversy.? However, I did get a chance to finally see:

The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou (W. Anderson, 2004) - Life Aquatic?s detractors find its tone too ironic, detached, or just weird or weird? sake, but I laughed an awful lot. More importantly, the movie delivers a snap of poignancy when you least expect it; I didn?t realize how much I actually cared for these people until the movie sucker-punched me. I found truth in Steve?s melancholy sort of satisfaction at the end; he may not be any happier about his life or where he?s ended up in it, but he finally finds himself in a position to look back on it and appreciate the chance he?s had to live it. Regarding life skewways like this brings down our barriers and expectations, and allows us discern an aspect of the human condition we might have otherwise overlooked. In an odd way, this makes for a good companion piece to About Schmidt. I think this is my favorite Wes Anderson picture so far, though I haven?t watched Rushmore in too many years.
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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

[Michael Scrutchin]

[beltmann]

[mfritschel]

Ray (Hackford, 2004)

Finding Neverland (Forester, 2004)

The Twiligh Samurai (Yamada, 2004)

Out of these three Ray was by far the best and my favorite, while I cannot quite agree with Mr. Header but out of all the films nominated for best picture Finding Neverland is by far the weakest. Although it was a well put together movie and at time emotional and enjoyable, overall it was a bit flat and predictable.

[Jim Harper]

This week's viewing:

Tomie: Replay (dir. Tomijiro Mitsuishi, 2000)

Kakashi (dir. Norio Tsuruta, 2001)

Tomie the Final Chapter: Forbidden Fruit (dir. Shun Nakahara, 2002)

S?ance (dir. Kiyoshi Kurosawa, 2000)

The Seventh Victim (dir. Mark Robson, 1943)*

A Snake of June (dir. Shinya Tsukamoto, 2002)*

Living Hell (dir. Shugo Fujii, 2000)

Doppelganger (dir. Kiyoshi Kurosawa, 2003)*

Aragami (dir. Ryuhei Kitamura, 2003)*

Not a great week of viewing. Tomie: Replay is still the best of the series and pretty entertaining. A Snake of June, Doppelganger and Aragami were all worthy of respect, but not necessarily enjoyable. Aragami shows Kitamura trying to move beyond the Versus model, but it's not as good as 2LDK, it's partner project. Doppelganger is a decent enough effort, but I'm not sure Kurosawa is particularly well suited to comedy. Interesting film, but I'm unlikely to watch it again.

[beltmann]

[Danny Baldwin]

Those were my feelings exactly. However, it's hard to seperate Foxx's work from the movie as a whole. As cliched as I thought it was, I couldn't help but often get into the music and his work.
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Danny Baldwin

View My Reviews

[Monkeypox]

[Michael Scrutchin]

Feb. 1 to Feb. 7, 2005:

[beltmann]

[Danny Baldwin]

I think Maggie's family is one of the strongest elements of Million Dollar Baby. Much of the reason why she is such a great protagonist is because of her ability to overcome her surroundings. There are many, many people just like her family.
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Danny Baldwin

View My Reviews