Flipside Movie Emporium

[beltmann]

[Danny Baldwin]

11/23 - 11/29

FahrenHYPE 9/11 (Peterson, 2004)

Finding Neverland (Forster, 2004)

Alexander (Stone, 2004)

Christmas with the Kranks (Roth, 2004)

Many repeats of older films this week--assured greatness was too tempting for me to not buy into--I was forced to take the guaranteed bet over anything that I might dislike.

FahrenHYPE 9/11 is a point-for-point rebuddle to Michael Moore's film, and works well, considering what it wants to do. Some of the many revelations in Peterson's film are stunning, while others less effective. However, all of the interviews (aside from those with Dick Morris), simply cheerlead the Republican Party, and serve no real purpose. I would've been equally involved had the facts been written on paper.

Alexander is overacted and entirely a mess, although I was never bored by it. To its credit, it has two amazing action sequences. However, I can't help but think about the fact that a lot of the history in Ptolemy's narration seems more interesting than that which is actually acted out, here. There are two new bents on this telling of the story of Alexander the Great that are different from the average documentary on the prominent historical figure, and both of them are very disagreeable.

Finding Neverland was a lot less melodramatic than I expected, and, enchants in its own sort of imaginative, everyday kind of way. Christmas with the Kranks aims for this, but falls way short. Has the modern-day Hollywood writer now decided that Christmas films are best made about people who are mentally ill and need some holiday spirit to cure them? I can deal with contrivance, usually, but characters don't just transform over a few weeks' time when nothing really happens to them!
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Danny Baldwin

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[matt header]

[beltmann]

[matt header]

I have, and I too loved it, but it was the first Altman film I saw, which was quite a while back. I should take another look.

There are many classic movies of his that I have yet to see: Nashville, McCabe & Mrs. Miller, 3 Women, The Long Goodbye, and the most glaring omission of all, Popeye.
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"I don't like talking to people I know, but strangers I have no problem with." -- Larry David, "Curb Your Enthusiasm"

[the night watchman]

[beltmann]

11/29 ? 12/5/04

Tom Dowd and the Language of Music (Moormann, USA 2004)

Kinsey (Condon, USA 2004)

The Motorcycle Diaries (Salles, Argentina 2004)

A Day Without a Mexican (Arau, USA 2004)

The Saddest Music in the World (Maddin, Canada 2004)

I don?t think Kinsey qualifies as accurate history, but it seems na?ve to measure a biopic by the ruler of journalism?isn't the entire history of biopics built around transforming lives into fictional, issue-oriented drama? I confess I had misgivings about what Condon has to say about Kinsey and sex in general, but ultimately those doubts work in its favor: What?s the last mainstream movie to tackle sex as a serious subject? Our culture is saturated with sex?consider sitcoms, pop music, advertising?and we're comfortable with that, as long as it retains a childish, juvenile shape. That helps explain why no one bats an eye at American Pie, but when something like Kinsey comes along and wants to jumpstart mature discourse about sex, the whole culture suddenly starts crying corruption.

And the fizzy The Saddest Music in the World is pure bug beauty.

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

[Michael Scrutchin]

For the record, I think Altman's Popeye is really something special -- just wonderfully bizarre, unlike anything else I can think of. I last saw it about a year or two ago (probably inspired to do so by Punch-Drunk Love's lovely use of "He Needs Me") and I had a blast. I still have a lot of Altman to catch up on, but I absolutely adore Nashville. It's been ages since I saw The Player, so I'll give it a revisit soon.
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Michael Scrutchin
Flipside Movie Emporium
www.flipsidearchive.com

[Mark Dujsik]

11/29 - 12/5

After the Sunset (Ratner, 2004): Review

Alexander (Stone, 2004): Review

Closer (Nichols, 2004): Working on review. I really liked this, though. Great dialogue and acting, and although the characters aren't likable, they aren't hateable either due to some nice, subtle development. Clive Owen has a great scene that'll surely be his Oscar clip.

National Treasure (Turteltaub, 2004): Review

Spider-Man 2 (Raimi, 2004) (repeat): Review
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"Film lovers are sick people."

--Francois Truffaut

10 Best Films of 2006

Mark Reviews Movies

[Danny Baldwin]

11/30 - 12/6

I had a project to do and a family gathering to attend, so that limited my viewing to the following two disappointments, and a repeat viewing of the 2004 version of Dawn of the Dead. I still need to see Closer, badly, but between neither of my parents wanting to see it and the closest theatre playing it being twenty miles away, I may have to wait for DVD, unfortunately. I guess I'll have winter break to try to get to it.

I'll Sleep when I'm Dead (Hodges, 2004) - Much of the time, this is memerizing, both in tone and pacing. It is very slow, and usually involving. However, like in so many Hollywood thrillers, it's lacking any emotional resonance. Just because Hodges' approach is more shocking than that of the typical director doesn't make it more meaningful.

Election (Payne, 1999) - This is my least favorite of the three Alexander Payne films that I have seen, by a longshot. Inspired moments are few and far between. Its satire plays with the standard cliches of movies about elections, but it often seems as though it is embracing them, and not really poking fun at them. It has a dark way of making the viewer feel uncomfortable, but not for the sake of huge eruptions of laughter, and that made me question its intent. I realize I'm in the minority, but even with the substancial amount of cleverness, it didn't really work for me.
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Danny Baldwin

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[Michael Scrutchin]

[Danny Baldwin]

[beltmann]

[Mark Dujsik]

[xAndyx]