Flipside Movie Emporium

[beltmann]

[Danny Baldwin]

The exact same for me and my dad with Undisputed.
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Danny Baldwin

View My Reviews

[beltmann]

4/26 ? 5/2/04

Carnages (Gleize, France 2002)

Midnight (Leisen 1939)

The Big Animal (Stuhr, Poland 2000)

Jap?n (Reygadas, Mexico 2002)

Mean Girls (Waters 2004)

Nightmusic (Brakhage 1986)

Rage Net (Brakhage 1988)

Mona Lisa Smile (Newell 2003)

Dogville (Von Trier, Denmark 2003)

Dirtie Basterdz (Gleize, France 1998)

A Castle in Spain (Gleize, France 1999)

I was struck by how skillfully Gleize reduced the function of plot and script in Carnages?she gets the movie floating by on visual and thematic rhymes. The Big Animal and Jap?n both carry impressive cinematic pedigrees (the first was scripted by Kieslowski before he died, the second has been hailed as part of the recent Mexican renaissance), but I?d argue that both are slight pictures that primarily coast on cachet.

I?m not sure I can think of two more divergent pictures than Mona Lisa Smile and Dogville?one features overly simplistic representations, while the other manufactures a dense, complex system of symbols and metaphors?yet to me they tread common ground: Both are mired in dubious and borderline intractable gender and moral politics.

As the townspeople in Dogville become convinced their generosity entitles them to debase ?Grace,? it?s tempting to read the film as a critique of how the U.S. extends international assistance but then uses that aid as leverage?as if our charity entitles us to assimilate or enslave entire cultures. Quite honestly, though, I was far more willing to read the film as a universal parable about Puritan cruelties and the insidious nature of droit de signeur practices, primarily because Von Trier?s political coding is too muddled to really say much of anything. Considered as mere parable, Dogville, which uses its artificial setting to great aesthetic advantage, is probably some kind of bold, provocative genius. Unfortunately, the final chapter, which seems to suggest that only circumstance separates victims from victimizers, is more difficult to justify and is much easier to read as boneheaded allegory. And the closing montage, which features photos of real Depression-era suffering, is entirely inappropriate.

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

[stefanieduckwitz]

Battling Butler

The Day The Earth Stood Still

Saving Private Ryan

Ghost World

Gettysburg

The Haunted Mansion
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Stefanie Duckwitz

[The Third M?n]

This week I've seen:

Schindler's List ~ 10

Jules et Jim ~ 10

Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind ~ 10

Blazing Saddles~ 8

As for Schindler's List (I finally saw it):

A ravishing, majestic and gloriously filmed portrayal of the Holocaust, Spielberg's unrepeatable film plunges you right in the middle of the chaos of something that should never occur again. Liam Neeson gives a subtle performance as Oskar Schindler, the man whose inner strength made him save the lives of countless Jews. This is a film as unflinching as they come, both horrific and brutal, but exceedingly rewarding in the end. Spielberg's direction is well-handled, showing us the events as they were, with a serene, honest sight, John William's sweeping score is moving and brilliant and Janusz Kaminski's cinematography is some of the finest I have ever come to witness.

Schindler's List is not a film that you can "like" -- like all good art, it is a film that you admire and appreciate above all, a work that has left a prfound scar within you, and will most likely never fade. This is a film which opens your eyes.

[Fred C. Dobbs]

[Hawkwing74]

Cyborg 2 1/2 star out of five.

This movie was shockingly bad in every way. The lighting, scenery, special effects, plot, dialogue, everything! Was this a college film project? Probably not, it wouldn't have been this bad.

Even Angelina Jolie couldn't save this movie...

[matt header]

[beltmann]

[Danny Baldwin]

I skipped the thread last week, so here's 14 days worth:

Beyond Borders (Campell, 2004)

REPEAT | Kill Bill: Volume One (Tarantino, 2003)

Criminal Lovers (Ozon, 1999)

Duplex (De Vito, 2003)

13 Going on 30 (Winick, 2004)

Bram Stroker's Dracula (Coppola, 1991)

Mean Girls (Waters, 2004)

Man on Fire (Scott, 2004)

Win a Date with Tad Hamilton! (Luketic, 2004)

Of those, I would recommend Kill Bill, Criminal Lovers, Duplex, 13 Going on 30, and Man on Fire. I was amazed at how well-recieved Mean Girls was, because it felt like a sick and perverted excercise to me, much like what everyone else made The Girl Next Door to be, a few weeks ago. Bleh.
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Danny Baldwin

View My Reviews

[beltmann]

I thought Mean Girls was infinitely sharper and wiser than Girl Next Door. My only complaint is that the satire goes a bit limp before the end.

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

[mfritschel]

Bend it Like Beckham (Chadha) - This movie was entirely disappointing, and I feel missed the point it was trying to make entirely. Although it took and tried to make a very pro feminist, break down the walls and everyone become more acceptant of each other, it missed the point entirely. Lets take the way the girls soccer team is portrayed while practicing, all running around in sports bra's obeying their male coaches every wish. Two of the girls even admittely have crushes on the male coach and spend half of the movie fighting over him. Instead of trying to empower women by having displaying them as capable female athletes, the movie essentially sexualizes its female characters and has the center of the team revolve around a male. I may be coming a little out of left field on this one, but sometimes these themes were just a little too much to take. Not to mention the film takes a very formulaic approach to its topic, and follows the old cultural take of one can learn more about their culture only if they portrary the members of it as completely out of wack and absurd, to the point of entertaining, see My Big Fat Greek Wedding. All in all this accomplished for soccer and femine power the same that Bring it On did for cheerleading.

Dogville (Von Trier) - Whether the movie works as an attack on american colonialism, disparity between the classes, or the feutality of life I have yet to decide, in all actuality it seems to work on all levels in one way or another. I agree the movie is some type of genius and I can recoginze that, yet I still can't quite pinpoint it. It was entertaining, I love the format, and did not really seem to mind the pacing as so many other critics seem to have criticized it for. It seems for certain that the movie does have a very hard edge anti-american attitude, however one can even go as far and assume that these traits reflected supposedly by Americans can really be assigned to all of humanit, but Von Trier's use of american symbolism is just too over whealming to persuade one that they were ment to be taken as such.

Ararat (Egoyan) - The movie works on so many different levels and achieves success on many of them. However, I missed completely the significance of the son being held up for possession of drugs. Was it just to further reiterate the story of his people, and if so doesn't the movie do this? Was it because he was trying to reestablish a connection with his people, or a type of bond with others, ie the customs agent. Or rather just to show how all life in interrelated and everyone is connected. Maybe it was suppose to work on all these levels, but I just didn't find this connection as clearly defined as the others, then again maybe that was the point. But if that is the case, it doesn't really seem to fall in line with the rest of the movies and almost feels out of wack.

[matt header]

[Fred C. Dobbs]

[beltmann]