Drugstore Cowboy (rewatch)

I’ve seen this umpteen times and I just never get tired of it.  In my opinion, it’s the best drug movie ever, the polar opposite of utter garbage like Requiem for a Dream.  The film tells the story entirely without judgment, without glorifying or demonizing, but rather depicting addiction as a rather matter-of-fact element of these characters’ lives.  It’s also Matt Dillon’s finest role (although I admit there’s a lot of his work I haven’t seen), and having William S. Burroughs doesn’t hurt anything either.  Rating: 9

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Live Free Or Die Hard

It’s a lot like any other Die Hard film, except worse.  The scenario and the stunts are so absurdly over-the-top, it’s as if they tried to one-up the previous movie by going bigger, rather than smarter.  The dialogue is terrible, even more so than usual.  And my lord, the spastic editing was annoying as hell.  I counted 35 cuts in one minute — and that was a minute of nothing but expository dialogue.  And I certainly didn’t want to spend 2 hours with the awful little brat from the Macintosh ads.  But overall, it’s pretty much what you expect from Die Hard.  Some of the special effects looked really fake, but maybe that’s just because they were so damn implausible to begin with.  Rating: 5

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Who’s Camus Anyway? (rewatch)

I was a little worried that I wouldn’t like this as much on the second viewing, but if anything, I’ve become even more smitten with it.  I would love to see more of Yanagimachi’s work, but it seems to be impossible to find.  Rating: 9

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Three Colors: Red (rewatch)

I’ve warmed up to this one a little more.  In a way, it’s the perfect summation of Kieslowski, with all the doubling, connectedness, coincidence, exploration of humanity, and cinematic expertise.  I still think Irene Jacob is a little bland, but she’s growing on me.  Rating: 9

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Three Colors: White (rewatch)

There are a number of problems with White.  It’s the least impressive of the trilogy from an aesthetic standpoint.  Delpy’s attitude at the beginning is unconvincing.  It doesn’t really uphold the theme of “equality” that well.  And the plot’s climax is preposterous.  But I still like it.  Zbigniew Zamachowski carries the film well, making his character interesting and entertaining.  The light comedy serves the trilogy well, especially coming after heavy drama of Blue.  It’s got a fun, vibrant story, even if it’s not entirely plausible.  Rating: 7

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Three Colors: Blue (rewatch)

I’m going to be doing a LOT of re-watching over the next month or so, so a lot of these comments will probably be brief.  Usually I don’t have much to add for something I’ve already reviewed.  Blue is my favorite Kieslowski, it’s such a masterful blend of thoughtful ideas, powerful emotion, believable characters, exquisite beauty, music and style.  It was only on the second viewing that I noticed the brief scene from White making an appearance, a wonderful manifestation of his love for interconnectedness.  It pains me that he didn’t live to do his Heaven/Hell/Purgatory trilogy, or who knows what else he might have come up with.  Rating: 10

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Cría Cuervos

I know that far too often I end up reviewing movies by comparing them to other movies, but in this case I can’t help it.  It’s a mid-70′s Spanish movie starring Ana Torrent, told from the child’s perspective, with subtle elements of fantasy and a distinct allegory regarding the fascist regime.  How can I NOT think of Spirit of the Beehive?  And while I do like Beehive more (it’s lovelier and more touching) this one is pretty good.  It didn’t worm its way into my heart the same way, but I did enjoy watching it.  The device of using Geraldine Chaplin to play both Ana’s mother and the “adult” Ana is very intriguing — is adult Ana really speaking to us from the future, or is it Ana imagining herself becoming her mother?  I honestly think the film works just fine without examining the political commentary, although I’m sure that message was quite meaningful to Spaniards in 1975.   Rating: 8

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Jackass 2.5

You can’t expect much from a movie that’s made entirely out of bits that weren’t good enough for another movie, especially when the other movie wasn’t all that great to begin with.  It is fun to watch these guys fearlessly make utter asses out of themselves and each other, but there aren’t many nuggets of gold here.  The “Jackass” gang is at their best when they let others laugh at them (for example, the golfing scene), and at their worst when they drag innocents down with them (the construction site).  Rating: 5

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Tokyo Twilight

Ozu continually returns to familiar territory: same actors, same camera style, similar characters, similar subject matter, similar music, and even similar titles.  But it can rarely be dismissed as remaking the same movie over and over again (although he has remade his own movies).  For the most part, each one has a distinctiveness to it, and one element or another in the Ozu stew is tweaked.  In Tokyo Twilight, it starts out like any of the others but gradually reveals itself to be a much darker and more overtly dramatic film than the others I’ve seen.  It’s almost shocking to see characters confront each other so boldly in an Ozu film.  Shocking, but refreshing.  Although I’m not fanatical about Ozu, he really is growing on me lately.  Rating: 8 

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A Long Weekend in Pest and Buda

The same director and lead actors as Szerelem, but not as good.  Again there are the political undertones, but to be honest, I’ve had enough of that.  I think about 95% of the Eastern European films I’ve seen have had political undertones.  And in this case, they’re nothing new or special or interesting.  What’s left is a passable but somewhat mundane family drama.  I previously said that Szerelem has the austerity of a Bergman picture; this one has a similar vibe, although it’s a bit too distanced and moody.  The light jazz score is pure cheese… I kept expecting a softcore porn scene to break out at any moment.  Rating: 6

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