Saturday, June 16, 2012

All of Cannes 2012 In a Post (Apologies to Ray Bradbury Fans)

141) Moonrise Kingdom (2012) Dir: Wes Anderson Date Released: May 25, 2012 Date Seen: May 16, 2012 Rating: 4.25/5

142) After the Battle (2012) Dir: Yousry Nasrallah Not Yet Released Date Seen: May 16, 2012 Rating:  2.25/5

143) Rust and Bone (2012) Dir: Jacques Audiard Not Yet Released Date Seen: May 17, 2012 Rating: 1.75/5

144) Polluting Paradise (2012) Dir: Fatih Akin Not Yet Released Date Seen: May 17, 2012 Rating: 2.25/5

145) Mekong Hotel (2012) Dir: Apichatpong Weerasethakul Not Yet Released Date Seen: May 17, 2012 Rating: 4.25/5

146) The We and the I (2012) Dir: Michel Gondry Not Yet Released Date Seen: May 17, 2012 Rating:  3.5/5

147) Paradise: Love (2012) Dir: Ulriech Seidl Not Yet Released Date Seen: May 17, 2012 Rating: 2/5

Much more after the jump!





148) Reality (2012) Dir: Matteo Garrone Not Yet Released Date Seen: May 18, 2012 Rating: 3.75/5

149) Home: The House Imp (2012) Dir: Seiji Izumi Not Yet Released Date Seen: May 18, 2012 Rating: 2.75/5

RV!: Once Upon a Time in America (1984) Dir: Sergio Leone Date Released: February 17, 1984 Date Seen: May 18, 2012 Rating: 4.75/5

150) Antiviral (2012) Dir: Brandon Cronenberg Not Yet Released Date Seen: May 19, 2012 Rating: 3.25/5

151) The Ring (1927) Dir: Alfred Hitchcock Not Yet Released (?) Date Seen: May 19, 2012 Rating: 3.75/5

152) Into the Night (2012) Dir: Raul Ruiz Not Yet Released Date Seen: May 19, 2012 Rating: 4.5/5

153) Amour (2012) Dir: Michael Haneke Not Yet Released Date Seen: May 20, 2012 Rating: 3.75/5

154) Lawless (2012) Dir John Hillcoat Date Released: August 29, 2012 Date Seen: May 20, 2012 Rating: 3.5/5

155) Like Someone in Love (2012) Dir: Abbas Kiarostami Not Yet Released Date Seen: May 20, 2012 Rating: 4/5

156) You Ain't Seen Nothing Yet (2012) Dir: Alain Resnais Not Yet Released Date Seen: May 21, 2012 Rating: 4.25/5

157) Barbara (2012) Dir: Christian Petzold Not Yet Released Date Seen: May 21, 2012 Rating: 4/5

158) The Hunt (2012) Dir: Thomas Vinterberg Not Yet Released Date Seen: May 21, 2012 Rating: 1.5/5

159) The Angels' Share (2012) Dir: Ken Loach Not Yet Released Date Seen: May 21, 2012 Rating: 2.25/5

160) Killing Them Softly (2012) Dir: Andrew Dominik Date Released: September 21, 2012 Date Seen: May 22, 2012 Rating: 3.75/5

161) For Love's Sake (2012) Dir: Takashi Miike Not Yet Released Date Seen: May 22, 2012 Rating: 3/5

162) You and I (2012) Dir: Bernardo Bertolucci Not Yet Released Date Seen: May 22, 2012 Rating: 2/5

163) On the Road (2012) Dir: Walter Salles Not Yet Released Date Seen: May 23, 2012 Rating: 1.75/5

164) Holy Motors (2012) Dir: Leos Carax Not Yet Released Date Seen: May 23, 2012 Rating: 4.5/5

165) In Another Country (2012) Dir: Sang-soo Hong Not Yet Released Date Seen: May 23, 2012 Rating: 3.75/5

166) Post Tenebras Lux (2012) Dir: Carlos Reygadas Not Yet Released Date Seen: May 23, 2012 Rating: 2.75/5

167) The Paperboy (2012) Dir: Lee Daniels Not Yet Released Date Seen: May 24, 2012 Rating: 1.5/5

168) Dario Argento's Dracula (2012) Dir: Dario Argento (duh) Not Yet Released (thank heaven) Date Seen: May 24, 2012 Rating: 0.5/5

ISF: Walker (2012) Dir: Ming-laing Tsai Not Yet Released Date Seen: May 24, 2012 Rating: 4/5

ISF: Saint Anthony's Day (2011) Dir: Joao Pedro Rodrigues Date Seen: May 24, 2012 Rating: 3.75/5

169) Cosmopolis (2012) Dir: David Cronenberg Date Seen: August 17, 2012 Date Seen: May 25, 2012 Rating: 4.5/5

170) 11/25: The Day He Chose His Own Fate (2012) Dir: Koji Wakamatsu Not Yet Released Date Seen: May 25, 2012 Rating: 3.5/5

171) The Taste of Money (2012) Dir: Sang-soo Im Hopefully Never to be Released Date Seen: May 25, 2012 Rating: 1.25/5

172) Mud (2012) Dir: Jeff Nichols Not Yet Released Date Seen: May 26, 2012 Rating: 2.25/5

173) Therese Desqueyroux (2012) Dir: Claude Miller Not Yet Released Date Seen: May 26, 2012 Rating: 2.5/5

174) Beyond the Hills (2012) Dir: Cristian Mungiu Not Yet Released Date Seen: May 26, 2012 Rating: 3.25/5

Phew. Didn't see as many films as I did last year but I did see quite a lot, as you can tell. So what I'm going to do for the sake of my sanity is provide you with my tweet reviews for the films I didn't fully cover and give you links to the pieces I did I write (tweet grades do not reflect how I currently feel about the film). Here they are on a film-by-film basis (arranged based on when I saw the film, not alphabetically):

Moonrise Kingdom--review for Press Play.

After the Battle--"overly mannered, wish fulfillment politics make the drama in this one totally nonsensical, shrill, inert. Non-starter. C-."

Rust and Bone--"insanely tacky, contrived melodrama, constantly patronizing and full of ludicrous, self-serious characterizations. D."

Polluting Paradise--"Fatih Akin's eco-doc is less about activism than it is about establishing a sense of community. Inert but eccentric. C."

Mekong Hotel--review for Press Play.

The We and the I--review for Press Play, interviews for the Playlist here and here.

Paradise: Love--"Siedl's [sic] targets are too grotesquely easy. Insubstantial shades of nuance to film's parody of race relations. Draining. D."

Reality--"Garrone, you magnificent bastard, I've read your playbook! Garrone once again affectionately sends up Palermo [sic] to great effect. A-." (Editor's Note: Least helpful tweet review ever? Basically, what I liked was seeing Garrone treat his deranged reality-TV obsessed character as a headcase while never condescending to him. I love that there's a serious need inherent in the lead protag's quest to slavishly follow his dream to be on TV. And the fact that the film's score evokes John Williams, specifically his score for Close Encounters of the Third Kind, makes me love this film all the more.).

Home: The House Imp--I can't seem to find my tweet review of this movie (words never hitherto seriously uttered by a grown man). Perfectly pleasant, if exceedingly soggy and largely incompetent family melodrama coasts on atmosphere. I could watch it, basically.

Once Upon a Time in America--review for Press Play.

Antiviral--review for Press Play.

The Ring--"Hitchcock's silent 1927 boxing melodrama has plenty of signs of his genius (ex: everything w/the bracelet). Great live music! B+."

Into the Night--"Ruiz's last film is enchantingly beguiling, as goofy as that sounds. TIME REGAINED meets THAT DAY. Wonderful. A."

Amour--review for Press Play.

Lawless--excerpts from my interview with John Hillcoat for the Playlist. But basically: Nick Cave's operatic sense of "sentimentality and brute violence," to quote him from an earlier interview," makes this ganster pic appreciably eccentric. Cave and Hillcoat once again dabble with the archetypes that their self-mythologizing characters adopt. But they don't go far enough to reach the heights they scaled by The Proposition.

Like Someone in Love--"Thematically similar to CERTIFIED COPY but the characters aren't as interesting, first 70-80 sluggish. Still: B+."

You Ain't Seen Nothing Yet--"Resnais's moving, typically innovative treatise on love and death is very exciting indeed. Gobsmacked. A-."

Barbara--"Now that's more like it. Another winner from Christian Petzold, whose knack for spare neo-noirs is a thing of beauty. A-."

The Hunt--"Oh, you gotta be kidding me. Thomas Vinterberg's latest is ugly and schematic drama until it's just obnoxious and unconvincing. F."

The Angels' Share--review for the Playlist.

Killing Them Softly--review for Press Play.

For Love's Sake--"Even as a Miike-head, I found this trying. Fun but wildly inconsistent, esp. when it gets to CROWS 0 territory. C+."

You and I--Can't find my Twitter review (again). Disaffected teen protags are sympathetic but don't have enough depth to 'em. I wanted a lot more than Bertolucci gave, basically.

On the Road--review for Press Play.

Holy Motors--"The Super-Carax film. Champions cinema (as film) as constant movement and mourns its impending (?!) death. Crazy but moving. A."

In Another Country--Another missing tweetview. Perfectly decent and appreciably well-structured variation Hong's usual themes is entertaining throughout. No new ground broken and main theme of, "Be careful what you wish for," is a bit trite. But still, I had fun.

Post Tenebras Lux--review for the Playlist.

The Paperboy--review for Press Play.

Dario Argento's Dracula--"Ayiyi, Dario, whoa-hoppened?! Not even Rutger Hauer, a giant praying mantis and boobies can save this stinker. F."

Walker--"New Tsai short is one-note on paper but srsly entrancing. Lee Kang-sheng walks in slow-motion into the future. Sam Hui ftw! A-."

Saint Anthony's Day--"New JP Rodrigues short is hyper-composed but never distractingly so. Stumbling around on the morning after: funny. A-."

Cosmopolis--review for the Playlist.

11/25: The Day He Chose His Own Fate--review for Press Play.

The Taste of Money--review for Press Play.

Mud--review for the Playlist.

Therese Desqueyroux--review for the Playlist.

Beyond the Hills--"Mungiu's follow-up to 4 MONTHS is brittle but not as simplistic as I'd been led to believe. Still, drama's inert. C+."


















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