I Dunno, You Tell Me

208) What Have I Done to Deserve This? (1984) Dir: Pedro Almodovar Date Released: March 10, 1985 Date Seen: July 3, 2012 Rating: 3.75/5

210) Fair Game (1986) Dir: Mario Andreacchio Not Yet Released (?!) Date Seen: July 3, 2012 Rating: 3/5

I had to finish watching a documentary for work in-between these two films but these two films were basically my Fourth of July holiday viewing. The Almodovar film is actually pretty thoughtful, in its own self-consciously kitschy way. I especially like that the film's domestic comedy, which is a more daftly melo-dramatic and goofily comedic fore-runner to All About My Mother, boils down to one sentiment: you can't hold a family together if its individual members don't want to stay. For example, the fact that the perilously young rent-boy in training can leave when he wants and return when he chooses shows you the weirdly hard moral to this otherwise absurd comedy. In other words, no matter how silly the film may be superficially, it is ethically sound on a rather basic level. I like that.

Fair Game isn't nearly as thoughtful. The film that famously inspired the living-girl-as-hood-ornament stunt scenes in Deathproof is rather poorly paced and a mostly unremarkable, though infrequently tense, pot-boiler. Sometimes, I gotta admit: a film is a cult object because it's just not that great. Not that bad either, but eh, not for me.

RV!: The Skin I Live In (2011) and 411) Real Steel (2011)

RV!: The Skin I Live In (2011) Dir: Pedro Almodovar Date Released: October 14, 2011 Date Seen: October 4, 2011 Rating: 4.25/5

411) Real Steel (2011) Dir: Shawn Levy Date Released: October 14, 2011 Date Seen: October 16, 2011 Rating: 1.75/5

This is pretty much my 2011 in a nutshell: veddy high highs, periously low lows. See my reviews for Nomad Wide Screen.

234) Kika (1993)

234) Kika (1993) Dir: Pedro Almodovar Date Released: May 6, 1994 Date Seen: June 4, 2011 Rating: 2/5

Huh, now I know why this one isn't talked about much. Pretty sloppy and scattologically broad in parts, culminating in that awful spunk gag. Tacky though sometimes, if you look at it cock-eyed and with one hand on your left eye, it does look like a weird prototype for All About My Mother.

Cannes Round-up! Cannes Round-up! Rock Lobster! I mean, Cannes Round-up!

Because there's no way I could fit all the titles of the films for this post in a single headline. Get ready to scroll.

171) Bellflower (2011) Dir: Evan Glodell Date Released: August 5, 2011 Date Seen: May 11, 2011 Rating: 4.25/5

172) Sleeping Beauty (2011) Dir: Julia Leigh Not Yet Released Date Seen: May 11, 2011 Rating: 4.25/5

173) We Need to Talk About Kevin (2011) Dir: Lynn Ramsay Date Released: December 2, 2011 Date Seen: May 12, 2011 Rating: 2.75/5

174) Hard Labor (2011) Dir: Marco Dutra and Juliana Rojas Not Yet Released Date Seen: May 12, 2011 Rating: 3.25/5

175) Polisse (2011) Dir: Maiwenn Not Yet Released, Thank God Date Seen: May 12, 2011 Rating: 1.5/5

176) Puzzle of a Downfall Child (1970) Dir: Jerry Schatzberg Date Released: December 16, 1970 Date Seen: May 12, 2011 Rating: 4/5

177) Habemus Papam (2011) Dir: Nanni Moretti Not Yet Released, Sadly Date Seen: May 13, 2011 Rating: 3.75/5

178) Miss Bala (2011) Dir: Gerardo Naranjo Date Released: October 14, 2011 Date Seen: May 13, 2011 Rating; 3.75/5

179) Ninja Kids (2011) Dir: Takashi Miike Not Yet Released Date Seen: May 13, 2011 Rating: 3.25/5

180) Footnote (2011) Dir: Joseph Cedar Not Yet Released Date Seen: May 13, 2011 Rating: 2/5

182) Good Bye (2011) Dir: Mohammad Rasoulof Not Yet Released Date Seen: May 14, 2011 Rating: 3.5/5

183) Pina (2011) Dir: Wim Wenders Not Yet Released Date Seen: May 14, 2011 Rating: 4.25/5

184) Kid with a Bike (2011) Dir: Jean-Pierre and Luc Dardenne Not Yet Released Date Seen: May 14, 2011 Rating: 3.5/5

185) Wu Xia (2011) Dir: Peter Chan Not Yet Released Date Seen: May 14, 2011 Rating: 3.25/5

186) Take Shelter (2011) Dir: Jeff Nichols Date Released: September 30, 2011 Date Seen: May 15, 2011 Rating: 4.25/5

187) Stopped on Track (2011) Dir: Andreas Dresen Not Yet Released Date Seen: May 15, 2011 Rating: 2.25/5

188) Martha Marcy May Marlene (2011) Dir: Sean Durkin Date Released: October 21, 2011 Date Seen: May 15, 2011 Rating: 4/5

190) Outside Satan (2011) Dir: Bruno Dumont Not Yet Released Date Seen: May 16, 2011 Rating: 3.25/5

191) Le Sauvage (1975) Dir: Jean-Paul Rappeneau Date Released: April 1977 Date Seen: May 16, 2011 Rating: 3/5

192) Le Havre (2011) Dir: Aki Kaurismaki Not Yet Released Date Seen: May 17, 2011 Rating: 3.75/5

193) Beauty (2011) Dir: Oliver Hermanus Not Yet Released Date Seen: May 17, 2011 Rating: 1.75/5

194) House of Tolerance (2011) Dir: Bertrand Bonello Not Yet Released Date Seen: May 17, 2011 Rating: 3.75/5

195) Pater (2011) Dir: Alain Cavalier Not Yet Releaed Date Seen: May 17, 2011 Rating: 2/5

196) Melancholia (2011) Dir: Lars von Trier Date Released: November 11, 2011 Date Seen: May 18, 2011 Rating: 3.75/5

197) Loverboy (2011) Dir: Catalin Mitulescu Not Yet Released Date Seen: May 18, 2011 Rating: 3/5

198) Tatsumi (2011) Dir: Eric Khoo Not Yet Released Date Seen: May 18, 2011 Rating: 2/5

199) Ichimei (2011) Dir: Takashi Miike Not Yet Released Date Seen: May 18, 2011 Rating: 1.75/5

201) The Skin I Live In (2011) Dir: Pedro Almodovar Date Released: October 14, 2011 Date Seen: May 19, 2011 Rating: 4.25/5

202) The Minister (2011) Dir: Pierre Schoeller Not Yet Released Date Seen: May 19, 2011 Rating: 4/5

203) The Day He Arrives (2011) Dir: Hong Sang-soo Not Yet Released Date Seen: May 19, 2011 Rating: 3.75/5

204) Drive (2011) Dir: Nicolas Winding Refn Date Released: September 16, 2011 Date Seen: May 19, 2011 Rating: 3.75/5

205) This Must Be the Place (2011) Dir: Paolo Sorrentino Date Released: December 2011, apparently? Date Seen: May 20, 2011 Rating: 4.25/5

206) Once Upon a Time in Anatolia (2011) Dir: Nuri Bilge Ceylan Not Yet Released Date Seen: May 20, 2011 Rating: 3/5

207) Oslo, August 31st (2011) Dir: Joachim Trier Not Yet Released Date Seen: May 20, 2011 Rating: 3.75/5

208) Beloved (2011) Dir: Christophe Honore Not Yet Released Date Seen: May 21, 2011 Rating: 3.25/5

209) Elena (2011) Dir: Andrei Zvyagintsev Not Yet Released Date Seen: May 21, 2011 Rating: 3/5

210) The Artist (2011) Dir: Michel Hazanavicius Date Released: November 23, 2011 Date Seen: May 22, 2011 Rating: 3.5/5

211) Hanezu (2011) Dir: Naomi Kawase Not Yet Released Date Seen: May 22, 2011 Rating: 2.25/5

Ok, here's most of my Cannes 2011 coverage, organized by outlet:

Nomad Wide Screen: here, here and here.

The L Magazine: here, here and here.

Fandor: here and here.

278) Broken Embraces (2009)

278) Broken Embraces (2009) Dir: Pedro Almodovar Date Released: November 2009 Date Seen: September 4, 2009 Rating: 2.75/5

Having already seen 10 of Pedro Almodovar's films before Broken Embraces, I feel I can confidently say that I already knew that he's an accomplished sensualist. This is not something I ever really doubted. Accordingly, seeing that Broken Embraces is nothing but a sumptuous technical exercise for Almodovar is not at all re-assuring. Embraces' shallow script sacrifices nothing memorable and never really connects with its characters on more than a superficial, self-referential level. Almodovar is more interested in dressing up his images and Penelope Cruz, his favorite sex object, than in developing his script beyond a scaffold for a film he's made several times by now. 

This leaves even the most ravishing of the film's earlier scenes bereft of real emotional involvement save for their immediate charms, which are enough for Almodovar, it seems. Broken Embraces is essentially a defense of his love of the sensuous and stylish for their own sakes. He begins with a sex scene wherein a blind man seduces a pretty blonde thing slowly but surely and then ditches her in a flash after his assistant walks in. These are disposable pleasures but are nonetheless essential to the character and Almodovar by extension. Unfortunately, I'd only agree with Almodovar if he either decided to go whole hog with that concept and made a 70 minute-long avant garde series of carnal encounters or, y'know, a narrative-based film with a compelling story. 

When it comes time for Almodovar's script deliver a convincing backstory to save its predictable doomed love triangle from trite obscurity, it flounders about with uninspired, melodramatic plot twists unworthy of The Days of Our Lives. Even the characters look bored with their creator's contrived scenario: because Almodovar is more absorbed in picking out only the crispest new fabrics and colors for them to wear, they make "Claro" their de facto response and just bob along the film's stagnant surface. And if they don't care, I have no good reason to either.

Note: So disappointed to see Almodovar's characters name-drop the various elements that went into the film, like Elevator to the Gallows, Peeping Tom or Marilyn Monoroe. We get it, Pedro. You're feeling nostalgic and love pop. Move on, now, pls.