43) Room 237 (2012)

43) Room 237 (2012) Dir: Rodney Ascher Not Yet Released Date Seen: January 28, 2012 Rating: 4/5

I admit that I might have been extra-receptive to this documentary about the many conspiracy theories surrounding Stanley Kubrick's The Shining because I just finished reading Stephen King's The Shining. But if nothing else, that just helped me to appreciate just how desperate and crazy some of the talking heads in this documentary really are. Because while some of what these guys say doesn't make sense in any context, knowing that some of the hidden truths that these guys are claiming are unique to Kubrick's film are actually also in King's novel just shows to go ya how CRAZY these people are. Real nutty in the brain pan stuff. 

And they're that much more crazy because there's always a grain of truth to what they're saying. Or at least, so it seems. Their deep-seated conviction is so startling that you can't help but want to believe them and some of what they posit about the film's supposedly subliminal images is actually pretty fascinating. Too bad much of it doesn't hold up to scrutiny for a minute, especially not once you start to hear about how the patterns in the carpet are all about fucking or that continuity errors are secret code for...uh...something deep, I'm sure. Crazy, crazy people. Great fun, though, mostly because it shows you how deep you can go into a deep reading of a film.

42) Red Lights (2012)

42) Red Lights (2012) Dir: Rodrigo Cortés Not Yet Released, Thank Christ Date Seen: January 28, 2012 Rating: 2/5

Wow, this one stinks. Cortés has a weird disdain for his own material. He cheapens threadbare material that he's actively straining to make appear more meaningful than it is by either fast-forwarding through some parts of his blaise story or over-burdening talented actors with awful, sticks-in-your-throat dialogue fraught with Deep Meaning. Red Lights is a movie that doesn't know what it wants to be.

Still, the fact of the matter is: Cortés threw in a bunch of scifi/horror cliches (ex: the death of Cillian Murphy's mentor) and gave pseudo-intellectual meaning to others (the emphasis on man's animal nature, as is made abundantly clear during the bathroom fight scene). And none it's very interesting!

I was struggling to like the film when it was setting up its premise. But once Robert Deniro's hilariously awful Scott Walker impersonator blows up Murphy's equipment (WITH HIS MIND), I knew it was all downhill from there. I feel especially bad for Deniro because he's trying so damn hard to do right by a role that is tacky at best and actively awful at its frequent worst (ex: "Buckley! How did you do that?! BUCKLEY?!" and, "I come with the wind, and I go with the wind!"). 

Still, I suppose, it's worth seeing if only to see Deniro as Scott Walker levitate after delivering a bombastic and meaningless pseudo-mystical speech that would make Coffin Joe blush.

Sundance 2012 Round-Up

28) Tim and Eric's Billion Dollar Movie (2012) Dir: Tim Heidecker and Eric Wareheim Date Released: March 2, 2012 Date Seen: January 20, 2012 Rating: 2.5/5

29) Celeste and Jesse Forever (2012) Dir: Lee Toland Krieger Not Yet Released Date Seen: January 21, 2012 Rating: 2.75/5

30) Filly Brown (2012) Dir: Youssef Delara and Michael D. Olmos Not Yet Released Date Seen: January 21, 2012 Rating: 1.5/5

31) Robot and Frank (2012) Dir: Jake Schreier Not Yet Released Date Seen: January 22, 2012 Rating: 3/5

32) For Ellen (2012) Dir: So Yong Kim Not Yet Released Date Seen: January 22, 2012 Rating: 2.25/5

33) Red Hook Summer (2012) Dir: Spike Lee Not Yet Released Date Seen: January 22, 2012 Rating: 3.75/5

34) Smashed (2012) Dir: James Ponsoldt Not Yet Released Date Seen: January 23, 2012 Rating: 2.25/5

35) The Surrogate (2012) Dir: Ben Lewin Not Yet Released Date Seen: January 24, 2012 Rating: 3.5/5

36) John Dies at the End (2012) Dir: Don Coscarelli Not Yet Released Date Seen: January 24, 2012 Rating: 2/5

37) Shut Up and Play the Hits (2012) Dir: Will Lovelace and Dylan Southern Not Yet Released Date Seen: January 25, 2012 Rating: 2.75/5

38) V/H/S (2012) Dir: David Bruckner, Glenn McQuaid, Radio Silence, Joe Swanberg, Ti West and Adam Wingard Not Yet Released Date Seen: January 25, 2012 Rating: 3/5

39) Keep the Lights On (2012) Dir: Ira Sachs Not Yet Released Date Seen: January 26, 2012 Rating: 4.25/5

40) Beasts of the Southern Wild (2012) Dir: Benh Zeitlin Not Yet Released Date Seen: January 26, 2012 Rating: 4/5

41) Wrong (2012) Dir: Quentin Dupieux Not Yet Released Date Seen: January 27, 2012 Rating: 3.25/5

My 2012 Sundance Film Festival coverage, by outlet:

Esquire: here, here, here, here, here and here.

The Playlist: here, here, here, here and here.

Slant Magazine: here, here, here, here, here and here.