RV!: The Thing (1982)

RV!: The Thing (1982) Dir: John Carpenter Date Released: June 25, 1982 Date Seen: June 26, 2011 Rating: 4.25/5

I didn't like this one the first go-around but I have seen the light and wow, is it bright 'n stuff. Rick Baker's special effects are as good as you've heard and then some. And holy jeez, that cast. Sad to think that this don't catch on immediately (it was a box office dud, believe it or not). Ah well. See my interview with the reticent Carpenter for Vulture. Also, how 'bout that poster, huh?

RV!: The Phantom of the Paradise (1974)

RV!: The Phantom of the Paradise (1974) Dir: Brian De Palma Date Released: October 31, 1974 Date Seen: June 26, 2011 Rating: 4.5/5

Second go-around and I am very happy to say: no, sir or ma'am, as the case may be, I am not crazy for thinking this movie is a fucking gem. Paul Williams's score is fantastic, De Palma's cynically ironic sense of humor is at its peak and the film's cast members are all terrific. If loving this film is wrong, I will never ever ever be right. And what a wonderful Halloween eve gift (note the original release date)!

272) Sell Out! (2008), 273) Milocrorze: A Love Story (2011) and 274) Troubleshooter (2010)

272) Sell Out! (2008) Dir: Yeo Joon Han Not Yet Released Date Seen: June 25, 2011 Rating: 3.75/5

273) Milocrorze: A Love Story (2011) Dir: Yoshimasa Ishibashi Not Yet Released Date Seen: June 25, 2011 Rating: 3.5/5

274) Troubleshooter (2010) Dir: Hyeok-jae Kwan Not Yet Released Date Seen: June 26, 2011 Rating: 3.75/5

Some of my favorites at this year's New York Asian Film Festival, written about for the L Magazine here, here and here. I wrote about the festival here, too.

RV!: Kiss Me Deadly (1955)

RV!: Kiss Me Deadly (1955) Dir: Robert Aldrich Date Released: May 18, 1955 Date Seen: June 24, 2011 Rating: 3/5

I still think this film's got a helluva doughy middle half. But the first-quarter and the last-quarter are both great. See my piece for Thompson on Hollywood.

269) The Big Doll House (1971), 270) Women in Cages (1971) and 271) The Big Bird Cage (1972)

269) The Big Doll House (1971) Dir: Jack Hill Date Released: April 30, 1971 Date Seen: June 21, 2011 Rating: 3/5

270) Women in Cages (1971) Dir: Gerardo de Leon Date Released: October 20, 1971 Date Seen: June 22, 2011 Rating: 2.75/5

271) The Big Bird Cage (1972) Dir: Jack Hill Date Released: July 1972 Date Seen: June 22, 2011 Rating: 3/5

Time has been kind to these films. See my piece for Slant Magazine.

268) Cars 2 (2011) and 275) Transformers: Dark of the Moon (2011)

268) Cars 2 (2011) Dir: John Lasseter Date Released: June 24, 2011 Date Seen: June 20, 2011 Rating: 3/5

275) Transformers: Dark of the Moon (2011) Dir: Michael Bay Date Released: June 28, 2011 Date Seen: June 27, 2011 Rating: 1/5

Only one of these films kicked your dog. So before you cry wolf, please: prioritize, bay-bee. See my reviews for Nomad Wide Screen.

ISF: Mourir Apres de Toi (2011) and 267) Cave of Forgotten Dreams (2010)

ISF: Mourir Apres de Toi (2011) Dir: Simon Cahn and Spike Jonze Date Released: ??? Date Seen: June 20, 2011 Rating: 2/5

267) Cave of Forgotten Dreams (2010) Dir: Werner Herzog Date Released: April 29, 2011 Rating: 4/5

The stop-motion animation in the Jonze short was fun but that's about it. It doesn't make good use of its location in the sense that after watching the short, I still didn't understand why that book store was special. 

The Herzog feature is however very impressive. I had previously read several essays about his films and his apolitical fascination with dreams. So going into Cave of Forgotten Dreams, I knew that Herzog prides himself on being a documentarian that cares more for ecstatic truths than he does for hard facts. But I'm only familiar with his recent films and, with the exception of Rescue Dawn, I hadn't previously been impressed with that approach. So I was glad when I finally connected with one of his documentaries. Cave's mystical eponymous setting lends itself to the kind of idle speculation and philosophizing that Herzog specializes in. And with the exception of the Albino alligators at the end, I actually bought the mad Austrian's out there theories about other-ness and why humans are compelled to absorb representations of ourselves as a means of filling the gaps in our collective unconscious. He expresses it better than I just did, thankfully.

266) Conan O'Brien Can't Stop (2011)

266) Conan O'Brien Can't Stop (2011) Dir: Rodman Fiender Date Released: June 24, 2011 Date Seen: June 20, 2011 Rating: 2.25/5

Can't or won't, amirite? See my review for Capital New York.

24-Hour Movie Marathon at the Jacob Burns Center! Yaaaay.

255) Gentlemen Prefer Blondes (1953) Dir: Howard Hawks Date Released: August 1953 Date Seen: June 18, 2011 Rating: 4.25/5

256) Point Blank (2010) Dir: Fred Cavaye Date Released: July 29, 2011 Date Seen: June 19, 2011 Rating: 2.5/5

257) For All Mankind (1989) Dir: Al Reinert Date Released: November 1, 1989 Date Seen: June 19, 2011 Rating: 4.75/5

258) Essene (1972) Dir: Frederick Wiseman Date Released: ??? Date Seen: June 19, 2011 Rating: 4.5/5

259) The Emperor's Naked Army Marches On (1987) Dir: Kazuo Hara Date Released: May 15, 1988 Date Seen: June 19, 2011 Rating: 4.25/5

260) Out for Justice (1991) Dir: John Flynn Date Released: April 12, 1991 Date Seen: June 19, 2011 Rating: 1.5/5

261) Penny Whistle Blues (1952) Dir: Donald Swanson Date Released: February 5, 1952 Date Seen: June 19, 2011 Rating: 1/5

262) Three Outlaw Samurai (1964) Dir: Hideo Gosha Not Yet Released Date Seen: June 19, 2011 Rating: 4/5

263) Night Shift (1982) Dir: Ron Howard Date Seen: July 30, 1982 Date Released: June 19, 2011 Rating: 3.5/5

RV!: Diary of a Country Priest (1951) Dir: Robert Bresson Date Released: April 5, 1954 Date Seen: June 19, 2011 Rating: 4.5/5

264) Something Wild (1986) Dir: Jonathan Demme Date Released: November 7, 1986 Date Seen: June 19, 2011 Rating: 4/5

265) Chimes at Midnight (1965) Dir: Orson Welles Date Released: March 17, 1967 Date Seen: June 19, 2011 Rating: 4.25/5

Gentlemen Prefer Blondes: I don't know why but while I was enjoying the heck out of this film, I kept stubbornly thinking to myself, "His Girl Friday is better." Kind of besides the point...some flat-out amazing scenes and great comedic performances. I even think Marilyn Monroe is pretty good. So yeah, all in all, a real hoot. The new digital transfer looks great, too.

Point Blank: I remember thinking this movie was not spazzy or energetic enough to really work for me. But the black guy is good. Everything else...aggressively bland.

For All Mankind: Holy shit...stunning. The footage, combined with the perspective on how space travel makes you feel like you're confronting some darker aspect of your subconscious--wow. Really, just stunning.

Essene: My first Wiseman and boy, is it amazing. The intricate, heady discussions of faith and how we can be responsible for each other and ourselves in a secular world are always engaging. Wiseman films his subjects with such a keen understanding of character that I'm kind of amazed that this wasn't an fictional avant garde film.

The Emperor's Naked Army Marches On: I expected I'd like this but not this much. Punishing, immersive and very funny look at one man's obsessive quest for accountability. More of a character study than anything else but a very effective one.

Out for Justice: A slightly more respectable Steven Seagal film. But shit is shit.

Penny Whistle Blues: THAT'S RACIST.

Three Outlaw Samurai: A real pleasure. Gosha's action scenes are stellar and the characters are pretty involving. I would have thought I'd be too burnt-out at this point in the fest to care much about such formulaic characters. But Gosha's got it.

Night Shift: Deeply silly film carried mostly by a number of really good zingers and Henry Winkler's chemistry with a very young and charming Michael Keaton. Makes me want to watch the copy of Grand Theft Auto that's collecting dust on my shelf....shelves. Multiple shelves.

Diary of a Country Priest: I really liked this one but didn't see it for the great film it is until my second go-around. Complex character study made great by the story's immersive details and Bresson's keen eye for detail. He presents criss-crossing themes and ideas without ever skipping a beat. Can't wait to see A Man Escaped at Film Forum on my birthday....

Something Wild: Deceptively simple film that I know I need to revisit to fully appreciate. This one, more than any other Demme film, has however made me see Demme as a focussed auteur in ways that I previously just haven't seen. It's a blind spot on my part but now I can't wait to dig back into his filmography and rewatch the ones I know I like (Silence of the Lambs, The Manchurian Candidate) and see a lot of the ones I haven't even seen yet (Married to the Mob, Swimming to Cambodia).

Chimes at Midnight: I wish I was watching a better transfer of this because it was hard to make out a lot of the dialogue. But I found this to be genuinely impressive as a filmed version of several of Shakespeare's history plays, plays which I should add are generally hard to adapt in any medium. Welles clearly knew how to make a singular narrative out of these plays, divoting between Hal's story line and Falstaff's with great ease. Really can't wait to rewatch this.

254) Raising Cain (1992)

254) Raising Cain (1992) Dir: Brian De Palma Date Released: August 7, 1992 Date Seen: June 17, 2011 Rating: 3.75/5

I think my ardour for this mellowed some by the end, when it REALLY went off the deep end. But for the most part, De Palma holds it together enough so that the film's sardonic sense of humor and visually playful twists pay off. In some ways, a silly remake of Sisters. Plus: John Lithgow! John Lithgow? John Lithgow. John Lithgow?!

253) Delhi Belly (2011)

253) Delhi Belly (2011) Dir: Abhinay Deo Date Released: July 1, 2011 Date Seen: June 17, 2011 Rating: 2.75/5

Really fricking bizarre. But fun, mostly. Kind of. See my review for Slant Magazine.

249) Good Neighbors (2010)

249) Good Neighbors (2010) Dir: Jacob Tierney Date Released: July 29, 2011 Date Seen: June 13, 2011 Rating: 2/5

Really fricking bizarre. See my review for Time Out Chicago.

248) The Makioka Sisters (1983)

248) The Makioka Sisters (1983) Dir: Kon Ichikawa Date Released: December 30, 1982 Date Seen: June 13, 2011 Rating: 4/5

I was distracted when I watched this but it is pretty terrific. See my review for Slant Magazine.

247) Insignificance (1985)

247) Insignificance (1985) Dir: Nicolas Roeg Date Released: August 2, 1985 Date Seen: June 12, 2011 Rating: 3/5

Pretty meh for Roeg but not without its charms. See my piece for Thompson on Hollywood. 

246) The Trip (2010)

246) The Trip (2010) Dir: Michael Winterbottom Date Released: June 10, 2011 Date Seen: June 12, 2011 Rating: 4/5

Um, no idea what some of my compeers were on about when they said this one is "formless" or "not a movie." The 2-hour cut of the film is nothing if not meticulously structured around Steve Coogan's character arc. The insertion and selective use of dinner-time banter was impeccable. And while I could have done without a heavy-handed aside or two, I was totally engaged throughout, especially by the way that Winterbottom valorized the art of food preparation in the pre-meal restaurant scenes. Very funny and often very sharp. I may catch up with the mini-series version of this. But for now, I'm sated.

245) Page One: Inside the New York Times (2011), 250) The Art of Getting By (2011), 251) Green Lantern (2011) and 252) Bad Teacher (2011)

245) Page One: Inside the New York Times (2011) Dir: Andrew Rossi Date Released: June 24, 2011 Date Seen: June 11, 2011 Rating: 3.5/5

250) The Art of Getting By (2011) Dir: Gavin Wiesen Date Released: June 17, 2011 Date Seen: June 14, 2011 Rating: 1.25/5

251) Green Lantern (2011) Dir: Martin Campbell Date Released: June 17, 2011 Date Seen: June 15, 2011 Rating: 3/5

252) Bad Teacher (2011) Dir: Jake Kasdan Date Released: June 24, 2011 Date Seen: June 16, 2011 Rating: 2.25/5

Another highlight of my summer turns out to be a disappointment...but not a total disappointment. See my reviews for Nomad Wide Screen.

244) Mr. Popper's Penguins (2011)

244) Mr. Popper's Penguins (2011) Dir: Mark Waters Date Released: June 17, 2011 Date Seen: June 11, 2011 Rating: 1.75/5

Penguin shit is funneh. Hmm, wonder if Mark is related to John... See my review for Slant Magazine.

242) Super 8 (2011)

242) Super 8 (2011) Dir: J.J. Abrams Date Released: June 10, 2011 Date Seen: June 9, 2011 Rating: 2/5

My most highly-anticipated film of the summer. And it wasn't no good. See my review for Capital New York.

241) Road to Nowhere (2010) and RV!: Road to Nowhere (2010)

241) Road to Nowhere (2010) Dir: Monte Hellman Date Released: June 10, 2011 Date Seen: June 8, 2011 Rating: 3.75/5

RV!: Road to Nowhere (2010) Dir: Monte Hellman Date Released: June 10, 2011 Date Seen: August 21, 2011 Rating: 4.25/5

Yeah, it's that good. See my review for Slant Magazine.

240) Despair (1978)

24) Despair (1978) Dir: Rainer Werner Fassbinder Date Released: February 16, 1979 Date Seen: June 6, 2011 Rating: 3.75/5

I'd heard bad things. But thankfully, I really liked this one. See my review for Slant Magazine.